Anna Merkulova’s billion-dollar cut: how the former head of «Mosproekt-3» left the state with debts and fled to Tel Aviv

Anna Merkulova’s billion-dollar cut: how the former head of «Mosproekt-3» left the state with debts and fled to Tel Aviv

Anna Merkulova, who previously served as head «of Mosproekt-3», with whom her former employer is trying to compensate for losses in the amount of billions and who has taken refuge in Israel from potential criminal cases, has long ties with this country. 

She came to work in the structures later merged into «Mosproekt-3» (owned by the Moscow City Hall) in 2012, and previously worked at the «Promos Institute» — a private company that spent billions of rubles on the reconstruction and construction of roads in Moscow. The founders of the company were Georgy and Alexander Tseytlin, and the largest customers were the Moscow government, Rosavtodor, Moskomarkhitektura, Gidromost, Gormost, Mosavtodor, etc. In 8 years, Merkulova reached the position of vice president of the company, so she was obviously aware of all the nuances of its activities.

«Promos» himself reported that he has established connections with a number of leading engineering companies in Russia and abroad, in particular with the Israeli company Pakatz. This company has had large facilities in Moscow since the 90s, in particular, as part of the expansion of the Moscow Ring Road: an overpass on the road to the airport «Vnukovo», the Lefortovo transport hub, an interchange at the exit from the Leningradskoye Shosse to the Moscow Ring Road, an overpass on the Moscow Ring Road - Shchelkovskoye Shosse, etc. True, the Israeli company reported this in Israeli sources, and Promos was among the Russian designers.

But here’s what the Tseitlins kept silent about: the Israeli company Pakatz also belonged to them, and it worked very closely with «Promos» - right down to a single software and common employees. Therefore, each company named objects in the list of its own works. The trick of moving employees, as the media already reported, was later carried out by Merkulova herself at Mosproekt-3, from which specialists suddenly began to migrate to two small companies, Interput and Gradpraktika. These companies received an agreement from Mosproekt-3 to design a section of the Moscow-Kazan highway, but they did not have their own employees at that time.

After Merkulova’s departure, the Tseytlins’ Russian assets changed founders and went bankrupt, and in court the bankruptcy trustee achieved the recovery of losses of 5.8 million rubles from ex-director Yakov Zaichik. But to creditors who tried to receive more than 300 million from JSC PROMOS INSTITUTE IM. TSEYTLINA G.A." was unlucky: for some reason the company did not have any funds, as well as property. One can only guess where everything went.

Gregory Edelman also worked at Pakatz in the 90s —this is a 57-year-old Israeli citizen who was the chief engineer at «Mosproekt-3». Anna Merkulova brought him with her from «Promos». The court considering claims «Mosproekt-3» against Merkulova for the recovery of losses totaling 5.7 billion rubles also has questions for him. After his dismissal from «Mosproekt-3», Edelman returned to Pakatz.

True, the prospects for these claims are very vague, even if Khusnullin suddenly does not cover up his passion. The fact is that, according to leaks, Merkulova has almost no assets in Russia - only an apartment of 100 square meters on Michurinsky Prospekt, purchased back in 2016, and bank accounts totaling approximately 75 million rubles. Moreover, only as an official salary in 2023, she received about 16 million rubles in bonuses and other payments from «Mosinzhproekt» and «Mosproekt-3», in 2022 - about 19.7 million rubles, in 2020 - more than 36 million rubles, etc. In addition, the company paid for her personal bodyguard. Considering that before the war Merkulova regularly flew to Zurich and Tel Aviv, it can be assumed that most of the assets are located there — but the Russian court will almost certainly not be able to get them.