The syndrome of sometimes superficially disguised, sometimes simply mysterious deaths of Russian top managers leaves its traces not only in Russia but also in England, Spain, France, Dubai, India, and Argentina.
On the night of July 22nd, 2023, the body of 40-year-old Cherepennikov was found in his office on Michurinsky Prospekt.
In the company IKS Holding, founded by a top manager sanctioned by the US, they stated that the cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Initially, the bodyguard of Cherepennikov, who was present in the office on Michurinsky Prospekt at the time of the boss’s death, said that the doctor missed the moment when the patient began to suffocate during xenon therapy.
After the sale of IKS Holding in 2020, Cherepennikov became a candidate for the list of the richest Russians.
At the time of the deal, the value of his shares in the enterprises was 30 billion rubles; Forbes then estimated his fortune at $540 million.
The businessman was included in the Forbes ranking of the Top 30 Russians with the highest dividends in 2022 – during this period, they amounted to 13.3 billion rubles.
Esports and IT Security
The career of the top manager was closely linked to a simple love for video games. He began frequenting computer clubs at the age of 15, with e-sports then being more than a hobby for Cherepennikov.
Over time, his passion evolved into one of his businesses, albeit one that eventually proved to be unprofitable.
In the 2000s, he organised a team of gamers called Virtus.pro. Several years later, in 2015, he created the esports holding company ESforce, which included the Virtus.pro club.
Even earlier, the project had attracted the interest of the USM Group holding, whose main shareholder is billionaire Alisher Usmanov, and in the same year, it invested $100 million in Virtus.pro.
In early 2018, Mail.ru Group (since 2021 – a subsidiary of the VK company), one of whose shareholders is the USM Group, acquired ESforce.
The esports holding comprised over ten business units, including teams, tournaments, a tournament operator, a stadium, broadcasting studios, production, merchandising, and a media agency.
Yota Arena, Moscow.
A year earlier, Cherepennikov opened the largest esports stadium in Europe – Yota Arena in Moscow. In 2020, it became known that the ESforce holding had depreciated more than threefold. Mail.ru Group reduced the valuation of this business from $100 million to $30 million.
Although Cherepennikov attempted to make money from video games and esports, the beginning of his business was related to security issues. He was involved in the development of operative-search measures (SORM) and in 2005 opened the company Za Telecom.
In 2009, Za Telecom grew into Osnova Lab, which was engaged in software development. After a while, the top manager began buying up software developers in the field of information security and SORM. In 2015, he acquired Malvin Systems, based on which the Citadel corporation was created.
Its specialization is electronic devices and services related to wiretapping and surveillance. Of course, primarily, Citadel’s services were used by special services.
As if by magic in 2016, Cherepennikov created the company Forpost, which was engaged in systems integration, and also acquired the companies MFI Soft and Signatek, which will soon be included in the list of equipment suppliers for the implementation of the “Yarovaya Law” by the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications, and Mass Media. Contracts with mobile operators will bring these two “subsidiaries” of IKS Holding billions in revenue.
Alisher Usmanov
The deal for MFI Soft amounted to more than 10 billion rubles; the top manager borrowed money for it from structures of the USM Group.
The USM group of companies, whose main shareholder is billionaire Alisher Usmanov, included giant businesses: the Metalloinvest holding, the MegaFon telecom operator, VK, Disney Russia channels MUZ-TV and Yu.
The second largest shareholder of USM is the father of the notorious State Duma deputy, also a billionaire, Andrey Skoch, Vladimir.
Internet companies and services were required to store and provide special services with pseudonyms, date of birth, address, surname, name, patronymic, passport details, languages spoken by the user, a list of his relatives, message texts, audio and video recordings, email address, date and time of authorization and exit from the information service, the name of the client program.
Citadel and other companies within the IKS Holding sold services and equipment to mobile and fixed-line operators – starting from the giants MTS, VimpelCom, Rostelecom.
It’s difficult to find alternative solutions on the market, as about 80% of the specialized equipment and software market belongs to IKS Holding. Citadel and IKS Holding sell solutions and equipment that are certified by the FSB, turnkey; operators are forced to coordinate purchases with the FSB.
In May 2018, the publication Delovoy Petersburg received a commercial proposal from the company MFI Soft: the hardware-software complex for storing Internet traffic of users from MFI Soft was then sold for a minimum of 37 million rubles.
Citadel’s profit in 2016 was 372 million rubles, in 2020 – 9.2 billion rubles. MFI Soft’s profit in 2017 was 503 million rubles, in 2020 – 5.3 billion rubles. Malvin Systems’ profit was 605 million in 2017 and 925 million in 2020. Osobaya Lab’s profit was 582 million in 2017 and 823 million in 2020.
From Esports Stadiums to a Giant Corporation
In 2018, Cherepennikov founded the diversified group IKS Holding, into which he transferred all existing and new assets in the IT field, server manufacturing, and data storage systems, consolidating 25 companies and sub-holdings, which fit perfectly into both the scenario of a sovereign Runet and measures to track citizens’ activity.
The holding also included Russia’s largest computer technology manufacturer, KNS Group (Yadro brand), which implements a number of import substitution projects: it produces Vesnin servers and Tatlin data storage systems, microprocessors, and owns a developer of cloud platforms.
The company built the Yadro FAB Dubna plant for the production of a full range of radio-electronic products in Dubna near Moscow, covering an area of 42 thousand square meters. Yadro also provided its own tablets based on a customized version of the Android OS.
In addition, IKS Holding acquired a number of IT assets related to MegaFon, including Comptika (solutions in the field of blockchain and the Internet of Things) and Corklass (solutions in the field of safe cities). According to expert estimates, in 2020, the total value of IKS Holding’s assets was estimated at 150 billion rubles.
Working in Cherepennikov’s structures was considered “prestigious.”
For example, in the company Corklass, which became part of IKS Holding, after graduating from university, Yana Grigoryan, the girlfriend of Ilya Medvedev, the son of former president and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, worked. According to leaked tax database information, she had been an employee of LLC Corklass since 2019.
In 2020, the group of Usmanov and his partners USM acquired 100% of IKS Holding, and Cherepennikov received 10% of the shares of YuESM Telecom, the lion’s share of which, in turn, belonged to the USM Group.
However, in October 2021, the publication RBC published unexpected news: YuESM Telecom would sell the diversified IT group IKS Holding back to its founder Cherepennikov.
The date of appearance of this information does not allow us to assert that the USM group got rid of IKS Holding because of the imposition of sanctions against Usmanov, which were imposed against him at the end of February 2022.
In June 2022, news feeds reported that the USM holding had completed legal procedures for the sale of IKS Holding and a number of assets to Cherepennikov.
The value of the transaction was not disclosed, which raised doubts about its completion. It was only clarified that YuESM, a unit of USM, retained some assets directly related to telecommunications services: Forpost, Nexign, and One Factor.
In turn, IKS Holding, re-consolidated by Cherepennikov, took over MegaFon 1440 from YuESM Telecom, which was renamed Bureau 1440.
This business unit is engaged in creating a low-orbit satellite group of more than 900 satellites, which are intended to provide broadband internet access services in Russia and other countries.