Maxim Katz who was sentenced in absentia to 8 years in Russia, has started again recently to twinkle in the Russian media space, but now he has been ranting from Israel. At present, his inflammatory rhetoric is aimed at exposing his former team-mates among Alexey Navalny’s followers from the extremist Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) with whom he quarreled in 2016. (We would like to remind our readers that the pretext for this had been a banal conflict within the ‘love triangle’ Katz – Patyulina – Volkov*).
On the whole, having been impressed by exposing actions of Maxim Katz, we have decided to find out to what extend the family business of the exposer corresponds to his image of ardent and principled fighter against corruption and illegal financial schemes.
Analytics of the investigative website Prigovor.ru have paid attention to the activities of the advertising company OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’ (taxpayer ID number (INN) 7729488340). According to data bases, this firm was created on December 29, 2015 by two physical persons – by Yekaterina Patyulina, the spouse of Maxim Katz, and blogger Ilya Varlamov. Yet, as of today, Yekaterina Patyulina is the sole founder of the company, as, on February 19, 2024, Varlamov withdrew from the founding members. It means that, since the beginning of the year, this structure is under full control of Maxim Katz’s family which is confirmed by corresponding entries in data bases, according to which the wife of Maxim Katz is the owner of 100% of shares. Moreover, Yekaterina Patyulina stood out as director, and this position was taken over by a Spirina Yekaterina Alexееvna.
It would seem that these are ordinary changes, as in any working firm. Yet, we know better that the devil is always in the details. So let’s see how is functioning the company of Maxim Katz’s spouse.
According to the information of the Federal Tax Service (FNS) the company OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’ is working as an advertising agency (the code of the Russian National Classifier of Types of Economic Activity OKVED 73.11) and it fulfils another 14 types of activity. They call themselves ‘an exclusive seller of advertising among bloggers’. At the same time, of the website of the company is said that the company ‘Avtorskiye Madia’ is working quite successfully and is gaining momentum in every sense of the word. For example, there is information on the website with regard to the year 2023 on gains of salesmen of the company – of those employees who are dealing with selling advertisements to bloggers.
For instance, according to the company ‘Avtorskiye Media’ own boastful report, in July 2023 an employee of Patyulina and Varlamov under the code name Seilz (Saleman) earned 8 million 907 thousand 481 rubles, and in January of 2024 he also received 4 million 173 thousand rubles. In August 2023 the employee Seilz No 9 made 1 million 137 thousand. In September Seilz No 12 received 1 million 877 thousand and he also, in December, pocketed 1 million 618 thousand
In triumphant reports of the company OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’ published at the yearend 2023 on the website, it is said about an unseen growth of the company in all directions, first of all in regard to gains of its sellers the number of which has been constantly rising. ‘We constantly invite new salesmen. This year, 25 hotshot advertising sellers joined the team of the company ‘Avtorskiye Media’. They have already closed their first deals and received commissions’. ‘The gains in 2023 – it was a good year – some salesmen received from 3 to 8 million rubles…’
Multimillion revenues are good, especially when they are transparent, but there is a strange thing – in 2023 the company OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’ submitted a zero accounting report to the Federal Tax Service of Russia.
And during previous years, when both Maxim Katz and Yekaterina Patyulina lived in Russia – see 2022, 2021, 2020,2019 – in their financial reports there were only zeros. Apart from that, as early as in 2016, at the dawn of business creation, Yekaterina Patyulina bravely bragged before journalists about an unheard-of growth of her company and turnovers amounting to millions. In particular, it was stated: ‘The previous year was closed by the firm ‘Avtorskiye Media’ with a turnover of 35 million rubles, and during 11 months of this year this marker was doubled’.
We also have paid attention to the words of the director Yekaterina Patyulina about a great team working in a coordinated and friendly manner. There ais even a corresponding photo on the website of the company ‘Avtorskiye Media’.
But then again, according to the reports submitted to the Federal Tax Service (FNC) of 2023, an average number of personnel of the company belonging to the spouse of Maxim Katz is one person. And where is the team?
And the answer is a banal one and it contains in the acknowledgment of Yekaterina Patyulina herself who several years ago declared open-heartedly while talking to journalists of the media outlet ‘Incrussia.ru’ that her structure is a net of Individual Entrepreneur entities (IPs):
- ‘How the work of ‘Avtorskiye Media’ is organized?
- ‘Avtorskiye Media’ is a net of individual entrepreneur entities: there are sales managers (now there are 23 of them), bloggers and employees of the back-office – lawyers, book-keepers and those dealing with document flow’.
