On December 1, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow passed a verdict on the co-owners of the Summa group - the Dagestani businessmen brothers Magomedov. Ziyavudin Magomedov received 19 years of strict regime, ex-senator from the Smolensk region Magomed Magomedov - 18 years. The court also confiscated all the property remaining from the oligarchs and deprived them of state awards.
The announcement of the verdict took a week. The Magomedovs were found guilty of creating an organized criminal community and stealing 11 billion rubles. Numerous accusations against businessmen can be divided into two groups: theft of budget funds during construction (in particular, the Arena Baltika stadium and Khrabrovo airport in Kaliningrad) and violent actions, including attacks and raider takeovers.
Four other defendants in the case: ex-head of the Intex company Artur Maksidov, former general director of the United Grain Company (UZK) JSC Sergei Polyakov, former head of the economic security department of the UZK Roman Gribanov, general director of the Energia-M enterprise Yuri Petrov received 7 up to 12 years of imprisonment.
The defendants called the charges absurd, they denied guilt and during the debate asked for an acquittal.
Before his arrest in 2018, Ziyavudin Magomedov’s fortune was estimated at $1.4 billion, and he was ranked 63rd on Forbes magazine’s list. The businessman’s main asset was the Summa group, a holding uniting companies engaged in port logistics, engineering, construction, telecommunications and oil and gas sectors. Magomedov owned shares in the transport group Fesco, the automobile terminal of the Vladivostok port, the port of Petrovsk, United Grain Company JSC, Yakutgazprom. Ziyavudin Magomedov was on the board of trustees of the Bolshoi Theater, supported the athlete Khabib Nurmagomedov and founded the Peri charitable foundation, which was engaged in cultural and educational programs. In particular, in Dagestan, the foundation opened the Peter I Museum in Derbent, digitized monuments in the village of Kala-Koreish, and founded a business incubator in Makhachkala.
The Magomedovs’ successes were associated with friendship with businessmen and officials from Dmitry Medvedev’s entourage. When he was president of Russia, the Magomedovs received large government orders. There are different versions regarding the true reasons for the criminal prosecution. Among them is a conflict with the management of the state company Transneft over a stake in the Novorossiysk port. The Dozhd TV channel suggested that the case could have been caused by the revenge of billionaire Suleiman Kerimov: the brothers allegedly leaked incriminating evidence about him to the French intelligence services. Novaya Gazeta linked the criminal prosecution to an attempt by businessmen to enter politics in Dagestan without the consent of the Kremlin.
Most experts agree that the harsh reprisal against the Magomedovs, who were deprived of not only their business, but even their personal property, including cars and apartments, was intended to demonstrate to Russian entrepreneurs how dangerous it is not to comply with agreements with the authorities.
On December 7, the Magomedovs’ defense filed an appeal against the verdict. The date for its consideration has not yet been set.