The king of the Cherkizovsky market has lost everything and has come to accusations of murder. Telman Ismailov found refuge in France The year the Cherkizovsky market was closed

Telman Mardanovich Ismailov is a Russian businessman of Azerbaijani origin who also has Turkish citizenship. He was the owner of the Cherkizovsky market in Moscow and is the founder of the well-known AST group.

Telman Ismailov began his biography in 1956 in the city of Baku and became the tenth of twelve children in the family. His father was an Azerbaijani by origin, and his mother, in addition, also had Jewish roots. Mardan Ismailov was engaged in trade, and he worked hard and with amazing diligence, which is why he constantly needed helpers. Already at the age of 14, Telman began not only to help, but to work fully with his father, and soon became the director of the first and only commercial store in Baku at that time.

In 1973, Ismailov entered the Baku Institute of National Economy, but after compulsory military service he transferred to a similar educational institution - the Moscow Institute of National Economy named after Georgy Plekhanov. According to the distribution, the young man works as an economist at the Ministry of Trade, and later as an expert at Vostokintorg. Then he met with, who at that time worked as the chairman of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee. And 20 years later, already being the mayor of Moscow, Luzhkov will personally congratulate Ismailov on his anniversary with the words: Telman! You are our brother! We go with you through life!.


When the enterprise was put into operation, businessman Telman Ismailov asked Turkey to give him a second citizenship, and this request was granted.

However, in November 2015, the public became aware that the ownership of the Mardan Palace hotel was transferred to the Turkish bank Halkbank through an auction sale, as the Russian entrepreneur had a lot of debts to Turkish companies. Today Telman Ismailov is not among the richest people in the country. In 2015, he was officially declared bankrupt by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, and now his sons are the shareholders of the AST group he founded.


In March 2016, the court decision on the bankruptcy of the businessman was canceled. But already in August of the same year, the court again resumed the procedure for declaring the ex-owner of Cherkizon bankrupt. In January 2017, the amount of his debts reached 31 billion rubles. In February, the Arbitration Court included another 8.9 billion rubles in the register of creditors' claims. In March 2017, he decided to start selling his property by auction.

Personal life

In the personal life of Telman Ismailov, everything is stable. He has been married for a long time and raised two sons, Sarkhan and Alekper, who succeeded him in business. Some of the entrepreneur's numerous brothers are also known to the public. For example, Fazil Ismailov several years ago acted as prefect of the Northern Administrative District of Moscow. And recently another brother, Rafik Ismailov, became notorious. He is suspected of organizing the murder of two businessmen - the founder of Lublino Motors, Yuri Brilev, and the owner of a chain of shopping malls, Vladimir Savkin.


Soon, Telman was also accused of this crime. The Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized the arrest in absentia of the businessman, since at that time he left Russia.

Telman Ismailov is a very generous person. All his entourage is accustomed to receiving gifts. Also, the man did not deprive his star guests of such attention. For example, he gave a singer a villa in Turkey, an actress a diamond necklace, a TV presenter and psychologist Ilham Mirzayev a golden Koran, and a platinum watch for the singer. In addition, among Ismailov's acquaintances there are such celebrities as, and others.


More than once they became guests at his birthday party. It was rumored that he provided his plane more than once, while she was still the wife of the President of the Russian Federation. But this at least looks illogical. In one of the interviews, he said that he was familiar with, and their children became friends and even visit each other.

The main hobby of an entrepreneur from Azerbaijan is collecting wristwatches, of which there are over two thousand pairs in his collection. Telman also tried twice to become a co-founder of a football club. In 2010, he became vice-president of the Terek team from Grozny, but took up the club only three years later, organizing a friendly match with the Israeli Beitar from Jerusalem, during which two advantageous transitions of the players were issued. At the same time, Telman was going to acquire the Israeli team as property, but the fans thwarted this deal, after which the businessman lost interest in football.

Telman Ismailov now

All the latest news about Telman Ismailov is related to the criminal case and the "sale" of his property.

