Deputy Boris Paikin secretly settles in Palma de Mallorca

Boris Paikin, a Deputy of the State Duma from the Bryansk Region, is one of the most modest Russian parliamentarians. He never makes comments, never introduces initiatives, and is not willing to participate in the presidential elections. Paikin is even ashamed of his revenues and humbly lives in Spain.

PELICAN TRUST SL is a stealthy bird 

Boris Paikin, a Deputy of the State Duma from the Liberal–Democratic Party of Russia, has relocated to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and settled in deluxe Silver Point residential complex – which indicates his good taste and longstanding love to this Spanish resort. It is pretty difficult to get an apartment overlooking the sea in Silver Point. We were able to find only one such unit 135 square meters in size offered for €895 thousand. The Deputy’s residence has a living space of 276 square meters and is nearly twice as expensive.

Property ownership documents

The Silver Point promo video demonstrates some aspects of Paikin’s lifestyle.

The Deputy is not the official owner of his apartment – it belongs to PELICAN TRUST SL.

Boris Paikin is the sole proprietor of this company. His wife became its director last year. Based on the declaration of the Russian lawmaker, he does not trust anybody in real estate matters, especially tax institutions, – Paikin avoids any references to his apartment in Palma de Mallorca by all means. Too bad, the Spanish authorities do not understand his modesty – especially taking that the national commercial registry is publicly available. In Russia, Paikin has declared a humble annual income of 6.7 million rubles ($102.2 thousand). The question is: how could he acquire a home 500 square meters in size and two lots with a total area of 1.3 ha having such low revenues? 

Prior to the parliamentary elections, Sergei Malinkevich, Deputy Chairman of the Central Committee of Communists of Russia Party, had named Paikin a billionaire and asked the Prosecutor General’s Office to audit the candidate from the Liberal–Democratic Party and his assets, including foreign ones. But the Prosecutor General’s Office opted to trust the election office of the Liberal–Democratic Party claiming that Boris Paikin is not directly involved with foreign companies. Alas, it was too late to catch the candidate in a lie by pointing at PELICAN TRUST SL. incorporated in Spain. On the other hand, if Paikin is not directly involved with foreign companies, could he be involved with them in some other way? Indirectly, etc.? In fact, he is – via offshore structures. 

Far from the homeland 

Offshore companies belonging to Boris Paikin have popped-up 11 years ago in the Panama Papers. It is necessary to note that there was nothing illegal in this – Paikin was not a parliamentary candidate in that period. However, he still does not like to talk about Sander International Inc. It cannot be ruled out that the parliamentarian became the owner of this offshore entity while being a governmental official. In 2003–2005, Boris Paikin was employed with the Federal Agency for Construction and Housing and Communal Sphere (Gosstroy). For most of this time, he was in charge of the Directorate of Anti-Flood Protective Structures of St. Petersburg. The future Deputy had supervised the construction of protective dams so masterfully that the city faced a real risk to be washed out. 

The construction of a protective dam in the Gulf of Finland was resumed under the rule of Paikin. This project had offered brilliant career opportunities – but Paikin decided to derive other benefits from it. The cost of the dam started growing beyond all limits. In summer 2005, Paikin has requested 2.5 billion rubles ($38.1 million) to complete the works – although immediately after his appointment the supervisor of protective structures, he was satisfied with dozens of millions of rubles. In the same period, Governor Matvienko had asked 25 billion rubles ($381.2 million) for the same dam from the Russian Government – and she became upset with his impudence.

Boris Paikin

Following a request of displeased Matvienko, inspectors of the Audit Chamber have uncovered a misappropriation of 1 billion rubles ($15.2 million). The embezzlement scheme used by Paikin was based on duplicating contracts: the same works were paid twice. Some 250 million rubles ($3.8 million) have disappeared without a trace. After that, the official was transferred to Moscow – as far from the dam as possible. In Moscow, Paikin has successfully made it through all troubles – from the anger of Matvienko to exposure of his offshore companies. And finally, his hour of glory has come. 

Sad sports 

Such an outstanding builder could not lose an opportunity to replenish his offshore accounts by participating in Olympic construction projects. Paikin became the Director of Gazpromsotsinvest. The construction of Gazprom’s mountain tourism center was on hold pending the allocation of funds, while the ski–biathlon complex has stumbled upon the Psekhako Ridge and also waited for financing. Interestingly, even after the rise of the cost of these facilities from 1 to 8 billion rubles ($15.2–122 million), Paikin hasn’t resigned. He just swapped chairs with his deputy. Ultimately, the cost of the projects reached 35.4 billion rubles($539.8 million). Nobody had ever asked Paikin to account for the allocated budget funds. 

Over time, not only the budget – but even Sander International Inc. offshore company became insufficient for growing appetites of Boris Paikin. The underground millionaire came out and became a co-owner of Fort Group managing commercial real estate. But the interests of the aspiring businessman had extended far beyond this scope. As a result, Fort Group purchased FC Tosno from Deputy Igor Ananskikh. Ananskikh was happy to get rid of a football club whose financial schemes were closely linked with offshore structures of Semen Mogilevich. But Paikin was fine with this.

The builder of Olympic facilities promised a stadium to Tosno players. Habitually, Paikin has launched a new project on an Olympic scale – its budget included the construction of a residential neighborhood in the Kudrovo district. But it is extremely difficult to enter the construction market of St. Petersburg. The Mayor’s Office suggested Fort Group to limit its efforts to the stadium. And the company completely ceased all its efforts. Today, Tosno players cannot even dream about a stadium – their main desire is to receive the salary on time (Paikin does not pay it for three years already). Apparently, the election office of the Liberal–Democratic Party of Russia was right – Paikin takes every effort not to be directly involved with anything, including remittance of taxes and salaries. He yens for Palma de Mallorca with its sea, palms, and PELICAN TRUST SL.

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