Oleg Makarevich is another specimen of oligarchic fauna. This ‘migratory bird’ nests in Russia, while overwintering in Austria. In Russia he is sought for tax evasion and money laundering.

Russian billionaire Oleg Makarevich may return to his homeland from Austria. He fled for Europe due to the fact that tax and law enforcement authorities have declared him a person of interest. They even wanted to detain him as part of a criminal investigation, but he was quicker.

Apparently, Oleg Makarevich was tipped about the upcoming actions of law enforcement. Criminal cases against Makarevich have not yet been closed, but it seems that this does not frighten him.

In 2014, Oleg Makarevich was already detained on charges of fraud. But the case fell apart for unknown reasons. Insiders are confident that the reason is Oleg Makarevich connections. Allegedly, in the Krasnodar Territory, he was patronized by both officials and local judges.

It is possible that he hopes for their help this time too. It is noteworthy that Makarevich’s companies in Russia continue to operate and bring him considerable sums. Moreover, he was put on the national wanted list only, not the international one. The billionaire’s property was not arrested in Russia. It turns out that the security forces do not really want to detain the defendant?

Recently Oleg Makarevich registered a new company in Russia, and his group of companies “Krafter” moved to Tambov. Most likely, this is due to the move of Alexey Zhitlov, one of his accomplices, to this city. The latter collaborated with Makarevich in the Krasnodar, and now he heads the Tambov Federal Tax Service.

Oleg Makarevich and his criminal cases

Interestingly, Makarevich himself, who is involved in several criminal cases in his homeland, prefers not to appear in the courts, moreover, his rare photos can be found only on the search orientations of the Kuban police. “Kuban Al Capone”, as the Russian media have long nicknamed Makarevich, is quite likely trying to settle in one of the Western countries right now, withdrawing tens of millions of euros to European banks, as previously established by a Russian court.

We found traces of him in Europe. And then realized an amazing thing – the main threat to Oleg Makarevich comes from himself – he loves to file lawsuits and sue the whole world around him, which is what reveals his whereabouts. It is also curious that constant failures in the courts do not stop him. And he’s filing more and more lawsuits.

Oleg Makarevich is a victim of his own greed

For example, to the representative office of JSC “Austrian Airlines” in Moscow. According to documents presented on the website of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, Oleg Makarevich’s wife and daughter tried to sue the largest Austrian airline as much as 800 euros in 2019 for the fact that the oligarch’s family did not arrive in Vienna on time. The court decision also indicates the purpose of the Kuban baron’s trip – “for negotiations and inspection of seven estate objects with a view to their further acquisition.” Interesting fact, isn’t it? And he, as we found out, is well known to the Russian law enforcement system. The Makarevichs did not hide that they were going to buy real estate in Austria. The documents of the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District even indicate the amounts that a malicious defaulter of Russian taxes withdraws to foreign accounts: “funds are sent to accounts in an Austrian bank… So, in 2019, Makarevich O.A. withdrew 10,020,000 euros (757,632,000 rubles) to an Austrian bank.” Information that Oleg Makarevich regularly replenishes his account with an Austrian bank was also published in open sources, and no one refuted it.

Oleg Makarevich has three criminal cases waiting for him

It is worth noting that the case for the return of 800 euros in the Tverskoy district court of Moscow was lost by the Makarevichs, and no one returned this meager amount by the standards of the Kuban oligarch to Makarevich. But this is not the main thing. It is much more important to recall that in December 2019, another criminal case was opened against Oleg Makarevich and his wife Natalia Makarevich (a total of 3 criminal cases are currently being considered against members of the Makarevich family, and about 20 (!) criminal cases against his colleagues) according to paragraphs “a, b” of Part 2 of art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (tax evasion on a particularly large scale). The reason is indicated in court documents and has been repeatedly mentioned in the media: “N.V. Makarevich (Oleg Makarevich’s wife) transferred property worth 182.2 million rubles and cash in the amount of 11.7 billion rubles to controlled persons, O.A. Makarevich transferred property worth 268.4 million rubles and cash in the amount of 9 billion rubles to controlled persons. L.O. Makarevich (Oleg Makarevich’s daughter), property worth 22.5 million rubles and funds in the amount of 5.6 billion rubles were withdrawn in favor of controlled persons, the total amount of benefits of the Makarevich family is 11.9 billion rubles. The concealment of property from foreclosure has been carried out.”

In general, the spread of articles of the Criminal Code imputed to Makarevich and “his friends” is impressive: tax evasion, deliberate bankruptcy of enterprises, fraud (including those related to embezzlement of budget funds). But the most famous and painful legal episode for the empire of the “night governor of Kuban” is, of course, the revocation by the Central Bank of the license from the YUMK Bank that served Makarevich’s businesses: according to the regulator, Makarevich’s financial organization “allowed repeated violations of the requirements of legislation in the field of countering the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism”. Soon, by another decision of the Central Bank, the bank was liquidated

All the forces of Makarevich and his patrons (about them – a little below) were thrown at the judicial “solution of the issue” of the return of the license – without the UMK, the empire of the ex-defendant oligarch would have been beheaded. And a miracle happened – on October 19, 2021, the judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court, Svetlana Kukina, canceled the Central Bank’s order of March 19 to revoke the license from YUMK Bank, making an almost unprecedented decision (the Central Bank’s order to revoke the license was last canceled in 2015). How could this happen? Maybe this is a mistake? It is interesting that the participants in the processes that Kukina conducted earlier in the courts note the oddities in her work, and advise her to go “trade”. But this decision by Kukina will be carefully studied not by the participants of the proceedings, but by those who closely followed the procedure for its adoption…

Journalists who have been carefully studying the life path of the shadow owner of the Kuban for a long time know for sure that the multi-volume case of the Kuban oligarch is currently under the personal control of Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoly Kikot and Prosecutor of the Krasnodar Territory Sergey Tabelsky. It is also known that FSB officers will conduct investigations on individual episodes, since Oleg Makarevich’s case involves episodes related to bribery and appointment of officials and corruption in the execution of government contracts.