In May 2018, the shopping center on Izmailovsky Highway, which also belonged to the AST holding, went under the hammer.


Also this year, Mehman Kerimov, a defendant in Ismailov’s criminal case, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. At the moment, according to the investigation, Telman is the organizer of this crime, while Kerimov was the perpetrator. The former owner of Cherkizon has been put on the international wanted list. And where he is today is unknown.

But the seven-star hotel "Mardan Palace" will soon work again. Despite the fact that there was constant news in the media that the hotel was being plundered, the general manager of the hotel said that they are negotiating with travel agencies, discussing the prospects for the 2018 summer season. He also noted that 200 people continue to work in the state. And the main event of the upcoming season will be an Indian wedding with a budget of $10-15 million.

Condition assessment

In 2006, the Cherkizovsky market was the largest center of small-scale wholesale trade in terms of financial turnover. Telman Ismailov himself in 2007 was 76 on the Forbes list. His fortune totaled $260 million.


In 2015, he was included in the list of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia according to Forbes with a fortune of $600 million.

Family, friends, business and searches - the main thing from the biography of a businessman

On September 14, the businessman Telman Ismailov was searched: they checked eight apartments belonging to his family. What became famous for the owner of the Cherkizovsky market and what they can look for in the text of Sofya Savina.

The searches at Telman Ismailov's house were reported by his lawyer Alexander Dubrovinsky. “Searchs are underway at 12 (!) addresses. Dozens of people are involved. They are looking for something that they cannot find” (the spelling of the source is saved. - Approx. ed.), - he wrote on Facebook. The searches began at half past six in the morning and even took place at the businessman's nephew and his mother-in-law, Ismailov himself told RBC.

"You are our brother!"

Telman Ismailov is from Baku. His father was a merchant, and since the age of 14, Telman has been working with him. At the age of 18, he becomes the director of the only commercial store in Baku.

In the 1980s, Ismailov moved to Moscow and got a job as an economist at the Ministry of Trade, and then went to work as an expert at Vostokintorg (All-Union Association for Trade with the Countries of the East). He meets Yuri Luzhkov, who at that time served as chairman of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee on cooperative activities. Twenty years later, already being the mayor of the capital, Luzhkov congratulated Ismailov on his fiftieth birthday with the words: “Telman! You are our brother! We go with you through life! Ismailov also had friendly ties with the former vice-mayor of Moscow, Iosif Ordzhonikidze.

Yuri Luzhkov congratulates Telman Ismailov on his jubilee. Source: YouTube

In 1989, Telman Ismailov opened his first Moscow business - he registered the AST group. The abbreviation consists of the first letters of the names of the owners - the businessman and his two sons: Alekper-Sarkhan-Telman. AST started with clothing trade. During the first year of work, she opened 52 commercial stores in Moscow - no one in the city had done this before.

The group began to grow. A few years later, it included dozens of companies in various fields: hotel business (AST-Gof), construction (AST-Kapstroy), publishing (AST-Moscow Printing House), transport (AST-TransService ”), jewelry business (“AST-Gold”). Ismailov owned the Moscow restaurant "Prague" on the Arbat, the department store "Voentorg", as well as the famous wholesale markets - Luzhniki and Cherkizovsky.

It was the Cherkizovsky clothing market that became the main capital of Ismailov. In 2006, Cherkizon was the largest wholesale clothing wholesale center in the European part of Russia, and Ismailov himself took 76th place in the Forbes list in 2007 with a fortune of $ 260 million.

From Cherkizon to a seven-star hotel

According to unofficial data, Cherkizovsky was inhabited by 100 thousand inhabitants. In 2006, there was an explosion on the territory of the market. As a result of the attack, 14 people were killed and 61 injured. The investigation found that the explosion was organized by members of the nationalist organization "Spas" in order to "stop the influx of immigrants."