We would also like to point out from the current version of the website have been removed all mention about the IP entity belonging to Yekaterina Patyulina, but the internet as is known, remembers everything. And in the archive there is the website ‘Avtorskiye Media’ with requisites of the IP entity Patyulina Yekaterina Andreyevna.
Finally, what do we have? On the one hand, imprudent acknowledgment of the owner of the OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’ Patyulina that her structure is quickly making millions is, actually, a net of Individual entrepreneur entities what invites tens of new employees – advertising salesmen, and they are receiving fantastic commissions.
On the other hand, indices of business split are evident where everything is according to classic – there is a shell-firm with an average number of employees is one person, a firm which has a strong brand and under cover of which the owner carries on her business with the help of an extensive net of IP entities. Moreover, she, having no scruples, says, on the website of the firm, that she is engaging more and more new employees.
So, that is what, in June 2022, wrote the relocant Pavel Komarovsky, the author of the economical telegram-channel ‘Rational Answer’: ‘In a nutshell, we sort of agreed about cooperation with advertisers of the company ‘Avtorskiye Media’. But they need obligatory an Individual Enterprise entity! Yet to make distantly such an entity in Russia is not a trivial task… So, at the end of the day, I refused to cooperate with the Agency belonging to Patyulina, I didn’t like that much the conditions’.
What conclusion is evident? Only one – we would like very much to see the tax inspection results of the of the firm and IP entity of Maxim Katz’s spouse and her contracting agents with regard to fraudulent split of the business. By the way, the scheme is not new and it is well-known to tax authorities, as other media personalities from the Russian blogosphere – for instance Yelena Blinovskaya (now under investigation) and Yelena Chekalina/Larchik – used widely the same scheme.
We would also like to point out that, from the moment of creation of the company in 2014 up to March of this year, Yekaterina Patyunina was director of the OJSC ‘Avtorskiye Media’, i.e. even formally she could not not to know about zero-reports submitted to the Federal Tax Service.
In turns out that the company of Yekaterina Patyulina positions itself as a serious advertising agency, one of the leading on the market of bloggers’ advertisement, but, in fact, it is a shell company and a cover for money turnover between counteractants. But for all that, ‘Katz proposes to give in!’
This is a confirmation of the old truth that he who cries louder than others ‘Stop thief!’ is himself participant of shady schemes.
By the way, this also concerns to the full the former co-founder of Yekaterina Patyulina, the blogger and foreign agent Ilya Varlamov, because he, as we would like to point out, withdrew from the founders of the company ‘Avtorskiye Media’ on February 19, 2024, and before that he had gained millions and joyfully, together with Katz’s wife, had been submitting to the Federal Tax Service zero-accounting reports.
Author: Alexander Zhelnin
See the Russian version at: «Жена Каца* пошла по кривой дорожке Елены Блиновской»
* Foreign agents, extremists; ** Extremist organizations:
* Katz Maxim Yevgenyevich, born 23.12.1984, Identification Number of a Taxpayer (INN) 773471612660, Individual Insurance Account Number (SNILS) 126-475-949 89, by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 22.07.2022 he was included in the Registry of physical person fulfilling functions of a foreign agent with No 403. On 24.08.2023 the Basmanny Court of Moscow (in absentia) adjudged him guilty of public dissemination of false information about Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Article 207.3, Paragraph 2, Subparagraph ‘d’ of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced him to eight years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony;
* Varlamov Ilya Alexandrovich, born 07.01.1984, Identification Number of a Taxpayer 773370633582 – was included on March 23, 2023 by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation in the Registry of foreign agents with No 550;
* Leonid Volkov – on 10.02.2021 he was sentenced in absentia for disposing minors to unlawful activity Article 151.2, Paragraph 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). On 22.04.2023 was included in the Registry of foreign agents with No 372;
* Alexey Anatolyevich Navalny (born 04.06.1976 – died 16.02.2024) – on 25.01.2022 was included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of physical persons connected with extremist activities or terrorism with No 8398;
** ‘Anti-Corruption Foundation’ (FBK) – was included in the registry of NKOs fulfilling functions of a foreign agent, by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 09.10.2019 the Organization was acknowledged as extremist, its activities are forbidden on the territory of the Russian Federation by the Ruling of the Moscow City Court of 09.06.2021;
** Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc. (ACF, USA) – by the decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation was included on 23.12.2022 in the Registry of NGOs fulfilling functions of a foreign agent. On 01.06.2023 the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, based on the decision of the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, included the foreign legal entity Anti-Corruption Foundation Inc. in the list of ‘undesirable’ organization.
