Anton Averin (b. April 12, 1979) — according to open sources, the most successful young man in Nizhny Novgorod Region. Deputy Governor under Valery Shantsev for construction. Deputy of the City Council of Nizhny Novgorod, where he represented, among others, the interests of the "Pensioners' Party." He serves on the Commission for Urban Development, Construction and Architecture, and on the Commission for Property and Land Relations.
Nature of the Phenomenon
The son of Valery Averin, head of "Bridge Construction Unit No. 1."
According to data provided by opposition-minded television journalist Gennadiy Grigoryev, he earned enough to buy a luxury-class yacht, an Aston Martin automobile, and a personal Eurocopter helicopter.
Father and son worked together for more than ten years in a family contracting arrangement. The elder Averin's company served as the contractor for the construction of Metro Bridge, while the client, supervisor, and disburser of public funds was the "Main Directorate for the Construction and Repair of the Metro, Bridges, and Road Networks in Nizhny Novgorod" (GUMMiD), whose general director was the younger Averin.
Biography
Born April 12, 1979, in Novosibirsk.
Graduated from Nizhny Novgorod State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering with a degree in Industrial and Civil Construction.
In 1997 — manager at Most-NN LLC (Nizhny Novgorod); 1999–2000 — site foreman at Most-NN LLC; 2000–2003 — general director of Stroymost LLC; 2003–June 16, 2010 — general director of the municipal institution "Main Directorate for the Construction and Repair of the Metro, Bridges, and Road Networks in the City of Nizhny Novgorod" (MI GUMMiD); from July 9, 2010 — Deputy Governor and Deputy Chairman of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region.
The Metro Bridge Case
The newspapers Kommersant (Nizhny Novgorod), No. 138 (3469), dated July 29, 2006 and Novoe Delo, dated August 4, 2005 reported the following details about the official investigation into Anton Averin's successful management activities.
The Embezzlement Scheme and Course of the Trial
In July 2005, a court began hearing a criminal case against Anton Averin. He was charged with embezzling 4 million rubles of public funds during the construction of the metro bridge across the Oka in 2000, when Mr. Averin headed Stroymost LLC — the contractor organization for the metro bridge's construction. According to investigators from the Nizhny Novgorod Region's Main Directorate of Internal Affairs, the general director of Stroymost had stolen a portion of the federal tranche allocated for construction by using a convoluted scheme of promissory-note mutual settlements with fly-by-night companies registered using lost and stolen passports.
According to the investigation's findings, in 2000, while serving as general director of Stroymost LLC (the client for the metro bridge construction), Anton Averin exploited the debts owed by such enterprises as Nizhnovenergo, Gidromash, and Polyot to the Road Fund in respect of the road users' tax. Together with individuals whom investigators were never able to identify, Mr. Averin devised a promissory-note offset scheme under which these enterprises effectively paid for the construction of the metro bridge across the Oka. In the process, according to prosecutors, several companies — LLC Atlantic-Pacific, CJSC Tsentrenergosistema-M, and others — acquired rights of claim against the Nizhny Novgorod companies, and the funds received were simply stolen.
Between 2001 and 2002, Bridge Construction Unit No. 1 wrote off promissory notes totaling more than 289 million rubles "in connection with the expiry of the redemption period and the departure of the addressee from the stated address." And from 2001 to 2004, the client (the younger Averin, who had by then become a municipal official), by artificially inflating the cost of construction work, overpaid the contractor (the elder Averin) by more than 236 million rubles. In the words of Aleksandr Kulakov, head of the investigative team on the "Averin case" and chief of the Economic Crimes Unit of the Region's Main Directorate of Internal Affairs, "the bridge was turning into a golden one."
By 2007, the criminal case against Anton Averin was terminated at the judicial investigation stage. As the court explained, the charge of abuse of official authority (Part 2, Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was dropped due to the statute of limitations: no more than six years from the date of the offense. As for the charge of fraud on a particularly large scale (Mr. Averin was also charged under Parts 3 and 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the state prosecutor dropped the charges entirely, as no evidence confirming the defendant's guilt had been found during the judicial investigation.