Chinese smuggling, illegal immigrants, prostitution - in such conditions Cherkizon existed for more than 20 years. Mass checks of the market began after the arrest of a large consignment of contraband goods in the warehouses of the AST company. In 2009, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin publicly criticized the market: “As for smuggling, one of the markets sells goods worth more than $2 billion.” After that, the market was closed.

Cherkizovsky market

The official reason was a violation of sanitary standards. The government said that the closure of the market is a measure to protect domestic producers: merchants at Cherkizon did not pay taxes and "strangled" local production. “Each point on the Cherkizovsky market meant a stopped shop in Russia,” Stanislav Naumov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, said then.

After the closure of Cherkizon, Ismailov went to live in Turkey. There, two months before the market closed, he built the seven-star Mardan Palace Hotel, named after his father: a portrait of Mardan Ismailov hangs on the first floor of the hotel. The Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper rated it as "the most expensive hotel on the continent": the cost is $1.4 billion. Gold leaf, crystal jewelry, Italian marble were used for its construction, and the sand for the beach near the hotel was specially delivered from Egypt. On the territory there is a zoo and singing fountains. The opening ceremony was attended not only by Hollywood stars - Sharon Stone and Monica Bellucci, but also by Deputy Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov.

Mardan Palace

Vladimir Putin also drew attention to the hotel. He stated that he did not see crime in Ismailov's construction of a hotel in Turkey, but hinted that it would be nice to create the same projects in Russia, for example, in Sochi for the Olympics. In response, in 2010, Telman Ismailov signed an agreement with the Olimpstroy corporation on the construction of hotels in Sochi worth $800 million. However, no money was found, and the construction of Olympic facilities had to be abandoned.

Hide and seek with money

Ismailov's affairs after the closure of the Cherkizovsky market went worse. He took out new and new loans to pay off old debts. BM-Bank (Bank of Moscow) and the Mangazeya structures of Sergei Yanchukov helped him. When the banks demanded to return the money, the businessman began to hide them. In 2014, Telman Ismailov handed over his companies to his sons Alekper and Sarkhan and nephew Zaur Mardanov to save himself from creditors.

At the same time, Ismailov organized the withdrawal of funds abroad: he directed $ 8 million to purchase the Craig Valley Plaza shopping center in Las Vegas. Another scheme is to bankrupt yourself. He took out new loans from fictitious organizations registered to his acquaintances. It was supposed to work like this: in case of bankruptcy, the seized property is divided among creditors in proportion to the amount of debt. If the debt to "their" organizations exceeds the debt to the Bank of Moscow, then the bank gets a penny, and all property is returned to the owner.

Craig Valley Plaza shopping center in Las Vegas. Source: Omninet Capital

However, in the end, the court declared Ismailov bankrupt, and the creditors took all the assets from the businessman. VTB received the Praga restaurant, AST and Tropicano shopping centers. A shopping center in the United States was also arrested at the suit of the Bank of Moscow. According to Rosreestr, a chic mansion with a view of Skolkovo went to the Settlement and Credit Bank, owned by the family of State Duma deputy Vakha Agaev.

In 2015, the famous Mardan Palace was also sold for debts. A Turkish bank bought the hotel at an auction for $124 million, although its value was estimated at $248 million. It was in 2015 that Ismailov was last listed by Forbes. Then the magazine estimated his fortune at $ 600 million. In March 2017, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, by its decision, began selling his property.

Family rules of life

The businessman became famous for his passion for luxury. The media write that he flew to a party in Nice on a gilded plane, gave the singer Nikolai Baskov a villa in Turkey for his birthday, and his collection of watches has more than 2 thousand copies.

Among the friends of Telman Ismailov are not only representatives of show business. He also has friendly relations with the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. The businessman himself admitted in an interview with the Azerbaijani edition of Haqqin.az that in difficult times, Kadyrov asked for him before Putin: “Yes, I have very good relations with Ramzan Kadyrov. Asked not only by him, but also by many other persons in the highest elite of Russia.

