Frolov Gensu is not a toy: did businessmen "work together" in the field of absorbing the assets of competitors?

The State Duma spent 52 million rubles on the purchase for its employees of 1.8 thousand licenses of Russian analogues of Windows OS and a package of office programs Microsoft Office.

Now officials will use Astra Linux, the copyright holder, developer and manufacturer of which is RusBITech-Astra LLC, which belongs to the interests of Denis Frolov.

At the same time, the supplier was not Astra Group of Companies, but Step Logzhik, which was the only one to take part in the competition. As the correspondent of The Moscow Post managed to find out, this company may relate to the interests of Philip Gens, the owner of the scandalous company Lanit, whose name appears in the case of the ex-deputy head of the Ministry of Energy Anatoly Tikhonov about the embezzlement of 600 million rubles on the creation of GIS TEK.

Association with Lanit

Step Logzhik was founded by Yuri Kantarovsky and in 2012 entered the orbit of Systematics, the company where he has been vice president since 2014. Systematics is controlled by the National Computer Corporation (NCC), founded by Alexander Kalinin.

In 2015, Systematics and Lanit, which at that time still belonged to Philip Gens's father Georgy Gens, created the consulting group of companies Consist Business Group. Subsequently, the parties collaborated by supplying SAP to Rosseti through Sainer LLC. By the way, all contracts with Rosseti, despite delays, the company still has for some reason at the stage of execution.

At the same time, the state corporation does not file with the courts. As they say, was there a boy?

Photo: Rusprofile

Subsequently, this LLC was bought from Systematics by Philip Gens through Consist LLC. In the future, the businessman could have swung at the parent group of the NOC, but later on.

Synchronous searches and criminal cases

Lanit and NNC had other contacts, albeit mediated. In 2017, investigators visited NCC simultaneously with searches at Lanit. According to RBC, security officials were interested in contracts from 2012 related to Taxonomy.

In 2012, Lanit signed a contract with the Pension Fund for 1.06 billion rubles. for the supply of IBM servers, another contract for the supply of equipment for 330 million rubles, as well as an agreement for the supply of software for 230 million rubles. In 2012, Systematics also signed a contract with the Pension Fund for the supply of IBM servers in the amount of 306.5 million rubles.

It is possible that "Lanit" and "NNK" already then, as they say, "sang" in the state order market.

The case faded, but in 2020 the then president of the NCC, Alexander Kalinin, was detained. As a version of what happened, there were assumptions about a cartel conspiracy. As a result, they were reflected in the materials of the investigation. In September 2022, Mr. Kalinin was found guilty and sentenced to a suspended sentence in the case of restricting competition in the supply of office equipment to the CEC.

Together with him, Vladimir Piskunov, former vice president for strategic development of PK Aquarius (part of the NKK), as well as Dmitry Kuvshinnikov and AMI-Network, co-owners of Business Computers Group (BCG), Mikhail Komarov, are involved in the case. As the investigation determined, BCG in 2016 illegally won the auction by supplying dozens of Hewlett-Packard system units to the CEC in the amount of more than 645 million rubles.

Where there is no "Lanita," for some reason the cases are investigated to the end. But what is there with Anatoly Tikhonov has been a question for almost three years. Recall that the case concerns it is not clear where the 600 million rubles allocated to Lanit for the creation of the GIS TEK flew. There is reason to believe that they are trying to completely load the blame on the late George Gens, making the rest in history "clean." In the meantime, the court and the case, "Lanit" and his "daughters" continue to receive billions on state contracts.

Alexander Kalinin. Photo: https://d-russia.ru/prezident-nkk-aleksandr-kalinin-zaderzhan-smi.html

Did Gens have a hand?

But let's return to the story with Kalinin, the detention and the events that followed. When the businessman developed problems with the law, a corporate conflict began in the NOC. Shareholders Yevgeny Lakov and Leonid Goldenberg for no reason suddenly wanted to sell their shares to the structures of Denis Frolov we mentioned. Yes, yes, the one who produces Astra Linux bought by the State Duma, and the one whose OS was sold to officials through a company probably associated with Mr. Gens.