Makarevich men arrested

By the way, the recent arrest of Makarevich’s close friend and patron, Chairman of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Krasnodar Gennady Bayrak, was carried out by FSB officers. And therefore it is not surprising that such a high-profile decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court judge Svetlana Kukina, who overturned the decision of the state regulator in favor of an oligarch with a dubious reputation, will be considered by representatives of this department literally under a microscope. Probably, the investigators leading numerous cases of Makarevich already know that Kukina’s father, Mikhail Andriyanov, was the CEO of the Russian Hunting Traditions company, in particular, which managed the Hardikova Zaimka campsite.

In other words, the Kukina family is directly connected with the Krasnodar Territory – they know her there, remember her, and it is not difficult to get in touch with her. It is likely that the “exit” to Judge Kukina could have been carried out through her husband, Alexander Markovich Kukin, an individual entrepreneur who was engaged in the delivery of groceries, the hotel business, or the production of entrance doors. Apparently, things were not going very well for Kukina’s husband (all businesses were closed), but investigators know that the family had an outstanding loan in the amount of 2.82 million rubles…

Naturally, the Central Bank will challenge Kukina’s decision to cancel the Central Bank’s earlier decision to revoke the license of a bank caught withdrawing money abroad and financing terrorism. It is also obvious that a new case will be considered by another judge. And we are wondering whether Oleg Makarevich, who was put on the wanted list and whose search orientation is published by the Krasnodar media, will honor the new court session with his presence?

Makarevich’s passion for lawsuits is explained very simply – in journalistic investigations devoted to his person, it was repeatedly said that the possible patron of Makarevich’s “business” was the former chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court, Alexander Chernov, who became a symbol of corruption in the Kuban justice. When Chernov was dismissed in March 2019 and stopped maintaining contact with his “ward”, Yakov Volkov took the vacant place, who in the heyday of Makarevich’s business worked as deputy chairman of the Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District, and today occupies the chair of the deputy chairman of the Fourth Court of Cassation. In the Kuban, it’s no secret that the Makarevich and Volkov families are so friendly that they allegedly even spent a vacation in Italy together.

Earlier, many publications drew attention to the fact that the courts under the leadership of Volkov sided with Makarevich even in the most scandalous cases, for example, during the consideration of the claim of the Department of Property Relations of the Krasnodar Territory, which tried to recover from the agricultural enterprise of Makarevich “Sovetskaya Kuban” a 300-million debt for illegal enrichment. In the “cage” of Makarevich, as it was believed, there was also the ex-chairman of the Oktyabrsky District Court Gennady Bayrak, a few months ago, as we wrote above, detained by FSB officers in his office red-handed when receiving a bribe of 2.5 million rubles.

According to local journalists, Gennady Bayrak came under the sights of the security forces precisely after the decisions made in favor of Makarevich. According to the media, the judges themselves shared operational information with the security forces about the “interesting proposals” of Makarevich, who allegedly even flaunted his connections in the judicial corps of the Krasnodar Territory, telling who, when and with what request came from him. The patience of ordinary citizens of the Krasnodar Territory also burst – in September 2021, Kuban farmers wrote a collective letter to President Vladimir Putin and FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov, in which they asked to immediately check information about the relationship between Oleg Makarevich and the Kuban judicial corps, as well as to give a legal assessment of the actions of the court, which, in their opinion, suspiciously often takes the side of a local businessman.

But when federal security forces took up the “Makarevich case”, Oleg Makarevich decided to finally move to Europe, from there he will direct his lawyers in the hope of “resolving judicial issues”. Interestingly, in addition to the above-described trial with an Austrian airline and the withdrawal of money to Austrian banks, Makarevich has already managed to “light up” in Germany. In any case, according to informed sources in the Telegram, “the Munich prosecutor’s office allegedly currently blocked funds in the amount of 6.1 million euros held in the accounts of a legal entity controlled by Oleg Makarevich. In addition, the prosecutor’s office has also blocked a safe deposit box with unknown contents. The total amount of claims from the Munich prosecutor’s office to Makarevich will amount to 15.3 million euros, which will entail the initiation by the prosecutor’s office of additional confiscation measures against the Kuban businessman.”

Oleg Makarevich realises that in Vienna things are a little complicated

Munich and Vienna are not native to Makarevich Dinskoy district of Kuban. Once upon a time, Oleg Makarevich, apparently by analogy with the famous Italian TV series about the everyday life of the Sicilian mafia, was nicknamed “Octopus” by journalists, who, according to the investigation, managed to weave a whole web of people he “needed” and become the largest underground billionaire of Kuban. It turns out that connections with the security forces and crazy money became in the hands of the oligarch a kind of “Molotov cocktail”, which he, flaunting his contacts in the courts, the prosecutor’s office and the FSB, burned everything in his path. I want to believe that times have changed.

And it is likely that the once all–powerful octopus risks becoming a fly entangled in the web of special services – both Russian and now European. Most likely, it’s a matter of time.