Back in 2010, after a visit to Chechnya, Ismailov agreed to sponsor the local football club Terek (now Akhmat). At the same time, club president Ramzan Kadyrov appointed Sarkhan Ismailov, the son of a businessman, as vice president of Terek.

Ismailov's children, like their father, are famous for their passion for a luxurious life. Both sons studied and lived in Switzerland. There, according to media reports, they were witnesses in the case of an accident. Four Russians staged races in expensive cars, as a result of which a pensioner was injured. Ismailov's sons were driving the Bugatti Veyron and Mercedes McLaren, Swiss police reported.

Alekper, Telman, Sarkhan Ismailovs

According to eyewitnesses, the president of Uzbekistan arrived in Antalya at the wedding of the eldest son of a businessman, Alekper Ismailov, and presented the newlyweds with a helicopter. Alekper Ismailov still owns a 37.5% stake in the AST group of companies. Now various banks are trying to declare him bankrupt. In September of this year, the National Standard Bank filed a lawsuit against Ismailov Jr.

The younger son Sarkhan studied at the University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. He also owns 37.5% of the AST group of companies and is also experiencing financial difficulties. The other day, a Turkish publication reported that Sarkhan Ismailov's Rolls Royce car was arrested for the debts of the Mardan Palace hotel. Another 25% of AST belongs to Telman Ismailov's nephew, Zaur Mardanov. The Vedomosti newspaper, citing its source, reported in 2014 that the businessman's family are nominal owners, and control over AST belongs to Telman Ismailov himself.

relatives in law

What did they want to find at Ismailov's during the searches? They put forward two versions. According to one of them, the searches are related to fraud against one of the banks. This was reported to RBC by a source close to the investigation.

According to other sources, the businessman was searched because of the case of the murder of two entrepreneurs. Ismailov's brother, Rafik, is accused of shooting the owner of shopping malls, Vladimir Savkin, and the founder of Lublino-Motors, Yuri Brilev. An Interfax source said that the searches at Telman Ismailov's were connected precisely with this case. The same version was put forward by the businessman's lawyer.

The double murder was committed in May 2016 in the Moscow region. Rafik Ismailov is now in custody, he was charged under the article "Murder of two or more persons." According to the Investigative Committee, the financial dispute between Rafik Ismailov and his business partner Savkin could have been the motive for the execution.

Ismailov and Savkin were co-owners of a large shopping and entertainment center in Moscow. According to the investigation, Rafik Ismailov sold the business and took all the money for himself. In order not to return the debt of $ 5.5 million to Savkin, he ordered a former partner, the investigation suggests. Brilev, the founder of Lublino Motors, could become an accidental victim - he witnessed the attack.

The second brother of Telman Ismailov - Vagif - a former officer of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - is also involved in this case and has been put on the wanted list. In April of this year, it was reported that Telman Ismailov also became a defendant in the investigation of contract killings: an arrested member of the group testified against him. They are not talking about two, but about eight murders.

Sofia Savina

Moscow, 8 November. Devaluation as a synonym for problems. What is it, experienced a well-known businessman Telman Ismailov. The Russian-Azerbaijani tycoon built a hotel in Turkey six years ago for almost $1.5 billion. And recently he was taken away for debts, returning the amount ten times less. The same trouble with other assets of Ismailov. Once there was $5 billion, and now it's $600 million. And those soon may have to be paid back. The brilliance and poverty of the former owner of the famous Cherkizovsky market - in the report of the correspondent of "MIR 24" Roman Nikiforov.

Ismailov named his Turkish hotel in honor of his father - Mardan Palace. Opened it with pomp in 2009. The hotel is not even five, but seven stars. It took 2.5 tons of gold to finish. Around marble, rock crystal. On the beach, sand specially brought from Egypt. The average cost of a room is $18,000 per day. Rest and perform here is prestigious. Shakira, Mariah Carey, Monica Bellucci come to visit the businessman. And here are the shots of this summer - the Russian ballerina and socialite Anastasia Volochkova demonstrates stretching on the balcony of the hotel. And then a message came this week: Mardan Palace went under the hammer. A Turkish bank - Ismailov's creditor - bought the building for $128 million. Although the entrepreneur invested ten times more in it: $1.4 billion.

