As revealed by VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info, Vadim Gurinov—a trusted business partner of Russian oligarchs close to Putin—owns a villa in Cannes that was held through several companies in France, Luxembourg, and Cyprus. Another firm belonging to the Gurinov family, based in Monaco, was exposed in court proceedings initiated by a Frenchman with a grievance against the villa's owners.
According to documents from the French registry, Vadim and Galina Gurinov owned the Luxembourg-based company RILB Property S.C.I., which had a share capital of €5 million (it was liquidated in December 2016; the liquidator was Nikolai Berdin, a long-time Gurinov associate and top executive at the tire manufacturer Cordiant, the Rurik fund, and Service-Telecom).
This firm held a stake in Riviera International La Bomma (France), a company with a share capital of €1 million and assets valued at approximately €4 million.
Riviera International La Bomma owned the "La Bomma" villa in Cannes, located on the "Billionaires' Cape" (Cap d'Antibes) near La Garoupe beach on the French Riviera. Situated at 215 Chemin de la Croë on a plot of nearly 3,000 square meters, the property features a mansion, a small caretaker's house, a swimming pool, and a garden. The company purchased the real estate using loans, including financing from a bank in Monaco; it also held other properties. Until 2016, the Gurinovs owned Riviera International La Bomma through two firms—RILB Property SCI (Luxembourg) and the Cypriot entity TIARAVAL Ltd—but in 2016, the Luxembourg company went bankrupt, and the assets were transferred directly to the couple. Evidently, the Gurinovs encountered payment issues after the war began, as a senior executive at the firm sued over outstanding salary and compensation totaling €134,000. In 2022, a writ of execution was issued to seize and sell assets belonging to Riviera International La Bomma; consequently, one of the properties was put up for auction and sold. Galina Gurinova subsequently paid off a portion of the company's debts—contributing over €20,000—but to no avail: a French court ruled Riviera International La Bomma insolvent and placed it under external administration, appointing the firm SELARL GM as the administrator. The company has challenged these decisions in court and has not yet been liquidated.
Incidentally, the aggrieved French employee testified in court that Riviera International La Bomma was merely a shell company with no other assets, implying the owners could bankrupt it without a second thought. According to the Frenchman, both owners "live off a Monaco-registered company" named Valeri. The French registry does indeed list a foreign company from Monaco called Valeri, though the names of its founders and directors are withheld from public records. It is worth noting that Valeria is the name of the Gurinovs' daughter, who also owns a business in London.
Its French office is located in the same area—at 26 Chemin des Nielles, 06160 Antibes. A luxurious, modern 400-square-meter villa situated on a 5,000-square-meter plot stands at this address. According to the registry, Valeri operates in the same sector as Riviera International La Bomma: real estate leasing. It was founded in 2010, one year after the registration of Riviera International La Bomma. An application to French authorities for the construction of a villa at 26 Chemin des Nielles was submitted in 2012, and construction was officially completed in August 2017.
That same year, Vadim Gurinov assumed the role of president of the Stroytransgaz Group, one of Gazprom’s largest contractors, with a turnover running into the tens of billions of rubles.
Gurinov also worked for many years within a group of St. Petersburg businessmen who got their start at the companies Sovex, the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, and the seaport. This group is linked to the prominent St. Petersburg businessman Ilya Traber (known as "Antikvar" or "The Antiquarian"). It is in Gurinov’s name that individuals currently under sanctions register their unofficial assets. Since the 1990s, the Gurinov family has built an extensive network of companies abroad, with assets acquired using funds belonging to these sanctioned individuals.
In 2021, Gurinov formally became the purchaser of VimpelCom’s cellular tower infrastructure. Gazprombank provided the loan for this transaction.
Many of the family’s Russian assets were originally registered in Galina Gurinova’s name. Later, they were transferred to relatives and top managers. For instance, Galina stepped down as a founder of the Voronezh-based company Kontur-S; however, her husband’s brother, Artem Gurinov, is now involved with the firm (along with another member of the St. Petersburg group, Roman Spiridonov). Kontur-S shared a phone number with the St. Petersburg-based Olt Service, which served as a link to the Belarusian company KhimTechEngineering—part of the Avestra Group. Vadim Gurinov holds a stake in Avestra Group via the Cyprus-based Avestra Group Holding Ltd (co-owners include Roman Spiridonov, Dmitry Ivanov, the Ruric fund, and Igor Berezin). Avestra actively trades in Russian chemicals and oil.
