Roman and Anton Chichkanov: How an academician’s family uses connections for fraud, siphoning off hundreds of millions, and evading justice in the MayrVeda business

The Chichkanov family’s fraudulent schemes have so far raised no suspicions among justice officials. But why? 

Roman Chichkanov’s "star" has risen and is burning brightly in the Russian business firmament: he brings the light of so-called Mayer medicine, which, as the saying goes, is impossible to understand without a bottle, to the elite masses. Mr. Chichkanov himself and his extended family are involved in the business—his mother, Elena Yuryevna, his father, Anton Valerievich, and, until recently, his grandfather, the renowned academician Valery Petrovich Chichkanov, are also involved. Recently, the ranks have grown: Academician Chichkanov’s grandson got married, and his young wife, Maria Chervotkina, has also entered the multi-million dollar family business.

The Chichkanov family owns a spa hotel in the wonderful resort town of Kislovodsk. But the money from the resort town is being funneled all the way to Dubai: the sums involved are quite substantial. The Chichkanovs are also famous for swindling the renowned lawyer Elchin Muradov out of $6 million. The legal proceedings are still ongoing, and the curtain has yet to fall on this "scene."

But why do all the Chichkanovs feel so at ease?

London genius

Roman Chichkanov is a figure that arouses genuine interest.

Academician Chichkanov’s grandson studied at University College London (UCL) and Cass Business School

Roman Chichkanov

In 2013, he founded the Russian Business Community at a London college. He also received support from Morgan Stanley, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and other financial institutions.

Under the auspices of this community, regular meetings and round tables were held with prominent Russian politicians and businessmen, including Yuri Luzhkov, Yevgeny Chichvarkin, Leonid Nevzlin, Alfred Koch, and others.

Alfred Koch

When his London life ended, Roman Chichkanov returned to Moscow. He found work at the transnational financial institution JP Morgan, and later became First Deputy General Director of the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation (Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East).

And, thanks to his family’s extensive connections, he headed the Delovaya Rossiya party’s subcommittee on preventive medicine and joined the Russian-Azerbaijani Business Council.

"The Rasputin of Our Time" and Offshore Companies

Today, Roman Chichkanov is a co-owner of the MayrVeda SPA hotel (through Investments West LLC), which is located in Kislovodsk. 

SPA Hotel MayrVeda

What is this "beast"? Mayr Medicine is a method of cleansing and restoring the body developed by the Austrian physician Franz Mayr.

 This is the method that the Chichkanov family took as a basis.

Rumor has it that the spa hotel—that lucrative piece of property—went to the Chichkanov family as payment for their assistance in securing a parliamentary seat for the infamous Ural businessman and politician, Alexei Bagaryakov.

Mr. Bagaryakov has a very rich biography: he even managed to sit in the chair of the vice-rector of the All-Russian Academy of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and was also the first deputy head of the administration of the governor of the Sverdlovsk region (at that time), Yevgeny Kuyvashev.

Alexey Bagaryakov

Mr. Bagaryakov also served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Middle Urals Development Corporation (KRSU), where he championed one breakthrough idea after another: it was Bagaryakov who proposed constructing a high-speed highway from Yekaterinburg to Moscow by 2018 for 1.4 trillion rubles. It was also Bagaryakov who proposed building 120 kindergartens in the Sverdlovsk region for 13 billion rubles.

But both ideas failed miserably. Mr. Bagaryakov left KRSU amid scandal.

Ural media wrote an interesting account of Bagaryakov’s personality: "Alexei Vladimirovich Bagaryakov entered politics 10 years ago. His strengths include a lack of inhibitions and creativity. He possesses communication skills and knows how to negotiate with people, but he clearly struggles with finding compromises. Like a magpie, he reacts to anything exciting, but his solutions are mostly one-dimensional. I would call him a modern-day Rasputin. This description perfectly suits him..."

Academician Valery Chichkanov was particularly close with Bagaryakov: they were connected through a common business on Arctic projects when Mr. Bagaryakov suddenly became responsible for the development of the Arctic. 