Ismailov grew up in Baku. His father was engaged in trade: back in Soviet times, the family opened a commercial store, which was then the only one in the city. “See those road signs? There was a shop of Telman Ismailov's father. I remember that this store sold the best fabrics. It has always been crowded here. The store was demolished a couple of years ago. A “Winter Park” was built on the spot,” says photographer Eldar Aliyev.

Only people with great connections who knew how to negotiate had such privileges. The Baku neighbor of the Ismailovs, composer Eldar Mansurov recalls: Telman inherited a commercial vein from his father, and at the age of 16 he became the director of the family store. Telman's charm and ability to conduct business came in handy in Moscow, where he moved in the late 70s. During perestroika, the future tycoon met the future mayor, and then the chairman of the commission of the Moscow City Executive Committee on cooperative activities, Yuri Luzhkov. A video from 2006 speaks eloquently about their relationship. Ismailov celebrates his 50th birthday, and Luzhkov congratulates. “The most important holiday of the year has finally come to us. Telman, you are our friend. You are our friend forever. Telman, you and I go through life. And we rejoice and enjoy this friendship with you and your family. Live always, ”Luzhkov said then.

In 1989, Ismailov opened the AST company, which quickly turned into a huge concern. Restaurants, shopping centers, construction, passenger transportation, security companies. But the main source of income was the largest wholesale market in Eastern Europe - Cherkizovsky, which was nicknamed by the people in the French way - "Cherkizon". 100 thousand merchants, more than half of them Chinese. Cheap consumer goods for every taste, food. Huge shadow trade, according to some estimates - up to 40% of the total. Information about the wrong side of "Cherkizon" was periodically heard in the media, but the security forces did not dare to touch Ismailov for a long time.

The turning point in the fate of the businessman was the opening of that very hotel in Turkey - in the midst of the global financial crisis. The investment of huge funds earned in Russia in a foreign economy. Defiant luxury - the delivery of a centner of black caviar on a private jet, dancing in the rain of hundred-dollar bills. Many regarded it as a feast during the plague. Even the then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin drew attention to the source of Ismailov's well-being. At a meeting in the government, where they discussed the fight against smuggling. “And the struggle seems to be underway, but there are no results. The result in this case - landing in jail. Where are the landings? Look, one of the markets still has goods worth $ 2 billion. The goods have not yet been destroyed. And there are no owners,” Putin said at the time.

Ismailov, however, was not imprisoned after that, but the fate of Cherkizon was decided. Soon the market was closed for numerous violations of sanitary standards. Today, only a fragment of a solid metal fence with the logo of the AST group of companies reminds of the former greatness of Cherkizon. The market began with a wasteland, and turned into a wasteland. On a vast territory that can accommodate two and a half hundred football fields, now there are only landfills and new construction sites. True, they are no longer connected with Ismailov's business.

After the market closed, the businessman's empire began to crumble like a house of cards. The AST group took out loans, but there was nothing to repay. Both Turkish and Russian banks demand to return the debts. For example, the Bank of Moscow, which is part of the VTB group. “Including the penny, taking into account the accumulated interest, the total amount of Ismailov’s debt to the Bank of Moscow is now about $300 million,” said Vadim Sukhoverkhov, head of the VTB press service.

Most of Ismailov's real estate is under pledge. For example, a large shopping center in Izmailovo has recently lost its name. The administration could not explain where the three once happy letters had gone from the facade. The famous restaurant "Prague" on the Arbat is another capital asset of Ismailov. In front of the entrance, the businessman placed both the already familiar AST logo and his scorpion emblem. Although the place is historical. Back in 1872, a cheap tavern opened here. And after the first reconstruction at the beginning of the 20th century, the institution became expensive and prestigious. It is even mentioned in the novel "12 chairs". Ostap Bender called it the best place in Moscow, and Ippolit Matveich took Liza here and spent all the money.

