Former MP and oil baron detained in Crimea on suspicion of fraud

In Crimea, Russian security forces detained former MP and oil trader Serhiy Beim on suspicion of fraud. His business is connected with financing the Russian army, trading in stolen gas stations and friendship with influential politicians in Russia.

This was reported by the Center for Investigative Journalism.

In the temporarily occupied Crimea, Russian security forces detained collaborator Serhiy Beim, president and co-owner of the TES group of companies, one of the largest oil traders in Crimea and southern Ukraine. He is suspected of fraud on a particularly large scale. Along with Baim, Marina Pyatkova, the head of the Crimean company Aurora, which is affiliated with TES, was also detained. The searches took place in both of their apartments.

The details of the charges have not been disclosed yet. Serhiy Beim is a collaborator, former member of the Crimean parliament and former director of the seized Chornomornaftogaz, from where he was fired for theft and fraud with gas condensate, according to the occupation "head" Serhiy Aksyonov. No criminal cases have been opened since then.

According to the Crisis Group, Beim is an influential businessman associated with the family of Dmitry Purim, the head of the Russian company Sovfracht-Sovmortrans and a member of the Delovaya Rossiya party. The parent company of the TES group is a company registered to Purim's mother with revenues of 18.4 billion rubles in 2024.

The Beim family owns dozens of companies: Sergei's brother Eduard runs 16, and his mother Lyudmila is a co-owner of another 19. Eduard Beim also finances the production of "Ghoul" drones for the Russian army.

As noted in the media, in 2021, Serhiy Beim caused a fatal accident in the Saki district of Crimea, which killed a woman. The case was closed after he paid the victim's family.

After the outbreak of full-scale war, Beim expanded his business to the occupied Zaporizhzhia region. There, he created the companies Sistema Yug and TES-Terminal-2, which are formally part of the TES group and own 26 gas stations and infrastructure facilities, including a marine terminal in Kerch. The revenue of these companies in 2024 amounted to 779.9 million and 1.6 billion rubles, respectively.

Investigators also found out that a company associated with Viktor Medvedchuk was involved in the export of grain from the temporarily occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region and cooperated with a titanium mining business in Crimea controlled by the Rotenberg family. She earned more than $2 million for her logistics services.

Анна Бальчінос