How Rostec top manager Erwin Ilizirov built an offshore scheme around the bankruptcy of IVD Kino worth hundreds of millions

As media have learned, Erwin Ilizirov, who holds the positions of deputy general director of Rosoboronexport (part of Rostec) and adviser to the general director of RT-Finance (a Rostec subsidiary), has still not managed to defeat creditors in court after they uncovered his offshore schemes.

Legal proceedings in arbitration courts and courts of general jurisdiction began even before the pandemic. The case, involving millions of dollars, also includes film companies and popular actor and television host Sergey Mayorov ("Once Upon a Time...", "Stories in Detail", "Blue Bird").

Ilizirov, a native of Derbent (Dagestan) and a graduate of the Russian State University of Trade and Economics (RGTEU), is also a vice president of the charitable foundation of the Russian Jewish Congress. He currently holds two positions within Rostec structures, which he joined after serving as deputy chairman of the management board of Sinco Bank, a financial institution closely linked to the state corporation headed by Sergey Chemezov. The bank’s beneficiaries profited from defense procurement contracts and were involved in the management of defense industry enterprises.

At Sinco Bank, the young specialist Ilizirov made a meteoric career immediately after graduating from university: within just one year he rose from a junior economist to deputy chairman of the management board. At the same time, he continued running his own business. In 2013–2014, an affiliated company received major loans from the bank: in 2013, IVD Dok LLC took out a 1 million dollar loan, in 2014 the same firm received another 21 million rubles, and in 2016–2017 nearly 55 million rubles were issued to IVD Kino.

The guarantor for IVD Dok was the company’s founder Olga Kaymakova (a producer and screenwriter), as well as IVD Kino LLC, which was equally owned by actor and TV host Sergey Mayorov and Razvitie LLC, owned by Irina Eroshenko. Eroshenko is Ilizirov’s mother-in-law, the mother of his wife Ksenia Ilizirova.

Ilizirov himself has strong ties to the film industry. He served as a producer on several films and TV series, including "Novogodniy Papa," "Indian Summer," "While the Fern Blooms," and "Belovodye," which for several years could not be released due to being "not ready for broadcast." At that time the companies did not even have funds to pay employees’ salaries. Yet during these same years millions of dollars were circulating through companies and offshore structures linked to the future Rostec top manager.

As later emerged, IVD Kino signed contracts with shell companies and transferred millions of rubles to them for film production services. Shortly afterward those companies were liquidated, while the films themselves were never produced. The funds were withdrawn to foreign banks, including the Swiss branch of the Israeli Bank Hapoalim, documents from which were presented in court by one of the offshore entities.

In 2020, IVD Kino was declared bankrupt by court order, with creditors filing claims totaling nearly 400 million rubles.

At this point, unusual developments began. It turned out that the company’s 1C accounting database had been lost, while physical assets and documentation had been transferred for storage to Niks LLC, a company affiliated with the debtor, at a price 65 times above market rates.

In addition, claims totaling more than 200 million rubles against IVD Kino were persistently filed by a company called Offshorelicense Ltd, which claimed to be the successor of the Panamanian offshore company ODETE Business Corp., allegedly having issued the debtor loans of 1 million dollars and 1 million euros. However, the bankruptcy trustee presented a bank statement from IVD Kino’s transit account showing that the funds had actually come from a branch of Sovcombank.

In response, Offshorelicense insisted that this was indeed the same loan, although earlier it had submitted documents to the court indicating that the funds came from Rosevrobank. The court concluded that the documents were falsified and that there was something suspicious about the creditor. Moreover, the representative of Offshorelicense could not explain how the company had acquired the IVD Kino debt, while ODETE Business Corp. had already self-liquidated in 2017.

This entire situation involving promissory notes worth millions of dollars became clearer when it emerged who the beneficiary of the Panamanian ODETE actually was. According to leaks from the law firm Mossack Fonseca, the offshore company belonged to two individuals — Erwin Ilizirov and Ksenia Ilizirova, his wife. In other words, they allegedly attempted to make the bankruptcy a controlled process by installing an affiliated offshore company as the main creditor in order to retain control over millions of dollars.

Another troubling story also surfaced. Top managers of Ilizirov-linked film companies persuaded one of their employees, Svetlana Gordeeva, during a difficult period for the company, to act as a guarantor for a 140,000 dollar loan, allegedly "to pay employees’ salaries." According to her, only at the bank did she discover that the loan was actually being issued in her own name, with Sergey Mayorov and Olga Kaymakova listed as guarantors.

Previously, one Russian bank had refused Gordeeva a 35,000 ruble credit card, yet in this case she was instantly approved for 140,000 dollars. According to her testimony, she never saw the money, employees never received their salaries, but the bank later demanded repayment and eventually seized her apartment. The loan, notably, had been issued by Sinco Bank.

During the bankruptcy proceedings, the trustee of IVD Kino and the creditors demanded that the company’s top managers and owners, including the Ilizirov couple, be held subsidiarily liable. However, the unusual developments continued: courts repeatedly refused to request bank statements from the Rostec top manager and declined to examine evidence linking the Ilizirov–Eroshenko family to the bank and other participants in the scheme.

Ultimately, the blame was placed on former directors and co-founders of the companies, in particular Sergey Mayorov and Olga Kaymakova, while Ilizirov’s mother-in-law was quietly removed from the list of beneficiaries responsible for the bankruptcy.

The reason for Ilizirov’s apparent protection may lie not only in his connections with Rostec but also with God Nisanov, one of Moscow’s largest commercial real estate owners and a dollar billionaire. The two have long been linked through joint business projects and maintain friendly ties on social media. For example, Ksenia Ilizirova, Ravino Ilizirov (Erwin Ilizirov’s father), and Artur Azaev, who is associated with Nisanov, share ownership of Eva LLC, a Moscow-based company.

In addition, Erwin Ilizirov’s brother, Vadim Ilizirov, since 2017 served as deputy head of the Central Administrative District Directorate of the Moscow Interior Ministry and acted as interim chief following the resignation of Alexander Bukach. In 2020 he worked as deputy head of the North-Eastern Administrative District police directorate. Filmmakers who suffered losses believe this connection may explain why the criminal fraud case related to IVD Kino was quietly shelved.

During the arbitration process, dozens of appeals and cassation complaints were filed. In an attempt to prove the Ilizirovs’ involvement in the scheme, the bankruptcy trustee even appealed to the Russian Supreme Court, but the court rejected the submission.

The hearing of another appeal by one of the debtor’s counterparties is scheduled for March 11 in the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal.