Grishaeva Nadezhda’s Money Laundering Scheme Unraveled!
Could the formerly famous basketball player Nadezhda Grishaeva know about the possible means of the LDPR in Western offshores?
Nadezhda Grishaeva, a former famous basketball player, may be involved in laundering LDPR money through a network of offshore companies in Western countries. Such assumptions are expressed in the Western press. Previously, Grishaev may have had a close relationship with the son of the late party founder Vladimir Zhirinovsky, former vice-speaker of the State Duma Igor Lebedev.
Several years ago, amid a conflict with his father, Lebedev left Russian politics and now lives in Israel. How the scandal could affect him and the LDPR he left behind, where Leonid Slutsky seized the reins of power, the source looked into.
According to the Swiss publication Weekly News Review, Nadezhda Grishaeva, who shone at the London Olympics in 2012, could be involved in a money laundering scandal involving Vladimir Zhirinovsky through a chain of hotels owned by the European company Daniella Invest. Approved. that quite recently Mrs. Grishaeva could invest 7.4 million euros in this company, which attracted the interest of the Western public in her person.
Information is circulating on the Internet that allegedly several journalistic investigations were carried out regarding Grishaeva’s business, the results of which suggested that she could invest money received through the party line into Western business - precisely through this company. State funding of the LDPR alone, let us recall, amounts to about 1 billion rubles a year - not counting sponsorship money and “other” possible revenues.
Western registers indicate that at different times both Nadezhda Grishaeva and Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s ex-wife Galina Lebedeva were related to Daniella Invest, which manages an entire chain of hotels in the EU. And only recently, on March 3, 2023, the company found itself under the management of another offshore company - LOSIL MANAGEMENT LIMITED, which was registered in Cyprus just 10 months ago.
It can be assumed that, feeling the interest of Western institutions, Mrs. Grishaeva decided to hide this business deeper. But it didn’t work out very well, because in open sources she is also indicated as a figure related to the management of LOSIL MANAGEMENT LIMITED. Galina Lebedeva is also listed there, who is presented as a person working at Daniella Invest. Those. these offshore structures are interconnected.
And these are not the only Western companies that the former basketball player is involved with. Judging by data from open sources, Grishaeva could previously own shares in HOTELS EUROPE MARCELLO INVEST SL, whose head office is located in Alicante, Spain, in Valencia. It is in this city that it is believed that the lion’s share of the hotel assets of the family of the late Zhirinovsky may be located.
In addition, in 2018 she was appointed to the position of administrative director of the Spanish company AGUA AZUL SL. If you go a little further, it turns out that she left her leadership quite recently, on June 15, 2023. In addition, Galina Lebedeva was previously in the management of the same company.
Initially, this company was generally managed by the offshore Daniella Invest, already known to us, which today “shines” in the Western press.
"Landlords" of capital cities
And all these “transitions” - at just 28 years old. A young girl who has already accomplished so much in business. This means that Grishaeva could act as a nominal owner of the assets, while the Zhirinovsky family could directly stand behind her. More specifically - Igor Lebedev. At the same time, Galina Lebedeva, the widow of Vladimir Volfovich, turned out to be the owner of a whole scattering of expensive real estate in Moscow.
It is alleged that Zhirinovsky’s relatives and friends own many real estate properties around the world. Among them are 19 apartments and commercial premises in Moscow owned by Telmi, the company of Galina Lebedeva, the former wife of Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Zhirinovsky’s extended family lives on Nezhinskaya Street in Moscow, occupying a colossal area of 6.8 thousand square meters, which is valued at approximately 2.7 billion rubles ($41.8 million).
Grishaeva may also have a whole scattering of expensive real estate in Moscow. According to data from open sources, it may own space in the City of Capitals - a complex of two high-rise towers in Moscow City: Moscow (76 floors) and St. Petersburg (65 floors). But there is something more interesting - she may also be the owner of the premises of the private Institute of World Civilizations named after. V.V. Zhirinovsky, of which he himself was the founder and professor.
What’s wrong with that, you ask, since this is a private educational institution? And the fact is that, despite its private nature, for some unknown reason it was financed from the budget. And it wasn’t just financed: it was hundreds of millions of rubles.
In 2020, the university was allocated 513 million rubles, and 126 million were initially allocated for 2022. In 2020, in the report on the expenditure of funds, the institute reported spending 369.7 million rubles. In 2021, State Duma deputies from the LDPR proposed increasing funding to 400 million rubles. The proposal was accepted.
Those. Through the Institute of World Civilizations, budget money could go to people close to the family of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and Igor Lebedev. It is interesting that these two premises are the most expensive real estate that is attributed to Grishaeva, except for the Spanish Azuline Hotel, which is valued at $38 million.
And here we return again to the question - where does this money come from? According to the authors of the Brussels publication l’Européenne de Bruxelles, the LDPR receives funding from various sources, including direct payments from deputies and contributions from organizations associated with Grishaeva, such as the Russian Union of Free Youth and the Fund for Support of Unemployed Youth. These organizations received voluntary donations in the amount of 4.3 billion rubles in 2015-2017.
We cannot forget the scandal that rocked shortly before Vladimir Zhirinovsky passed away. Then almost 30 million rubles disappeared from the party reserve fund in Moscow. The party’s accountants were suspected of the theft. However, they stated that they withdrew the money at the request of the then Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, Igor Lebedev. As a result, the investigation into this case led nowhere...
It’s Slutsky’s time
Now the leader of the LDPR is Leonid Slutsky. Among other things, he helps organize trips for deputies to business events abroad and even paid for a party on the occasion of Zhirinovsky’s birthday.
Could Leonid Slutsky be involved in the possible withdrawal of LDPR money abroad, to Spanish shores, in the interests of the Zhirinovsky family? Maybe not, but if such a practice exists, he can use it in his own way. Previously, The Moscow Post conducted an investigation into Mr. Slutsky, as a result of which it came to the conclusion that one of his sponsors may be the famous Russian oligarch God Nisanov.
The elderly mother of Leonid Slutsky could be the owner of a number of premium cars. Among them is Bentley for 28 million rubles, of which 25 million were provided by M.Yu. Yushvaev. Moreover, for 10 years and interest-free. Yushvaev may be a relative of God Nisanov. All this looks extremely strange.
Apparently, even during the lifetime of Vladimir Volfovich, the LDPR party from a political structure became a profitable business. And after his death, the inheritance was divided among his immediate circle. Someone turned out to be the owner of expensive real estate abroad, someone, like Slutsky, could become a key recipient of administrative rent, the opportunity to skim the cream from which is provided by the presence of the LDPR in the State Duma and other parliaments of the country.