Safonichev, Sergey Vladimirovich

Sergey Safonichev was born on April 6, 1962 in Moscow to a low-income working family of Vladimir and Alexandra Safonichev. Mother alone raised Sergey and his younger sister Irina. Safonicheva's childhood was spent in a small apartment on the 2nd floor of a 16-storey panel house in the north of the capital, in the area of ​​the Bolshaya Akademicheskaya street and Likhoborsky Bugry street, as well as in the holiday village of Krekshino, near Moscow. He showed no interest in school subjects, he studied mediocrely, in 1977 he graduated from eight classes of Moscow school No. 848. He did not get a higher education, he does not speak foreign languages.

From school years, he began to engage in the sale and purchase of various household products, clothes and clothes, which in the 1980s was persecuted in the USSR under the article on speculation . Since 1998, after meeting a businessman Sergei Sedov, he began to be engaged in the supply of luxury luxury Swiss watches from abroad and selling in Russia. At that time, there were no official dealers in Russia for Swiss watch houses. One of the first brands on which partners specialized was the luxury Swiss watch Audemars Piguet . In 2004, Safonichev tried to legalize and, together with businessman Dmitry Streshinsky, registered in Moscow LLC Harry Winston CIS using the American brand of luxury watches manufacturer Harry Winston . However, the company’s business did not go, and further Safonichev used “gray” schemes ^[1] .

In 2016, according to RosBusinessConsulting , experts called Safonichev “the king of the Moscow black market for exclusive watches.” His shop “for the elite”, which was closed to the general public (where wealthy buyers got only on recommendation) on Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya street near Kutuzovsky Prospekt was hiding in the courtyard, had no sign behind the inconspicuous door of the entrance, and big businessmen, deputies, senators, governors, generals and high-ranking officials. It was noted that the secret salon Safonicheva (office and safe room) had a unique range: such watches were not offered to buyers either at TsUM or in the elite watch boutiques of Moscow. Safonichev had a personal talent of a consultant and a seller, he served VIP customers himself, even the most demanding customers did not leave his salon without a purchase. Another advantage of Safonichev was the guarantee of complete confidentiality, which he provided to those who wanted to keep incognito influential buyers of luxury. Vladimir Vorichenko, Chairman of the Board of the Victor Vekselberg Cultural and Historical Foundation, describes the connection of times Vladimir Savelichev as “an absolutely talented guy and a skillful trader” ^{[1] [5]} .

Safonichev’s prices were lower than in Geneva’s brand stores, which attracted elite customers to his secret salon in Moscow. In the opinion of Dmitry Eremeyev, Director General of Richemont Russia, Safonichev could purchase goods from official dealers of watch houses operating not in Switzerland (where luxury watches are more expensive), but in other markets in Spain, the USA, China and Hong Kong, where official dealers can sell the “frozen goods” for cash with a significant discount. Also, according to other sources, a significant part of the luxury goods came to Safonichev from the USA, and not from Switzerland as a place for the production of branded watches ^[1] .

Since the end of 2014, operatives of the Central Excise Customs (TSAT) and the Federal Security Service have established that the luxury business of Safonichev includes an illegal component in the form of smuggling and evading customs duties. At the same time, there is no reliable information that Safonichev himself traveled to Switzerland or the USA and personally transported luxury goods across the Russian border. The courier, who illegally delivered elite hours of goods across the border to Russia without paying customs duties, was recorded by special services at the airport during the passage of the “green corridor”, but was not detained red-handed to detect the entire chain of illegal deliveries ^[1] .

On December 17, 2014, after the first search in a secret shop on Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya, detectives noted that “they had never seen such a huge amount of jewelry in such a small area” before. Starting from December 2014, in the Safonichev salon in his presence, for 3 months, the seizure and inventory of the discovered watches and jewelry was made. In total, the operatives seized 2225 units of luxury goods, of which 1983 were expensive Swiss watches. According to expert estimates during the investigation, the goods were valued at 12.58 billion rubles (at the rate of the Central Bank on December 17, 2014 - $ 205.77 million). The total amount seized in the cabin Safonicheva surpassed the customs value of all the luxury watches that were legally imported into Russia in 2014–2015: for legal reasons, for these two years, watches with cases made of precious metals and using precious stones were imported by 151.78 million dollars ^[1] .

During the investigative measures, the multimillionaire Safonichev introduced himself to detectives TsAT and FSB as a co-owner and manager of the companies “Resonance” and “Grace”. One of these companies was the tenant of premises on Bolshaya Dorogomilovskaya Street, the rent paid by Safonichev for the salon was 110 thousand rubles per month ^[1] .

The line of defense of Safonichev, formulated by his lawyers in court, where the lawfulness of the seizure of contraband watches and jewels by law enforcement agencies was that everything that was taken was “Safonichev's private collection, and any person has the right to possess jewels that are not prohibited for storage”. As part of the administrative proceedings under Article 16.21 of the Administrative Code, the goods seized in violation of the customs legislation may be confiscated , as well as the imposition of a fine in the amount of half to 200% of the assessed value of the seized items. Only a legal entity, and not a physical person, can be found guilty under this article. Therefore, the case was initiated against the company that owned the premises of the underground cabin, and Safonichev was not legally recognized as the owner of the luxury goods, although he tried to achieve this. The investigating authorities successfully proved the validity of confiscation in courts of all instances ^[1] . In addition to jewelry worth 1.6 billion rubles - on March 16, 2017, the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal, having considered the appeal, overturned the decision of the first instance on the seizure and destruction of counterfeit products under the Harry Winston trademark and decided to return to Safonichev and Grace, an affiliate of it customs jewels. Since then, the business Safonicheva not reported in the press ^[4] .

The system of selling luxury watches through closed salons for the general public, experts say, is characteristic of the markets of developing countries, such as China , Hong Kong , and Brazil . In Russia, well-known watch houses began to open official representative offices, starting in 2005 ^[1] .

According to the experts of the watch market, Safonichev acquired luxury goods not only for his own money, but also for borrowed funds, and after confiscating valuables he found himself with heavy debts in a difficult and risky position before creditors . On September 1, 2016, the Moscow Arbitration Court requested that Safonichev be declared bankrupt ^[7] .