The Price of Gratitude: Valeriy Chichkanov, Sergey Bogoryakov, and the alleged MayrVeda transfer tied to political favors

New information has surfaced regarding the business holdings of Roman Chichkanov’s family, the head of the Preventive Medicine Subcommittee at Delovaya Rossiya, a member of the Russian–Azerbaijani Business Council, and former first deputy CEO of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

It turned out that the MayrVeda spa hotel was acquired by his grandfather, academician Valeriy Chichkanov, as a form of gratitude for assistance in securing a State Duma mandate for Sergey Bogoryakov, a figure originating from the Uralmash criminal group. Bogoryakov reportedly failed to pay for the services rendered and transferred ownership of the hotel complex to the Chichkanov family.

The management accounting of this spa complex in Kislovodsk, conducted through the legal entity LLC “Investments Zapad,” is structured in a way that artificially inflates expenses to reduce the taxable base, while funds are siphoned off through gray schemes to Dubai to finance the construction of the MayrVeda Dubai spa complex. As a result, the Russian budget allegedly loses between 100 and 140 million rubles annually in profit tax, as well as 500 to 700 million rubles in unrepatriated foreign currency revenue.

The Chichkanov family is also actively doing business in Azerbaijan through several companies. At the same time, all profits bypass the Russian budget and tax authorities and are sent directly to the UAE.

Perhaps it was precisely this kind of “tax optimization” that Roman Chichkanov was taught while studying at UCL (University College London) and Cass Business School.

Maria Sharapova