Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

While the situation with Pavel Fuks, a Forbes list figure and a highly controversial figure, is more or less clear—after a scam involving the construction of an elite Moscow suburb on the banks of the Istra River, "Residence Crystal Istra," he fled to Ukraine using his Ukrainian passport—things aren’t so straightforward with his accomplices.

The key players in the Fuks scam are Bekbolat Bekenov and Evgeny Komrakov. As a reminder, the events unfolded as follows. In 2007, the Crystal Istra Residence project was launched by Pavel Fuks’s MosCityGroup and his partner, Bekbolat Bekenov. The plan was to build 157 residential buildings on 90 hectares, along with social infrastructure facilities, including a 275-student school and gymnasium, a fitness center, and even a ski slope. A recreation area was to be built on the banks of the Istra River, and a natural and recreational area within the complex itself.

However, in 2020, it suddenly turned out that the entire construction project was a massive scam. Over $100 million was collected from clients who wanted prestigious housing in a practically resort area, but they never saw the promised homes.

Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

It turned out that the money collected by Fuks had been transferred to offshore accounts. Initially, the police, who opened a criminal case based on the victims’ complaints, had their main complaints against Pavel Fuks, who had recently left for Ukraine, where he announced he was renouncing his Russian citizenship and retaining only his Ukrainian passport. In reality, this turned out to be a lie – as Obozrevatel reported, in 2021, after the imposition of sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council, Fuks claimed he was not conducting business in Russia and had renounced his citizenship in 2017. In fact, Fuks retained his Russian citizenship, and after receiving a Ukrainian passport, he also received a new Russian passport.

Fuks also faces problems in Ukraine, but they are limited to sanctions from the National Security and Defense Council, and everyone knows that these sanctions are often a complete waste of time. At least, that’s the case with Fuks. The sanctions don’t prevent him from doing business in Ukraine and quietly gaining control of the country’s key enterprises. According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Fuks has illegally seized over 100 billion hryvnias worth of Ukrainian companies’ assets since 2018.

However, some in Ukraine, especially after February 24, 2022, have openly called Pavel Fuks a Russian agent, and the sanctions Russia imposed on him in 2018 a sham designed to conceal his true mission in Ukraine. This narrative is supported by many of Fuks’s actions, the most notorious of which was painting swastikas in Kharkiv on the eve of the invasion. According to the American magazine Rolling Stone, on the eve of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Fuks paid Kharkiv residents to paint swastikas on the city’s walls so that Russian propaganda would have the appropriate image.

But, as already mentioned, Fuks’s persona somehow obscured his key accomplices in the Crystal Istra Residence scam—Bekbolat Bekenov and Evgeny Komrakov. Taking advantage of the spotlight on Fuks, they wasted no time. Firstly, they were quickly reclassified as witnesses in the criminal case opened by Russian police regarding the scam. However, the so-called "Panama Papers," which also implicate Fuks, assert that Bekenov and Komrakov were key players in many of Fuks’s transactions.

In the Crystal Istra Residence scam, most of the money was immediately transferred to offshore companies controlled by Messrs. Fuks and Bekenov in Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, with Komrakov’s companies serving as shell companies. But three years later, it suddenly became clear that there was virtually no information about Messrs. Bekbulat Bekenov and Evgeny Komrakov.

The first is known to hold Russian and Cypriot citizenship and has been living in Switzerland since 2012, applying for a residence permit in England. In Russia, Bekenov founded three companies, all of which have since been liquidated:

Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

It is also known that at the time the criminal case was opened in 2020, Bekenov was represented by the Legal Trust law firm on Bolshaya Dmitrovka Street and the international consulting group Grata International on Kuznetsky Most.

But it’s impossible to bring charges against these firms—they were simply Bekenov’s hired consultants and committed no illegal activities. At least, there’s no evidence to support this claim. This is all the information available about Bekenov, although he was a key participant in the scam that funneled $100 million offshore. Furthermore, it’s safe to say that Bekbulat Bekenov has other illegal activities in his background, and not just those carried out in collaboration with Fuchs.

As for another participant in the money-laundering project, Evgeny Komrakov, he disappeared completely. Literally. But nothing terrible happened to him. He simply changed his last name and is now a completely legal citizen, Evgeny Lvovich Kobyakov:

Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

According to Rusprofile data, Evgeny Lvovich Komrakov (aka Kobyakov) is currently the founder of five active legal entities:

Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

All of them are connected to construction, and all operate in the Istra district. This suggests that Mr. Komrakov-Kobyakov has no legal problems. Mr. Komrakov successfully liquidated the companies involved in siphoning money from the Fuchsovsky project:

Criminal triangle from MosCityGroup: how Evgeny Komrakov, Bekbolat Bekenov, and Pavel Fuks are scrubbing the internet of traces of a multi-million-dollar “Kristall Istra” fraud involving stolen funds

No one has raised any complaints against Yevgeny Lvovich regarding this matter. This indirectly confirms the theory that both Russia’s sanctions against Pavel Fuks and the criminal case surrounding the Crystal Istra Residence project were pure smokescreen, designed to cover up the sudden appearance of the "prodigal son" in the palaces of Nenka-Ukraine.

The fact that no one there is stopping him from continuing to plunder the country he’s already plundered also confirms the theory that Pavel Fuks is a Russian agent. Because Ukraine’s top political leadership is openly called Russian agents. And the CIA recently named 35 people from the Office of the President, the Cabinet of Ministers, the Verkhovna Rada, the Security Service of Ukraine, the State Bureau of Investigation, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR), who, according to US intelligence, are at the top of the deep-seated network of Russian intelligence agencies in Ukraine. But that’s a completely different story, albeit one that concerns Pavel Fuks.