The restaurant is now closed. It has not yet been sold, but the market value is rapidly falling. Once upon a time, they asked for $450 million for the building, now - $150 million. Although experts believe that this amount is too high. “He had everything, but he believed that banks should continue to lend to him. Or restructure, or extend, or lend further. Or declare holidays so that he does not pay interest. But all of his assets were bought with the huge flow of money that Cherkizon gave. As soon as the administrative resource disappeared, the whole great history of the great entrepreneur began to be blown away, ”said Alexander Treshchev, member of the Central Council of the Russian Bar Association, lawyer, Doctor of Law.

But in the small homeland, only good things are said about the businessman. The Babaev family bought their house in the 60s from Telman's father. The entrepreneur himself came here often: a memorable place after all. “Behind the gates of the house I see that Telman himself is standing. I was even surprised. What are you doing there, I tell him. And he told me that he was born here. Since then, we have developed friendly relations. Even when he was on his way to the Geokchay region, he stayed with us. Together they sat down at the richly laid tables. They ate, drank and always talked on good topics,” said Vidadi Babaev, a resident of the Geokchay district. Today the owner wants to sell the house. Posted an ad: that's just the buyer can not be found. There are no offers from Telman either. Apparently, the amount of $45,000 today is too much for him.

The Cherkizovsky clothing market, which opened in the early 90s in the Moscow district of Izmailovo, has become the largest small-scale wholesale enterprise in Russia over more than 10 years of its existence. According to the most rough estimates of experts, over the years of operation, Cherkizon has brought its owners an income amounting to billions of dollars.

Who was the master of the market

The owner of the Moscow Cherkizovsky market was a Russian businessman and philanthropist Telman Mardanovich Ismailov. Ismailov is the founder and co-owner of Russia's largest construction group, AST, which de jure owned the market, which occupied a total of almost 50 hectares of Moscow territory (according to other sources, over 70 hectares). The AST group of companies included 31 firms. According to Western media reports, at the beginning of the 2000s, Ismailov opened the Mardan Palace hotel in Turkey with his income, and it cost the businessman $1.4 billion. On the territory of the hotel, Ismailov built himself a palace worth over 50 million dollars.

Counterfeit "city within a city"

Cherkizon was once considered the largest wholesale clothing market in Russia. Goods entered the market through the port of Khabarovsk, where bales of counterfeit goods were brought on boats from China. According to an investigation by TV journalist Arkady Mamontov, law enforcement officers found millions of kilograms of contraband goods worth a total of $ 2 billion at the Cherkizovsky market. No taxes or customs duties were paid for these things. Mamontov reported (and this was confirmed by Russian customs officials in his story) that the clothes and shoes sold at Cherkizon were a real health hazard, since they were made using prohibited substances. As the chief inspector of the Customs Inspection Department of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Ratanin, noted, Rospotrebnadzor specialists, checking the products that were in numerous warehouses, did not write out a single positive sanitary and epidemiological conclusion about the quality of this cheap Chinese consumer goods. The inspectors also failed to find documents on the origin of these goods. According to Boris Chernyshov, adviser to the head of the Customs Inspection Department of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, Cherkizon was a city within a city, with its own management system, its own security service, divided along national lines - with Chinese, Vietnamese, Tajik and other "quarters". According to the Russian customs service, at least 10,000 foreign citizens lived on the territory of Cherkizon alone, one way or another connected with this market (experts say the figure of those who constantly worked on the market: over 100,000 people, mostly Chinese citizens). And in the district near the market, most of the apartments were either bought up by merchants or rented by them. As Boris Chernyshov said, the structure of Cherkizon included 17 markets, each structured in its own way. According to law enforcement agencies, underground casinos and brothels “for their own” (market personnel) operated in Cherkizon, where dozens of Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese girls were kept in slavery.

