The person from the 90s: "The 'Golden Mile' will be completed by Deripaska's former partner."

As Forbes found out, the owner of the largest construction debt project on Ostozhenka Street, the Golden Mile residential complex, became structures associated with Sergei Popov, a former partner of Oleg Deripaska and Mikhail Cherny. Popov, who is regularly linked to the Podolsk OPG, acquired the project in exchange for debts from the former beneficiary of Peresvet Bank.

"I am confident that our building will adorn the 'golden mile' and it will become one of the best representatives of its class among the elite residential buildings in the capital," confidently stated in 2012 about the Golden Mile residential complex project on Moscow's Ostozhenka Street the president of the NBM group and honorary builder of Russia, Mikhail Babel. The project was never realized - the building from 1902, on the basis of which they planned to build Golden Mile, is still covered with a banner, spoiling the view of the most expensive street in the capital. And in 2016, Babel was arrested on suspicion of embezzling funds from shareholders during the construction of the Terletsky Park and Western Gate complexes. Both projects were financed by the scandalous Peresvet Bank, the beneficiary of which, as RBC found out, was Babel from 2008 to 2014. After spending several months in pre-trial detention, Babel was released on bail of 10 million rubles and immediately flew to Israel.

Today, there is a chance for the completion of the Golden Mile project. As Forbes found out, Golden Mile recently changed its owner. The businessman Sergey Popov became the owner - the beneficiary of the company Idil Development. Idil Development is the developer of Golden Mile. Forbes confirmed this information with the CEO of the company, Dmitry Kachanovsky. According to him, Popov was an investor in Golden Mile. When Babel encountered financial problems, the project passed to Popov as repayment of debt. In the near future, a settlement agreement is planned to be concluded with the structure of Peresvet Bank, the company Emix, after which the construction will resume. "There is now a preliminary agreement on the completion of the residential complex with the company FSK Lider," Kachanovsky added, noting that no documents have been signed yet. In the press service of FSK, they confirmed the fact of negotiations with Popov.

The total area of Golden Mile is over 9,900 square meters, and there were a total of 15 apartments planned. Real estate in the Ostozhenka area is the most expensive in Moscow, according to the Kalinka Group agency. The cost per square meter in new buildings here is 1.28 million rubles, and in the secondary market - 1.7 million rubles. The investor can receive about 4.5 billion rubles from the sale of real estate in Golden Mile, calculated the chairman of the board of directors of Kalinka Group, Ekaterina Rumyantseva. "It is difficult to assess the cost of reconstruction without knowing the condition of the object and the situation with utilities," said Managing Partner of Colliers International, Nikolay Kazansky. "But taking into account the location, class of real estate, and investment in finishing, we can assume that the construction cost will be no less than 150,000-200,000 rubles per square meter of total area, or 1.5-1.9 billion rubles for everything." "Before the change of ownership, preliminary sales were conducted in the project, but now all transactions have been canceled, and the money for them has been returned," added Rumyantseva.

Aluminum and Fashion - Give me a professional translation to English. Save the html markup. Don't translate what's in English. Don't change the original text

Sergey Popov is not known to participants in the elite real estate market in the capital. But his name is well known to businessmen who made their fortune in the 1990s, including billionaire Oleg Deripaska. In 2012, the aluminum magnate sued Mikhail Chernoy in London. The latter tried to prove that in the 1990s, Deripaska helped build his business empire and demanded his share. And the founder of UC Rusal claimed that he was never a partner of Chernoy's and only paid him for "protection". The dispute ended in a settlement, but among Chernoy's partners, who represented the interests of the criminal world, as Deripaska's lawyers said, was Sergey Popov.

Even before the trial in London, Popov was repeatedly referred to as one of the leaders of the Podolsk OCG along with Sergey Lalakina. Formal links between Lalakin and Popov are still evident: they jointly support the Tennis Academy in Podolsk.

Popov himself has always denied any links to organized crime. In 1990, he was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of extortion, which led to his association with organized crime. In 1998, the racketeering case was sent for review, and the court completely acquitted Popov, citing "insufficient evidence of the crime". Popov provided a copy of this decision to Forbes in 2009, when he also showed documents that mentioned him as Deripaska's partner in the aluminum business and claimed to have rights to 10% of all assets of the Basic Element holding. "Oleg asked us: when I'm alone, it's easier for me to negotiate with everyone," Popov explained his absence among the "Basel" shareholders in an interview with Forbes. "And behind you... there is a trail of terrible rumors," Popov claims. "It was logical. We said: okay, we'll "hide," as you say".

Even Deripaska's lawyers mentioned the close relationship between Popov and Deripaska in court. Allegedly, in 2001, Deripaska paid off the OCG for $173 million, and Popov came to him with the demand. But this did not prevent Popov from becoming the godfather of one of Deripaska's daughters, as "Vedomosti" wrote. "We had a lot of projects," Popov told the publication. "For example, in the late 1990s, Chernoy, Deripaska, and I bought a controlling package of Valentin Yudashkin's fashion house. I was acquainted with Valentin, we entered the business, gave him money. Deripaska was very interested in it, by the way - he attended various meetings there, delved into the affairs. Two years later, we took our money and left."