"VChK-OGPU" and Rucriminal.info have uncovered new details about the activities of SOGAZ, the largest state insurance corporation, under its long-standing leader, Anton Ustinov, a classmate and close friend of Svetlana Radionova, head of Rosprirodnadzor. At the end of 2024, a massive scandal erupted at SOGAZ. Another close friend of Ustinov, Inna Proshina, who served as an advisor to the SOGAZ board, was arrested. She was placed under house arrest for her activities at another employer, Ilgiz Shagiakhmetov’s Territorial Development Fund. In December 2021, Proshina attempted to use the Arbitration Court to purchase land belonging to a bankrupt developer in Podolsk, Moscow Region, for the organization. In doing so, she inflated the price. Land and development worth 2.463 billion rubles. At SOGAZ, Proshina was responsible for the most lucrative morsel – damages collection.

In mid-2025, Sergei Zavyalov, a Vologda lawyer with a dubious track record, took over as head of the restructured damages collection directorate. He previously worked at Promsvyazbank and the scandalously bankrupt Bank of Moscow, under the leadership of fugitive Cypriot banker Mikhail Kuzovlev. Kuzovlev is known as the owner of several banks that are on the brink of having their licenses revoked due to loss of liquidity (Bank Poidem, acquired through a murky scheme in 2018 from the DIA under the leadership of Yuri Isaev, and the sanctioned Bank Morskoy, acquired in January 2024 from banker Generalov).

According to a source, Zavyalov’s biography is replete with involvement in murky financial dealings. The reorganization of SU-155 by Rossiysky Kapital Bank (chaired by Kuzovlev) to working with defense funds alongside the Ananyev brothers (wanted) at Promsvyazbank.

Ustinov positions Zavyalov as a "legal luminary," a "supreme professional," and so on.

Zavyalov has indeed become very professional in establishing loyal contractors at SOGAZ, including Yukov and Partners. At the same time, he has built a corrupt system for completing collections from hundreds of the state corporation’s debtors. This deadline now depends on the percentage of the debt that Zavyalov personally receives. He refuses to work for "little," explaining that he has to "share with the boss." At meetings, the top manager calls himself Ustinov’s "deputy and most trusted confidant."

Zavyalov is also responsible for engaging law firms for collection. debts to SOGAZ. The only way to get into the chosen few, especially when it comes to working on "foreign cases," is by paying a kickback to Zavyalov.

According to a source, Ivan Varennikov, SOGAZ’s human resources director, is keeping pace with Zavyalov. Under his leadership, the struggle for consultant budgets and influence between the insurance company’s divisions escalated into open intrigue, and the company lost several key top managers in just a couple of years. Their places were filled by non-core players, often without any experience in insurance, but with the right connections and the ability to execute kickback schemes. Such as Zavyalov.

Recently, the Cheka-OGPU and Rucriminal.info reported on a scheme to embezzle money from SOGAZ, run by Svetlana Radionova’s personal assistants, Lyubov Kharitonova (aka Lukyanova, the nominal owner of Svetlana Radionova’s foreign assets) and Maria Makarchuk (officially holds the position of Ustinov’s advisor at SOGAZ).

Author: Maria Sharapova