Explosion in the market

In 2006, a terrorist attack was committed on the territory of Cherkizon, as a result of the explosion of a homemade bomb, 14 people were killed. As RIA Novosti reported, the investigation found out that the crime was the work of a group of nationalists. For the explosion at the Cherkizovsky market and other terrorist attacks, 2 years after the incident, the Moscow City Court sentenced 8 people to various terms of imprisonment, up to life.

"This shit hole needs to be shut down"

At the beginning of June 2009, the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, V.V. Putin, called for "... to seriously intensify the fight against smuggling and illegal production, and to achieve a radical improvement in the situation in the near future." Regarding the fight against smuggling, Putin said that “... the struggle seems to be underway, but there are few results. The result in such cases is imprisonment. Where are the landings? Vladimir Vladimirovich stated that “in one of the markets” “there are still goods worth more than 2 billion dollars. They haven't destroyed it yet, and there are no owners [of the goods]." At the end of June of the same year, by the decision of the prefect of the Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, Nikolai Evtikheev, the activities of the Cherkizovsky market were suspended. According to the official version, at that time there were a lot of instructions from Rospotrebnadzor on the elimination of violations of sanitary and epidemiological requirements that were not fulfilled. In addition, as Evtikheev noted, Cherkizon, which operated as a small wholesale market, practically paralyzed traffic in the Izmailovo region due to the incessant influx of wholesalers' cars from all over the country. The Investigative Committee also stated its position on the Cherkizovsky market, which issued a proposal to eliminate the violations identified at Cherkizon against the head of Moscow, Yu. M. Luzhkov. Numerous violations of migration legislation by foreigners who worked at the Cherkizovsky market were announced, among other things, and the head of the Sledkom of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, in one of his speeches bluntly said that "this viper must be closed." In July of the same year, the Cherkizovsky market was officially closed, and a criminal case was initiated against the representative of the lessor university (RSU of Physical Education, Sports and Tourism), which leased most of the land to Cherkizon, for abuse of power. Telman Ismailov was declared bankrupt in 2015 by the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region. At the end of last year, the Moscow authorities decided to give the territory where Cherkizon was once located for residential development as part of a renovation program.

Cherkizon was once considered the largest wholesale clothing market in Russia. Goods came here from China, through the port of Khabarovsk, where bales with counterfeit goods were brought on boats.
According to information received by TV journalist Arkady Mamontov, law enforcement officers found millions of kilograms of contraband goods worth a total of $2 billion at the Cherkizovsky market. Nobody paid taxes or customs fees for these things. Mamontov reported (and this was confirmed by Russian customs officers in his TV report) that the clothes and shoes sold at Cherkizon were a real health hazard, since they were made using prohibited substances.

As the chief inspector of the Customs Inspection Department of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation Dmitry Ratanin noted, Rospotrebnadzor specialists, checking the products that were in numerous warehouses, did not write out a single positive sanitary and epidemiological conclusion about the quality of this cheap Chinese consumer goods. The inspectors also failed to find documents on the origin of these goods.

According to Boris Chernyshov, adviser to the head of the Customs Inspection Department of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation, Cherkizon was a city within a city that had its own management system and its own security service and was divided according to nationality into Chinese, Vietnamese, Tajik and other "quarters". According to the Russian customs service, at least 10,000 foreign citizens lived in the territory of Cherkizon alone, connected in one way or another with this market.

Experts name the figure of those who constantly worked in the market: over 100 thousand people, mostly Chinese citizens. And in the district near the market, most of the apartments were either bought up by merchants or rented by them. As Boris Chernyshov said, Cherkizon consisted of 17 markets, and each of them had its own structure. According to law enforcement agencies, underground casinos and brothels for their own (market personnel) were located there, where dozens of Russian, Vietnamese and Chinese girls were kept in slavery.

 

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