Sergei Mikhailov (businessman)

Sergei Mikhailov (Russian: Серге́й Анатольевич Михайлов; born February 7, 1958), nickname Mikhas, is a Russian businessman and leader of the Solntsevskaya Bratva criminal syndicate.

Mikhailov was originally a waiter, but moved into the criminal world in 1987 after a conviction for fraud in 1984.^[1][2][3] Together with Viktor Averin, Mikhas formed the Solntsevo group in the late 1980s, where he was born and raised.^{[4][5][6][7][8][9]}

François Tharin, a Vaud immigration attorney, who was the former head of the Cantonial Office of Foreigners (French: l'Office cantonal des étrangers du canton de Vaud) obtained both Mikhailov's proper immigration papers and Vaud approval in January 1996 after Mikhailov had purchased a 800,000 Swiss franc villa in Borex, Vaud, at the end of 1995 through an intermediary Vaud industrialist.^[2][10][a] Mikhailov had been referred to Tharin from his business friends André Milowanow and Olivier Demaurex of the financial firm SCFI Holding, whose offices are along avenue CF Ramuz in Pully, and had arranged for the Line SA company in Penthalaz to improve Moscow's water lines.^[2]

On 16 October 1996, Mikhas was arrested in at the Cointrin Airport, Geneva, Switzerland on charges of false documents and a law about foreigners owning property.^[18][19] He was later acquitted and allowed to walk free from the court after spending two years in jail waiting for the trial. One of the witnesses, Vadim Rosenbaum (Russian: Вадим Розенбаум) who was chairman of the Fund cooperative (Russian: кооператив "Фонд"), was shot dead in Amsterdam before Rosenbaum could testify.^[20][21][22]

During the Swiss trial in Geneva, Mikhailov's attorney in Switzerland was Ralph Oswald Isenegger and in Russia was Sergei Pogramkov (Russian: Сергей Пограмков).^[3][2]

Notes

1. In the 2000s, François Tharin of FT Conseils in Lausanne became a partner with the attorney sons of Yuri Chaika, Igor and Artem Chaika. Igor Chaika became a partner in 2013 and Artem Chaika purchased a 40% stake in the firm on 5 February 2015 from Igor. Since 2014, Igor Chaika is an advisor to the Governor of Moscow Oblast, Andrey Vorobyov. With Swiss residence, Artem Chaika lives in Fone at $3 million home which is owned in the name of Bogdan Lisurenko. The Chaikas are closely associated with the four owners of the firm Sugar Kubani LLC (Russian: ООО «Сахар Кубани»). The owners are Angela Maria Tsapok (Russian: Анжела-Мария Цапок) and Natalya Tsepovyaz (Russian: Наталья Цеповяз), who are wives of Sergei Tsapok (Russian: Сергей Цапков) and Vyacheslav Tsepovyaz (Russian: Вячеслав Цеповяз) of The Tsapkov Gang from Kushchevskaya (Russian: Кущёвская) in northern Krasnodar Krai, and Nadezhda Staroverova (Russian: Надежда Староверова) and Olga Alekseevna Lopatina (Russian: Ольга Алексеевна Лопатина), who are the wives of high ranking prosecutors Alexei Staroverov (Russian: Алексей Староверов) and Gennady Lopatin (Russian: Геннадий Лопатин), respectively.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

