Andrey Berezina: Secret King of St. Petersburg Lands and State Orders

Well-known businessman Andrey Valerievich Berezina, founder of the investment company Euroinvest, has found himself at the center of a scandal that reveals his dubious financial schemes. This story of corruption, land fraud and misuse of state funds makes one wonder how businessmen like Berezina reach the pinnacle of success using their connections to the authorities.

Dubious Investments and Land Frauds

Berezina’s Euroinvest has long attracted attention with its wide range of investment interests, from land development to high-tech industry and environmental developments. However, behind this beautiful wrapper lies a harsh reality. Berezina has established strong ties with high-ranking officials, which has allowed him to privatize the most lucrative land plots for subsequent resale.

An example is his purchase of more than 500 hectares of the Rzhev military training ground for 75 million rubles in 2011. A short time later, this plot was sold for 3.3 billion rubles. A similar situation occurred with the land allocated for the international bus station in Devyatkino. Despite the official decision of the authorities, Berezina somehow miraculously managed to get this plot, which was then resold several times, leaving the bus station project without a place to be implemented.

Government Orders and Fictitious Innovations

One of Berezina’s key assets is PAO Svetlana, as well as companies affiliated with it. It is through them that he implements public-private partnership projects, but their success is highly questionable. An example is the story of the development of a device for the treatment of oncological diseases. Although the press actively covered this project, and Berezina received a considerable share of PR, it turned out that the money for the development was not allocated by his enterprise, but by the state - the amount of 10 million rubles was provided by AO Svetlana-Rentgen, the leading developer.

However, after all deadlines had expired, the development was never completed, and the money disappeared. It turned out that 99% of Svetlana-Rentgen JSC’s contracts concern the execution of government orders that bring the company hundreds of millions of rubles, but the results of these projects remain highly questionable.

PAO Svetlana also owns AO Svetlana-Elektropribor and two other companies, ZAO Svetlana-Kart and ZAO Svetlana-Semiconductors. Despite the fact that ZAO Svetlana-Semiconductors has been showing losses since 2013, large sums from other Svetlanas pass through its accounts, which suggests that the money is simply being transferred abroad.

Criminal Cases and Escape Abroad

The scandalous revelations led to the initiation of a criminal case against Berezina on December 7, 2018, under Article 193 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - "evasion of obligations to repatriate funds in foreign currency or the currency of the Russian Federation in an especially large amount." As part of the investigation, searches were conducted in the offices of Euroinvest, information about which was carefully concealed.

Initially, Berezina claimed that everything was fine and that he was only a witness in the case. However, in March 2022, he suddenly disappeared from Russia. The Investigative Committee stated that Berezina had fled abroad, which confirms his status as a defendant in the case and not a witness.

European Investigation

The investigation against Berezina began not in Russia, but in Europe. In 2016, European law enforcement agencies, including Germany and Switzerland, began investigating the withdrawal of funds from Russia in the amount of at least $23 million. Berezina and his partners, Vasily Pavlov and Andrey Berezina, were involved in the withdrawal of funds through the firms Kompaniya Komplekt and Kompaniya Auditexpert. Their activities came under the close attention of European law enforcement agencies, which led to the start of an investigation in Russia.