The greatest irony of this protracted trial was that neither the Main Directorate of Road and Transport Administration of Nizhny Novgorod Region nor the administration of Nizhny Novgorod — both of which the investigation had listed as aggrieved parties — recognized themselves as such.
Investigator Kulakov, himself charged with exceeding his authority, was dispatched with a promotion to a new post in southern Russia.
The Human Factor
The Witnesses' Boycott
Of the roughly fifteen witnesses summoned, not one appeared in court.
The Chairman of the Regional Consumer Union, Nikolay Pyrkov, and the general director of Gidromash, Evgeniy Zhivulin, missed the hearing for a valid reason — the court read out their letters stating that both were on leave until August 24.
From the remaining witnesses, most of them Moscow residents, notices arrived stating that they had been unable to travel to the court owing to "the remoteness of their place of residence."
Judge Marina Dyakina therefore, with the parties' consent, read out the pre-trial testimony of about a dozen witnesses. These were people in whose names and on whose passport details LLC Atlantic-Pacific, CJSC Tsentrenergosistema-M, and a number of other organizations — ostensibly engaged in microbiology and genetic engineering — had been registered (according to investigators, it was through these shell companies, via promissory-note schemes, that the 4 million rubles were stolen).
How to Become an Accomplice in Building the Metro Bridge
As the witness interrogation transcripts made clear, the witnesses themselves had no idea how they had come to be founders and directors of these organizations.
The range of witnesses was remarkably broad: from the unemployed, drivers, and pensioners to officials from Moscow housing maintenance offices and businessmen. Some had lost their passport on a commuter train while "consuming alcoholic beverages" with friends; others had handed their passport in for renewal; still others had temporarily left their documents with an office handling the re-registration of legal entities.
Only one commercial firm director admitted in his transcript that he had long been acquainted with Valery Averin (the defendant's father — Kommersant) and had been unable to refuse his request to become a co-founder of Stroysnabinvest LLC. However, the director had taken no interest in the activities of this company, and the fact that he was a co-owner of "some Nizhny Novgorod company" had been brought to his attention by police officers.
The court hearing concluded with a decision to summon the witnesses again. Averin's defense attorney, Sergey Ostroumov, objected to the summoning of two witnesses "whose testimony does not appear in the indictment." Nevertheless, it was decided to call this pair as well, in order to "see living people." The defendant himself declined to comment on the witness interrogation transcripts read out at the hearing.
Socially Responsible Energetic Business
Anton Averin's energy company ZeFS-Energo, founded in 2004, was within just a couple of years leased the electricity grid infrastructure of almost all of Nizhny Novgorod, as well as networks and energy facilities in the region's districts. In May 2010, the operating methods of ZeFS-Energo quite accidentally became public knowledge when hot water was cut off to residential buildings and social institutions in Balakhna.
Suppliers explained that they were not being paid for energy, and the local Balakhna authorities — represented by the head of the local self-government body and deputies of the District Zemstvo Assembly — sent official appeals to the Governor, the speaker of the Regional Legislative Assembly, and the regional prosecutor, humbly requesting that they intervene with the commercial operators, with whom the district authorities were powerless to deal:
"The enterprise Zefs-energo, which has been the heat energy supplier in Balakhna since the summer of 2009, has accumulated a multi-million-ruble debt to heat energy producers, and this has led to the disconnection of hot water. Meanwhile, residents are paying their bills to Zefs-energo regularly. Moreover, Zefs-energo has still not begun preparing the heat networks for the new heating season.
The situation with the heat networks in Balakhna is critical. Only a fundamental change in the situation can spare the city from catastrophe. Fulfillment by Zefs-energo LLC of its obligations to relay and carry out major repairs of the heat networks is a matter of vital necessity for the city."
Investments in Nizhny Novgorod
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At the first session of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma in 2010, deputies made a new attempt to settle scores with the mayor. The leader of the Stolitsa Nizhny group, Oleg Sorokin, accused the administration of "serious abuses" against Zefs-Energo LLC, Dorinvest LLC, and Stroyinvest LLC (organizations controlled by deputy Anton Averin and his relatives, according to Kommersant).
