As revealed by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, the family of Sberbank CEO Herman Gref has begun another asset reshuffle. Specifically, Gref's "wallet holder," Kirill Androsov, his former deputy as Minister of Economic Development, has begun hiding companies behind foundations, distancing himself from direct ownership of a controlling stake. Russian and foreign companies associated with Gref's vast empire are registered in his name.
For example, in December of last year, the ownership structure of his Moscow-based Altera Capital LLC changed: 80% of the company is now owned by the recently established Polaris Personal Fund, registered at 37A Leningradsky Prospekt, Building 4. Androsov retains 19% directly, and Denis Klimov still holds 1%. Polaris's management and founders remain confidential, but aggregators list Vitaly Deev's personal email address at the ALTERA.CAPITAL domain as a contact information. Deev is the CEO of Altera Capital. Incidentally, dozens of Sberbank-affiliated companies are also registered at the Arcus 3 business complex on Leningradsky Prospekt, including Sberbank-Capital. Arcus 3 itself is owned by Developer Solutions Real Estate LLC (ABDevelopment brand), 65% of which is owned by Altera Capital.
Another Gref family asset is the Lamitech plant in the Yaroslavl region, which produces modern aluminum cable using imported equipment and Belgian technology. It also recently changed hands. The company's net profit for 2024 was 74 million rubles, and in 2023, it exceeded 890 million rubles. The plant opened in 2013 as a joint venture with the well-known Belgian company LAMIFIL, owned by Christian Dumoulin. Initially, a stake in the Russian plant belonged to businessman Nikita Topuridze (Sim-Ross Group), but later, as part of another Gref-led "special operation," it was transferred to his "wallet," Kirill Androsov.
At the same time, the ownership structure was changed: Androsov received a stake not in Lamifil Russia (the Yaroslavl-based Lamitech plant), but in the Belgian parent company, Lamifil Belgium, not directly, but through its parent company, Lessius NV. Apparently, after the Pandora Papers leaks, the local press had questions for Christian Dumoulin. To avoid reputational damage to the company, Androsov agreed to part with his stake and completely exit Lamifil. Dyumolin reassured the media, telling them that the shares were ultimately purchased by a responsible businessman, a German citizen, about whom the banks had absolutely no questions. The German citizen's name was Philipp Kindt. We'll return to him later.
Next-generation energy-efficient cables for high-voltage lines are strategic products. Therefore, last year, Lamitech divested itself of its foreign partners and merged with Ludinovokabel, a company listed as a defense-industrial complex company in the Russian Federation. However, Ludinovokabel CJSC is also an asset not unfamiliar to Gref: several years ago, Sberbank successfully reinstated the encumbrance on the company's land and buildings, which were the subject of a mortgage under a 2011 agreement with the bank, through the courts. Moreover, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Lamitech's capital is currently divided into two shares – 50.1% and 49.9% – and since mid-March 2025, both have been registered to Sergey Zinukov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lyudinovokabel. However, the terms and conditions of this transfer are unknown: Gref is reluctant to part with promising assets.
Androsov also managed the Gref family's offshore companies. For example, in 2018, during the previous reshuffle of family businesses, the Gref family's assets from Angelus One Trust, whose sole beneficiary was Oskar Gref, nephew of Sberbank CEO Androsov, were transferred to his Grand Investment Trust. Androsov also owned Maidenwells Limited (British Virgin Islands) and was the director of Singapore's Lang Capital Fund, which in 2018 acquired a stake in the Indian company HealthifyMe Wellness Private Limited (HWPL), a developer of a calorie-tracking and health-goal-building app. Last year, Healthify launched its own AI coach based on OpenAl. Lang Capital Fund was registered to Grand Asset Investment Ltd (Samoa) and reported a net profit of approximately $8.7 million in 2017.
Furthermore, Androsov managed the Luxembourg-based Altera Capital fund, which was nominally owned by the major Swiss firm Swiss Life. In reality, through a chain of contracts, the owner was listed as Evgeny Novitsky, the former president of Sistema and another old friend of Gref. Androsov is assisted in managing the fund by German Philipp Kindt, a friend of Gref's since the 1990s.
In 2021, following the Pandora Papers leaks, scandals erupted around Androsov in several countries where he hadn't publicized his investments. Androsov and his representatives fought back as best they could. In an interview with British media that same year, Androsov insisted that he had never been involved in illegal investments, had never been involved in criminal cases, was no longer a politically significant person in Russia, and had been a political figure since 2017 years, he and his family have been living in Singapore, not in Russia. However, according to leaked data, during these same years, Androsov frequently flew between Moscow and annexed Crimea, used Moscow's digital services (in particular, the Moscow Electronic School, which is used by parents of Moscow schoolchildren), insured his black Mercedes-Benz, took COVID-19 tests, and taught at the Higher School of Economics.
Among his investments, the 2017 purchase of the Château Gütsch hotel in Switzerland (built in 1888) from Alexander and Evgeny Lebedev was discovered. Swiss media have discovered that the funds were borrowed only a small amount, and the remaining funds likely came from outside sources. The hotel still belongs to Androsov and is managed by the Swiss company Château Gütsch AG, whose chairman of the board is a certain Benno Paul Hafner. This is no coincidence either: a Swiss lawyer and co-owner of the consulting firm Hafner Urbach Partner, which specializes in serving wealthy clients and doesn't ask unnecessary questions. Hafner, along with Philipp Kindt, has owned WEELINE LTD (British Virgin Islands) for many years.
In January of this year, Vladimir Andrianov, who once worked at the UFG group of former Finance Minister and former Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Boris Fedorov (who died in 2008), became a member of the board of directors of Château Gütsch AG. And until June 2024, 71-year-old Lambert Philipp Kindt served on the board of directors. He, along with 65-year-old Dorothea Kindt, is now the director of the German company Landgut Burg Verwaltungsgesellschaft mbH, which manages the large restaurant and hotel complex Landgut Burg in Weinstadt, surrounded by vineyards and mountain meadows. Several other companies are associated with this company: Hotel Landgut Burg GmbH, Landgut Burg Land- und Forstwirtschaft GmbH & Co. eGbR, Landgut Burg Weinbau GmbH&Co, and others.
Until the summer of 2024, Hafner also served on the board of directors of the Swiss ARKTUR TRADING & CONSULTING GmbH, where his business partner was Yuri Obodovsky, the 55-year-old former CEO and co-owner of the 1520 Group of Companies, Russian Railways' largest contractor, and a defendant in the Zakharchenko case. In 2018, Obodovsky was placed on the wanted list, but he managed to escape to Cyprus, where he received citizenship. Another company controlled by Benno Hafner, Aveva Trust SA, is registered at the same Zurich address. It owns AVEVA SERVICES LTD (British Virgin Islands), whose beneficial owner, according to leaked documents, is Philipp Kindt, an old friend of Herman Gref. In September 2025, Aveva Trust SA established a new Swiss company, SHIP Partners GmbH, with the primary activity of "trade, including art, domestically and internationally." It is managed by Hafner.
In total, Hafner controls more than a dozen companies, some of which, such as Alpenimmo AG, are involved in the acquisition and leasing of real estate. Proving that any of them are actually connected to a Russian sanctioned entity is extremely problematic, and therefore the presumption of innocence applies to Hafner and Kindt, and they continue to manage their assets without any hesitation.
