Those who follow business events in St. Petersburg have long noticed something unusual: the head of the Euroinvest company, Andrei Berezin, often gives interviews and comments for local media, but no one has seen him in person. No one has the ability to feel his physical presence.

Did Andrei Berezin really feel like a frightened patriot and was afraid of the Special Military Operation? Are you sad about the Azure years? No, this is not about Berezin. His calculations are quite accurate, and his fears are by no means groundless. Now Andrei Valerievich Berezin is on the run and is trying with all his might to escape criminal prosecution. Russian Federation, therefore a swindler is not welcome overseas either. Andrei Berezin, who was called the king of government orders, is now wanted not only by the Investigative Committee, but also by a number of ill-wishers whom Euroinvest simply overturned.

When journalists tried to find out where the businessman was now, he did not give an answer. He only commented that the situation would be resolved in the near future. But, as we see, more than a year has passed, and there is no word or word from him. Probably everyone in the Leningrad region knows who Berezin is. There he became famous and his business went up sharply after Alexander Drozdenko took over as governor.

It was with his arrival that the odious businessman began to actively buy up agricultural lands surrounding St. Petersburg.

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Andrey Valerievich Berezin is known, first of all, as a major St. Petersburg businessman, investor and developer. At least, this is what the official biography posted on the website of his main brainchild, the Euroinvest holding, says: “the range of investment interests of Euroinvest is extensive and covers various areas – from high-tech industry and innovative developments, to real estate development and the construction of comfortable housing” .

The site also reports that the leaders of the holding are Andrey Berezin and Yuri Vasiliev:

In addition, here you can find information about the main areas in which Euroinvest operates:

However, all this sounds rather strange against the background of the following information:

Moreover, this information “stuck” on the website “Business Petersburg”, a long-term participant in the “Rating of Billionaires” of which Andrey Valerievich Berezin is, for only a few hours. And suddenly disappeared somewhere. Just like Andrei Valerievich himself. Because no one knows for sure where he is now.

The Russian Investigative Committee believes that Andrei Berezin turned Euroinvest into a holding company for laundering billions

The Investigative Committee, which, as it also turned out in connection with Berezin’s escape, is conducting an investigation into the businessman’s activities, did not give the latter permission to leave:

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However, the same Investigative Committee unofficially declares that they still know where Andrei Valerevich Berezin is. And he is currently in Turkey, where he flew away at the very last moment, literally several hours ahead of law enforcement officers who were going to change Berezin’s preventive measure from a written undertaking not to leave the place to an arrest.

The Investigative Committee is keeping silent about who “leaked” Berezin information about the upcoming arrest. But something else is known - the necessary documents are being prepared to put Andrei Berezin on the international wanted list through Interpol.

Why did the Investigative Committee become so interested in the personality of Andrei Berezin and why did he decide to so radically avoid this interest by hastily leaving the northern capital, where he earned all his main capital?

The history of this interest begins back in 2016, when Andrei Valerievich Berezin and his associated companies - “Complete Company” and “Auditexpert Company” - came to the attention of law enforcement authorities in Switzerland and Germany. It turned out that through these companies, Euroinvest transferred criminal proceeds from Russia through Latvia. The Swiss police report referred to $23 million found in banks in Switzerland and Germany.

The investigation led to St. Petersburg, to the Euroinvest company. The Germans and Swiss turned to their Russian colleagues for help. However, the reaction of the Investigative Committee at that time was somewhat strange - for some reason the request of European police went unanswered for a long time, and a criminal case against Berezin was opened only on December 7, 2018. And not by the Investigative Committee, but by the Baltic Customs - under Part 2 of Article 193 of the Criminal Code - “Evasion of obligations to repatriate funds in foreign currency or the currency of the Russian Federation on an especially large scale.” In February of the following year, 2019, searches took place in the offices of Euroinvest, followed by the seizure of documents.