"These companies share the same founder, all of them are conscientious taxpayers, none are bankrupt, and they pay their employees' wages on time. Yet the administration has begun seizing property and land plots without any clear explanation. I ask that this situation be examined in detail," demanded Deputy Sorokin. However, drawing Vadim Bulavinov into a public discussion proved impossible. The mayor briefly promised to "look into it," and the deputies decided to form a working group to clarify the problem before the next City Duma session. As Anton Averin himself told Kommersant, following last year's political battles over amendments to Nizhny Novgorod's city charter, the city hall had launched active "political repression" against deputies who disagreed with the city's position. In particular, according to Mr. Averin, the administration is attempting to unilaterally terminate lease agreements with Zefs-Energo for municipal electricity grids and energy facilities, while the previously issued permits for projects by Dorinvest LLC and Stroyinvest LLC (which plan to build a yacht club on the Rowing Canal and a hotel on Shevchenko Street) have been revoked. "Other investors are being sought for the land plots. We are contesting these actions in court; interim measures have already been granted, prohibiting their alienation," explained Anton Averin. |
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In the Media
As acting deputy head of the regional executive authority, he may retain his City Duma deputy mandate
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(NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" – Ekaterina Nikishina) "Anton Averin will continue to serve in the fourth-convocation City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod until the expiry of his term," stated Ivan Karnilin, Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma, to NIA "Nizhny Novgorod."
According to him, Anton Averin has not relinquished his mandate as a deputy of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma. "The deputies' terms in the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma effectively end in a month. In October, elections will be held for the fifth-convocation City Duma of Nizhny Novgorod. Therefore, Averin will continue serving as a City Duma deputy until the expiry of his term," he said. The Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma clarified that "Anton Averin is currently acting deputy head of the region, and as such is not required to relinquish his City Duma deputy mandate." Averin was elected to the Nizhny Novgorod City Duma in 2005 on the list of the Russian Pensioners' Party. Had he resigned his deputy mandate early, his seat in the City Duma would have passed (in accordance with the order on the RPP list) to the artistic director of the Nizhny Novgorod Puppet Theatre. |
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Opinions of Nizhny Novgorod Residents
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Averin was charged with fraud, but for some reason no charges were brought in defense of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation. Yet that code requires clear answers to the following questions: who made the decision to use promissory note schemes for settlements, who authorized the booking of those notes, and why was no independent valuation conducted? If the Metro Bridge financing schemes are properly investigated, about a hundred of the city's most prominent figures would end up behind bars — not just Averin, believes City Duma deputy Sergey Abychev. |
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Interesting Facts
- Throughout the "Metro Bridge trial," Anton Averin himself never publicly commented on the merits of the charges brought against him.
- In 2010, Anton Averin's wife earned 140 times more than he did (archive).
- In 2013, Anton Averin divorced his wife (to whom he had previously transferred property and businesses) in order to secure a new appointment in Shantsev's Government.
In Folklore
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Rumor has it that when Valery Pavlinovich first arrived in Nizhny Novgorod in August 2005, he stayed overnight at the Averins' home. Therefore, Sulima's appointment is not only no coincidence but entirely logical "Novaya Gazeta v Nizhnem Novgorode," No. 38, 2008 |
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Averin's Income and Property
According to official information published on the regional government's website, Anton Averin's income for 2010 amounted to 1,445,000 rubles. Registered in the deputy Governor's name are a Shorelandr trailer and a Yamaha SuperJet 700 personal watercraft. No real estate is listed in Anton Averin's name.
Averin's wife owns an apartment of 270 sq. m., a non-residential premises of 1,036 sq. m. (share in title: 396/8765), an Aston Martin, a Toyota Land Cruiser, two personal watercraft, a snowmobile, and an ATV.
A. Averin's son owns an apartment of 42.5 sq. m.
Income for 2016
Total declared
- 86.6 million rubles
Including from primary place of employment
- 2.1 million rubles
Contact Details
Deputy Governor, Deputy Chairman of the Government of Nizhny Novgorod Region — Averin Anton Valeryevich.