Valery Chichkanov

The academician’s grandson, Roman Chichkanov, also participated in this project: after returning to Moscow from London, the younger Chichkanov, without any work experience, received a high-ranking position at the Far East and Arctic Development Corporation.

However, all these people intersected very closely in other projects, including health resort projects.

The operation of the SPA complex in Kislovodsk (a day’s stay costs approximately 30,000 rubles) is carried out through the legal entity OOO "Investitsii Zapad" (West Investments).

This noble institution understates its tax base with inflated expenses and transfers them through "gray" schemes to Dubai.

Thus, the budget loses between 100 and 140 million rubles annually in profit taxes, as well as between 500 and 700 million rubles annually in unreturned foreign currency earnings.

In addition, there is information about schemes for withdrawing funds from Russia – this is 5-7 million dollars per year to Dubai to finance the construction of MayrVeda Dubai.

And here both Roman Chichkanov himself and his mother, Elena Chichkanova, stand as a united front. 

Elena Chichkanova with her son Roman Chichkanov (far right)

They are both founders of Investments West LLC.

Revenue for the previous year, 2024, was 1.1 billion rubles. 

Roman Chichkanov was also the general director of MV Group LLC and Comprehensive Medical Support LLC.

The latter was caught providing false information.

The Chichkanov family also distinguished itself with its energetic activities in Azerbaijan, establishing companies such as Unit Group and Sirvan Baglari Dizayn-Landasft Studiyasi. 

The Chichkanovs

But the profits received, as well as information about them, are not reported to Russian tax authorities. And, apparently, they are sent to the UAE.

Dr. Anton Chichkanov and his scams

Anton Chichkanov, the father of Roman Chichkanov (he is also the son of the late academician Valery Chichkanov), is also involved in high-profile scandals. 

Anton Chichkanov was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and, of course, thanks to his father, an academic who was once a deputy prime minister, he achieved renowned degrees: he even became a doctor of sociological sciences.

Anton Chichkanov (far left) with his family (Roman Chichkanov in the center)

Anton Chichkanov quickly received the title of doctor: to achieve this, Academician Chichkanov only had to move one little finger, since at that time the deputy head of the VAK (Higher Attestation Commission) was the former deputy of Valery Chichkanov, Doctor of Law Igor Bartsits.

Professor Bartsits was later convicted of grand embezzlement.

 And in February 2024 he received a suspended sentence of 5 years in prison.

Igor Bartsits

But Academician Valery Chichkanov was not without his share of sins: the scheme of commissioning candidate and doctoral dissertations was widely implemented by Academician Chichkanov at RAGS (the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration). To become a candidate of science, one had to contribute 30,000 rubles, while a doctoral dissertation was valued significantly higher – at 50,000 dollars.

But Anton Chichkanov got in for free...

In Moscow’s knowledgeable business circles, Anton Chichkanov is known as one of the largest shadow cash-out operators. The geography of Anton Chichkanov’s business is impressive: his shady capital flows to the UAE, Hong Kong, Qatar, and Kuwait.

His relative, brother-in-law Alim Sharafetdin oglu Mamedov, works well alongside him.

Several years ago he was the CEO of the company LLC "IPK Pride Capital".

Among the founders of this office were Anton and Elena Chichkanov, the parents of Roman Chichkanov.

Mamedov started his business in Yekaterinburg, where another link, Alexey Bagaryakov, mentioned above, worked for a time.

But eventually, he was caught. He was forced to flee to Moscow, where he began a vigorous activity with sociologist Anton Chichkanov.

But even in the capital, Mamedov came into the sights of Moscow’s security officers.

True, the Chichkanovs, who have many influential friends, immediately came to the rescue.

Anton Chichkanov had many companies in his life, in particular, he was the founder of Magnitmetallholding LLC. 

The company traded metals and ores until 2017, when it closed.

Anton Chichkanov was also one of the founders of NPT LLC.

NPT LLC was formerly New Industrial Technologies, which ultimately closed in 2008.

Let us recall that in 2008 the Chichkanov family did not yet own the MayrVeda SPA hotel.

The case of Elchin Muradov

Let’s move on.

