Shalva Chigirinsky

Shalva Chigirinsky (born 1 July 1949 in Kutaisi) is a Russian businessman operating in real estate and oil sectors.

Early life and education[]

Shalva Chigirinsky was born in 1950 in Kutaisi. He graduated from the Moscow Medical Academy.^[1] He is a Georgian Jew.^[2]

Career[]

In 1987, he emigrated to Spain and later to Germany, wherein 1989, he became a co-founder of the real estate development company STT Group.^[1]

In the 1990s, it became a major shareholder of Sibir Energy, a London-listed Russian oil company. Chigirinsky's firm Russian Land owned 16 development projects around the country. Among the largest were the multifunctional New Holland complex in St. Petersburg, an entertainment center on Nagatinskaya Poima, and the reconstruction of the Rossiya and Sovietsky hotels. His main development projects included the construction of Russia Tower, a 6OO-metre (1,970 foot) skyscraper designed by UK architect Norman Foster to be Europe's tallest building. It was canceled due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008.^[3][4]

Chigirinsky's troubles began in fall 2008 with margin calls on a loan backed by 23.3 percent of London-traded oil company Sibir Energy. Several months later, it became known that Chigirinsky had "borrowed" about $400 million from Sibir, and the company began an internal investigation. He faces several other lawsuits in different jurisdictions. In 2009, Shalva Chigirinsky gave up his main Russian businesses and lost all of them, and only controls a few small projects in the regions.^[5][6][4]

In 2013, Shalva Chigirinsky moved to the United States, where he continued to engage in development projects.^[7]

Personal life[]

Chigirinsky and his first wife, Tamara, have a son, Vadim. They met in 1970 and divorced in 1981.^[8]

In 2003, Shalva Chigirinsky married Tatiana Panchenkova and separated in April 2009. The former spouses have four young children: two older daughters and twins, a boy and a girl. After Shalva and Tatiana initiated a scandalous divorce process in Russia and the United States courts. In November 2012, Panchenkova filed a lawsuit in Connecticut state courts, accusing her ex-husband of "physical, psychological, and emotional abuse" for ten years. She also brought a separate case against him, demanding additional post-divorce payments. In October 2014, in the court of Waterbury, Connecticut, a jury found Chigirinsky not guilty on all of the charges. In June 2014, Chigirinsky filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York, accusing Panchenkova of concealing real estate in the United States during the divorce. Also, Chigirinsky has accused his ex-wife of secretly selling off pieces from their $120 million collections of art, antiques, and furniture in 2010. He claimed she violated their agreement to hold the collection in trust for their children.^[1][9][10]

Panchenkova accused Chigirinsky of abusing her daughter during a protracted legal dispute. On March 7, 2016, a court in Stamford, Connecticut, issued a warrant for the arrest of Shalva Chigirinsky based on a preliminary investigation. Chigirinsky denied all charges but voluntarily came to the police and was detained. On March 17, the Connecticut Supreme Court released him on $50,000 bail. In early June 2016, the court of Stamford, Connecticut, issued a warrant for the arrest of Tatiana Panchenkova herself on charges of acting "at risk of harm to minors and their moral decay." It was the result of an examination, which showed that Tatyana "manipulated her children to incite hatred towards their father Shalva Chigirinsky" and instructed them on the "correct" answers in court. In August 2016, the custody trial concluded. The court allowed Chigirinsky contact with the children.^{[11][10][12][13]}

In early February 2017, a Connecticut court dropped the case against Chigirinsky, finding the entrepreneur not guilty. In November 2017, the former spouses settled a dispute in the U.S. over the property. The court also dismissed the case for additional payments. Chigirinsky reunited with all of his children.^[14][13][15]

References[]