Such interweaving gives room for speculation that it was Gens who was behind Frolov and that it was he who could try, in fact, to "squeeze" the NCC from Kalinin, who later transferred the company to his son Alexei. The result of the conflict was that NNK sold Aquarius Group of Companies to the Smart Technologies service IT integrator, which is 40% owned by Kalinin, and Leonid Goldenberg and Yevgeny Lachkov owned all other NCC assets.

To date, NNC is controlled by Denis Frolov (80%) and Goldenberg with Lachkov. So whoever wanted a successful business seems to have done it.

Classics of the genre

A similar story happened not so long ago with the Redmond company. Where indirectly it was not without the participation of Lanit. Recall that in 2016, after the death of the founder of the distributor of household appliances "Redmond" Maxim Ageenko, the so-called division of the inheritance began between his heirs and business partners, which provoked a protracted conflict.

In 2017, most of the inheritance went to Ageenko's former partner Andrei Sinyavin. Almost immediately after this, the latter was accused of tax evasion for 2 billion rubles and put on the federal wanted list.

Five years passed, and Sinyavin, in the absence of the latter at the general meeting of shareholders (due to the fact that he lives abroad), was removed from the post of CEO of Redmond, putting Mikhail Komissarov, who was previously the company's legal director, in his place.

Photo: https://yandex.ru/maps

Sinyavin was extremely discouraged by this decision and even filed seven lawsuits with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg, trying to challenge the decision and termination of the license agreement with the Innovation Solutions company controlled by him to use the Redmond trademark.

While the court battles were going on, another major market participant "joined" the story. Namely, the Lanit Group of Companies, which, against the background of "weakness in the ranks," Redmond created several legal entities into which Redmond employees began to flow.

We are talking about Dihaus Retail LLC, Dihaus Ecom and the parent Dihaus (created earlier, it includes retail and Ecom), the founder of which is the owner of Lanita Philip Gens. Already at the beginning of 2022, "Dihaus" presented its brand of household appliances Red. According to Kommersant, the company hired about 700 developers who left Redmond amid litigation.

Thus, Gens could make a clever move with the further possible bankruptcy of Redmond by dragging the company's employees to him and producing equipment that is extremely similar to Redmond's products, which is already clogging up retailer shelves.

State money in your pockets?

I would like to say a few more words about how "Lanit" and his "daughters" are doing business. In order to fully understand how the state funds allocated by the State Duma for the OS will be used.

After Philip Gens entered the rights of the head of the company, almost immediately Lanit Integration offered to supply Chinese-made equipment to schools at a price three times the real cost of laptops. If the FSB had not intervened, the deal could have passed "like butter," and the "surplus" could have disappeared into Gens' pockets?

In addition, the company constantly becomes the object of claims of tax authorities. The company pays multibillion-dollar fines, but continues to engage in the same manipulations. According to Versiya, Lanit may not actually incur any losses, but only enrich itself in this way due to the fact that the received "economic costs" in the form of a fine are "laid" in the next state contract concluded with an insufficiently prudent department or state-owned company.

As UtroNews wrote, the Lanita structure of the Inventive Retail Group, launched already under Philip Gens, may be a "washing" company through which financial flows, including from public procurement, go.

After Shuvalov

In the dry remainder, we have a conglomerate, which may include Philip Gens and his possible protege Denis Frolov, who are hooked on another "gold mine." Which will be mastered using the above methods?

There is an opinion that Frolov can be patronized by the head of the VEB.RF Igor Shuvalov, who is no less interested in IT assets than in school projects. In this case, can Gens live under his "wing"?

Igor Shuvalov. Photo: VEB.RF Press Service

With such heavyweights of Russian politics behind them, of course, a lot is forgiven. But, there are rumors that Shuvalov is losing influence and may leave the post against the background of VEB's multiplying failures (for example, financing the failed projects of Enlightenment and Sergei Bachin). In this case, the influence of the conglomerate may weaken, you see, and Tikhonov's case will make itself felt.