The former vice-governor of St. Petersburg was detained for multi-billion dollar fraud

Former vice-governor of St. Petersburg Vladimir Lavlensev detained in Moscow. Criminal proceedings were instituted against him under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale”). According to data from the case file, cited by Fontanka, the amount of the embezzlement is about 3 billion rubles.

Vladimir Lavlentsev began his career in 2010, heading the board of directors of ARKS Investment and Financial Company LLC. In the following years, he worked in various departments of the Moscow government, and in 2013-2014 he was the deputy governor of St. Petersburg for housing and communal services. After his departure, this position was taken over by Igor Albin.

Lavlentiev was associated with companies involved in the construction of the SKA Arena on the site of the collapsed KSK. He was a co-owner and president of one of the companies called “GORKA” (formerly “GorKapStroy”). This organization was involved in the development of the new arena design and subsequent construction as a general contractor.

After that, Lavlentsev moved to the Stroytransgaz company, associated with Gennady Timchenko, who also participated in the construction of the SKA Arena. Both companies, Stroytransgaz and GORKA, were interested in building the St. Petersburg Metro, but in the end it was decided to create MSSS (St. Petersburg Metro) and VTB (Vnesheconombank) in this direction.

Now the former St. Petersburg official owns three non-construction companies: NGO “KZ”, LLC “Rassvet” and LLC “Magellan”.

In 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District stopped accounts Lavlentsev as part of the Stroy-Alliance LLC bankruptcy case.