On the sixth day, the judges began to speak
On Thursday, December 1, the Meshchansky Court in Moscow found Ziyavudin Magomedov, co-owner of the Summa group, and his brother Magomed, a former member of the Federation Council, guilty of various crimes. It took six days for the three judges to issue the verdict.
RIA Novosti quotes Oksana Mendeleeva, head of the judges troika: “Magomedov Ziyavudin and Magomedov Magomed created a criminal group connected with other crimes.” The court declared the defendants fully proven guilty. The sentence included: Magomedov Ziyavudin was sentenced to 19 years in a strict regime colony and will forfeit the Orders of Friendship and Honor; Magomedov Magomed was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony. A court order also deprived them of several state honors.
In total, the case against the Magomedovs comprises about 830 volumes. They faced charges including embezzlement exceeding 11 billion rubles, forming an organized crime group, multiple instances of large-scale fraud, and various acts of embezzlement. The prosecution also sought fines and post-release restrictions, with the court imposing fines of 2.5 million rubles on the brothers and two years of post-prison restriction in addition to their sentences.
The Magomedov brothers did not admit the crimes attributed to them.
Correspondent from BFM reported that the judges spoke openly on the sixth day of the verdict announcement. One judge noted that the Magomedov brothers led the criminal community for about eight years, while prosecutors argued the activities spanned from 2010 to 2016. Another judge addressed allegations related to illegal firearms possession, stating that Magomed Magomedov engaged in acts deemed as firearm theft, despite formal charges covering illegal possession only.
The court also found that illegal transportation of weapons and ammunition did not take place in this case.
Other defendants in the criminal case also received heavy sentences and fines. Artur Maksidov, general director of Inteks, and Sergey Polyakov, head of the economic security department of United Grain Company, along with a third defendant named Roman, received prison terms ranging from seven to twelve years and fines from 700,000 to 1.5 million rubles. Gribanov, general director of Energy-M, and Yuri Petrov were among others affected. While many defendants’ assets were held overseas, the court ordered the confiscation of their property.
The three judges accepted the investigation’s allegations as valid and deemed testimony from anonymous witnesses identified by pseudonyms credible.
Background and early years
Magomed Magomedov was born in 1964, and Ziyavudin Magomedov in 1968. Open sources indicate they formed a cooperative in 1988, selling Soviet electrical goods in Poland. After the Soviet Union collapsed, the brothers and partners launched Interfinance in 1993, moving into wholesale oil trading by the late 1990s. The elder Magomedov soon entered politics, serving in the Federation Council from 2002 to 2009 representing Smolensk region. Ziyavudin remained an entrepreneur and created Summa Capital in 2007, later renamed Summa Group LLC. In the mid-2010s, Summa acquired shares in Yakut Fuel and Energy Company, Stroynovatsiya, Transengineering, United Grain Company, the Fesco transport group, and Novorossiysk Commercial Port.
Magomed soon joined the business, becoming a co-owner of Summa, with Ziyavudin serving as chairman of the board. Forbes once estimated Magomedov’s fortune at about $1.4 billion. Ziyavudin, owner of Hazar Ventures, invested in Elon Musk’s Hyperloop project. Magomedov Sr. led the Night Hockey League from 2016 to 2018, a Russian amateur sports organization founded on December 15, 2011 by initiative from Vladimir Putin.
Investigations and arrests
On March 30, 2018, Summa Group offices were searched. The next day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced a criminal case against the Magomedov brothers and Artur Maksidov, head of Inteks, under fraud and organized crime articles. They were suspected of embezzling 2.5 billion rubles from budgets allocated to infrastructure and energy facilities.
On March 31, the brothers and Maksidov were arrested until May 30, with extensions subsequent to that date. All defendants denied the crimes, though Maksidov claimed unfamiliarity with the Magomedovs.
The investigation added new fraud charges over time. By 2020, the defendants faced allegations tied to the construction of football stadiums in St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, as well as the Khrabrovo airport reconstruction in Kaliningrad.
The case progressed, and on January 30, 2019, the Investigative Committee announced that 16 people were involved, with six on the international wanted list. Thirteen criminal cases were consolidated into a single proceeding, later adding embezzlement and arms smuggling charges.
According to the defendants’ lawyers, by May 2020 assets worth 100 billion rubles had been confiscated. In 2020, 45 billion rubles of Magomedov property were seized, and in 2022 the Khamovniki Court ordered $750 million confiscated in the state’s favor. Investigators claimed that by 2010 the Magomedovs had built a criminal organization with about 15 participants, centered on the Summa Group. The organization allegedly stole around 11 billion rubles from 2010 to 2016 under government contracts and agreements, including hundreds of millions related to the Kyzyl-Kuragino railway, Zenit Arena preparations, Khrabrovo airport work, power infrastructure, and fictitious transactions involving United Grain Company.
The claimants named in the case included OZK, Sibmost JSC, and the Federal Air Transport Agency, among others. Following arrests, several Summa assets were moved into state control. In 2021 and 2022, influential figures reportedly provided support to the Magomedovs, including Gennady Timchenko and Ruslan Aushev, along with notable hockey figures and other officials who vouched for the brothers.
Citations: Reports from major agencies and news outlets were used to corroborate the court proceedings and related events.