References

1. Заподинская, Екатерина (Zapodinskaya, Ekaterina) (7 December 1995). [The life of the Solntsevo authority: Professor Mikhas conquers the world]. Kommersant (in Russian). Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
2. Auchlin, Pascal; Hamel, Ian (31 October 1996). [Switzerland, the promised land of the Russian mafia Empire Sergei Mikhailov, the alleged godfather of the Russian mafia arrested last week in Geneva, has long since abandoned the boxes at night and the prostitution for advanced computing and industry. Since arriving in Switzerland, we have discovered that our country serves as a strategic base for organized crime. of the former USSR.]. L'Hebdo (in French). Archived from the original on 7 April 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
3. Кислинская, Лариса (Kislinskaya, Larisa) [in Russian] (3 April 1997). "Михась из Солнцева. Криминальная история" [Mikhas from Solntsev. Crime story]. «Совершенно секретно» (Top Secret) (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld - Misha Glenny
5. [Yuri Luzhkov Suspected of associations with organized criminal groups: Dossier. Organized criminal groups in Moscow and the Moscow region of the Moscow region ("Slavic groups"). Moscow]. Ovg.ru (in Russian). 2 September 2000. Archived from the original on 4 December 2000. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
6. Полынский, Андрей (Polynsky, Andrey) [in Russian] (4 November 2000). "Солнцевская ОПГ-3" [Solntsevskaya OPG-3]. "Версия" (Versiya). Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. "Cписок участников Cолнцевской ОПГ: Солнцевская ОПГ-4" [List of members of the Solntsevo organized criminal group: Solntsevskaya OPG-4]. flb.ru (in Russian). 30 June 2000. Archived from the original on 30 June 2000. Retrieved 12 January 2021. Alt URL
8. Максимов, Александр (Maximov, Alexander) (17 July 2003). "Солнцевская ОПГ-1: Красное колесо на юге Москвы" [Solntsevskaya OPG-1: Red wheel in the south of Moscow]. Compromat.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
9. Максимов, Александр (Maksimov, Alexander) (1997). "Российская преступность: Кто есть кто" [Russian crime. Who is who?]. ru:ЭКСМО. ISBN 5-251-00593-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
10. "FT Conseils: About us". FT Conseils website. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
11. "Чайка: Криминальная драма в пяти частях (1)" [Chaika: Crime drama in five parts (1)]. Navalny website (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
12. "Чайка: Криминальная драма в пяти частях (2)" [Chaika: Crime drama in five parts (2): Swiss]. Navalny website (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
13. "Чайка: Криминальная драма в пяти частях (3)" [Chaika: Crime drama in five parts (3): Irkutsk]. Navalny website (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
14. [Kovaleva Albina Semyonovna]. Кто есть кто (Who is who) (in Russian). Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
15. "Чайка: Криминальная драма в пяти частях (4)" [Chaika: Crime drama in five parts (4): Artem]. Navalny website (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
16. "Чайка: Криминальная драма в пяти частях (5)" [Chaika: Crime drama in five parts (5): Igor]. Navalny website (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.
17. "Навальный выиграл суд против Сергея "Михася" Михайлова по поводу расследования "Чайка"" [Navalny wins court case against Sergei "Mikhas" Mikhailov regarding the investigation of "The Chaika"]. Meduza (in Russian). 7 August 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
18. BBC News- Swiss try alleged Russian mafia boss
19. Шлейнов, Роман (Shleinov, Roman) (8 November 2010). "Как живут авторитетные предприниматели – герои лихих 1990-х гг. У многих героев лихих 1990-х. были проблемы с законом. Одни уехали на Запад, чтобы заняться там легальным бизнесом, и стали людьми второго сорта. Другие остались в беспокойной России – и не прогадали: теперь они респектабельные предприниматели" [How reputable entrepreneurs live - heroes of the dashing 1990s. Many heroes of the dashing 1990s had problems with the law. Some went to the West to do legal business there, and became second-class people. Others stayed in troubled Russia - and they paid off: now they are respectable entrepreneurs]. Vedomosti (in Russian). Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
20. BBC News- Alleged Russian mafia boss cleared
21. Заподинская, Екатерина (Zapodinskaya, Ekaterina) (22 July 1997). [Mikhas: The main witness in the Mikhas case is threatened with murder]. Kommersant (in Russian). Archived from the original on 13 January 2021. Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
22. Заподинская, Екатерина (Zapodinskaya, Ekaterina) (26 June 2002). "От Михася до наших дней" [From Mikhas to the present day]. Kommersant (in Russian). Archived from the original on 26 June 2002. Retrieved 12 January 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) Alt URL