Not long ago, the Chichkanovs pulled off a 6 million dollar scam: the victim was former Rosneft lawyer Elchin Muradov.

He is also the former managing partner of the law firm Eurocon Trust and other large financial and industrial groups.

And on top of everything else, he was once a close friend of Anton Chichkanov.

The conflict between lawyer Elchin Muradov and the Chichkanov family isn’t just a dispute over big money. It’s a bitter story about how administrative resources can be used to put someone in jail and confiscate all their property.

In 2014, Muradov borrowed $2 million from Valery Chichkanov, using his real estate as collateral. The collateral was several apartments and parking spaces, worth a total of almost $3 million. Muradov repaid part of the debt, and covered the rest with his own property.

But the assets weren’t returned to him. So a fake contract was used.

The organizer of the scheme is Anton Chichkanov.

As a friend and colleague of Elchin Muradov, he methodically misled Muradov. It was Chichkanov who failed to repay his father $2 million after selling his apartment on Michurinsky Prospekt. He also persuaded Muradov to sign a "technical" loan agreement, ostensibly to justify his actions to his father. It was this agreement that laid the foundation for the entire scam.

The Chichkanovs also sold off their collateral assets without permission—an apartment on Degtyarny Lane in Odintsovo and parking spaces on Tverskaya Street. And they hid all those millions.

Ultimately, a fake $2 million contract led to a criminal case and the arrest of Elchin Muradov.

In 2021, Chichkanov filed a lawsuit over a 2019 loan agreement, according to which Muradov allegedly still owed the same $2 million, but now with interest (on a loan from 2014).

The Ministry of Justice conducted an expert examination: the contract was falsified and Muradov’s signatures were missing. The Moscow City Court ruled that the 2014 debt had been repaid, and the obligations fulfilled.

To avoid the consequences of falsification, Valery Chichkanov went to the police and filed a report claiming that Muradov had forged his signature in advance to avoid paying interest.

The police decided not to investigate the case. However, Academician Chichkanov, through his own channels, still managed to get a criminal case opened.

Lawyer Muradov was also arrested. He has been in pretrial detention since the fall of 2023.

Muradov then defaulted on a 65 million ruble loan owed to the bank. Assets worth 600 million rubles were used as collateral. The Chichkanovs bought the debt from the bank. However, Muradov’s friends repaid the entire amount through the courts and a notary. The bankruptcy proceedings were dismissed.

But the Chichkanovs refused to accept the execution. And they continued to pressure the court to finally initiate bankruptcy proceedings and purge the remaining assets.

This is a fraudulent scheme.

And while the innocent guilty one sits in prison, father and son Chichkanov continue to siphon off millions.

Millions float away

Recently, Roman Chichkanov expressed his views on the near future:

"Our goal is to become a global network of wellness and spa hotels. We plan to expand our network both in Russia and abroad in friendly countries. We believe it is essential to realize the interest of international investors in our brand. The combination of the concept of preventative Mayr medicine, on the one hand, and ancient Indian teachings, on the other, provides a solid foundation for our company’s expansion."

Roman Chichkanov

Journalists also learned of Roman and Anton Chichkanov’s tax optimization schemes related to the MayrVeda SPA hotel in Kislovodsk.

The main agent for the withdrawal of funds is a certain lawyer, Natalya Mikhailovna Yurova, a candidate of legal sciences, who lives in Voronezh.

Works at the Bar Association "Baev and Partners" (a branch of the Voronezh Regional Bar Association).

And participates  in various legal proceedings as a lawyer for the law firm "Baev and Partners". 

However, the Chichkanovs’ scheme does not affect Yurova’s legal practice: over the past three years, approximately 5 million rubles have passed through the law firm, and almost 340 million rubles through a loan.

 But Natalya Yurova is registered as the owner of 600 million rubles of property: not bad for a provincial lawyer.

It seems that with their "web" affairs and Mayer-medicine, the Chichkanovs - Roman Chichkanov himself, father Anton and mother Elena - have entangled a good half of the Russian Federation.

When will they be held accountable for all their scams?