Why did Andrey Valerievich Berezin, the owner of Euroinvest, run away?

What happened after this is not known for certain. Berezin himself then stated that everything that the press wrote about this matter was a mistake, and law enforcement officers had no complaints against him. But, as it turned out, there are complaints. Moreover, they are big. Because the Investigative Committee got involved in the case and took Berezin’s case from the customs officers. True, such a long pause is not entirely clear - let us remember that the seizure of documents occurred more than three years ago. However, be that as it may, Berezin’s hopes that the case was “buried” were not justified. Even if the Sledkom is reluctant to share information on this matter, what is more eloquent than all words is the fact of Andrei Valerievich’s hasty flight to warmer countries, where he hopes to sit out.

What was the Investigative Committee able to “dig up” on Berezina? Actually, a lot of things. Because, both Andrei Berezin personally and his companies - Euroinvest, Euroinvest Development LLC, the Euro Venture venture fund, Murino Management Company, Ellis Group of Companies, Svetlana PJSC, Svetlana-Roentgen JSC ", JSC "Svetlana-Electropribor", JSC "Svetlana-Kart" and JSC "Svetlana-Semiconductors" and others - a huge trail of theft and fraud was revealed.

Let us briefly recall the most striking stories from the biography of Andrei Berezin, a participant in the “Rating of Billionaires”:

The earliest case that is mentioned in the investigation materials is a scam involving the lands of the Ministry of Defense located in the Leningrad region. In 2011, Euroinvest bought 500 hectares of the Rzhev military training ground for 75 million rubles. In the same 2011, these 500 hectares were sold for 3 billion 300 million rubles. The statute of limitations for this transaction has not expired, so Berezin is charged with Part 7 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code - “Fraud committed on an especially large scale” (punishable by imprisonment for up to ten years with a fine of up to one million).

Under the same article, Berezina is also charged with another episode - a similar story with a land plot allocated by the Leningrad region for the construction of the Devyatkino transport hub, provided for in the “Program for the development of the transport system of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region until 2020.” The node was supposed to be built by 2018, but it was not possible to build it due to the fact that the land plot measuring 35.4 hectares somehow ended up in the possession of Euroinvest Development LLC.

However, there is another article under which Berezin faces up to seven years in prison and his activities in the field of obtaining government contracts are being investigated - Article 200-4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Abuse in the procurement of goods, works, services to meet state or municipal needs.”

Because, probably, it was not in vain that the Investigative Committee remained silent for more than three years - Berezin, who had already calmed down after the searches in 2019, was suddenly charged with a whole set of charges. In addition to fraud with military and municipal land, it turned out that Andrei Valerievich was not called “the king of government orders” for nothing.

The portfolio of Svetlana-Roentgen JSC includes 280 million rubles received from government orders in the field of medicine. PJSC Svetlana has 41 contracts from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for a total amount of more than two billion rubles. JSC Svetlana-Electropribor received more than one billion rubles from the state for the “production of microwave devices for radio-electronic equipment, including for space.” JSC Battery Company Rigel, owned by Berezin, received 50 million rubles from Rosatom.

The story with Rigel is generally murky - it is a former battery plant, on the territory of which Euroinvest Development LLC built several high-rise buildings. Memories from the plant itself include JSC Rigel Battery Company, which received that same government order.

This is only a superficial analysis of the charges against Andrei Berezin. In fact, there are many more stories with land - we did not touch upon, for example, scams with agricultural land, with which Andrei Valerievich did the same as with the lands of the Ministry of Defense - he bought for pennies and sold for billions. And the story with government orders is also not the whole story. But let the Sledkom deal with these scams - they are clearly digging up all the ins and outs of Berezina. That’s why the latter had to go on the run - apparently, they took him seriously. Whether the long arm of justice in Turkey will reach Berezina is a matter of time. Whatever it is, Andrei Valerievich Berezin will not have it easy, because the security forces are not the same now, and it will be more expensive to pay off.