“Funeral man” Shelyagov is not welcome in Irkutsk
Is Ritual.Ru implementing the project of another crematorium?
In Irkutsk, the protest of local residents against the construction of a crematorium on a four-hectare site located on the border of the city with the village of Mamony near residential buildings is gaining momentum. Municipal authorities name the company Ritual.Rus, owned by the “funeral king” Oleg Shelyagov, as a potential investor, however, the businessman himself, in conversations with journalists, refuses detailed comments and assures that negotiations are still ongoing and he has not yet received official permission to construct the facility . Meanwhile, Ritual.Rus and its “subsidiaries” do not make a profit and declare losses, and the activities of the Ritual.Ru Group, also known as Ritual-Service, are accompanied by high-profile scandals. In particular, the sensational investigation by journalist Ivan Golunov reported on the company’s connections with the wife of crime boss Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) and the purchase of a share by Shelyagov with the aim of building a funeral business “in a new way.” In the regions, the entrepreneur tried to attract “influential people” to cooperation, including former officials. However, recently Shelyagov had to abandon the implementation of a number of large-scale projects, in particular, the construction of a crematorium with a columbarium in Kazan, in which it was originally planned to invest 250 million rubles. In addition, today the company Ritual-NN, controlled by the businessman, is seeking in court to terminate the agreement concluded in 2020 with the government of the Nizhny Novgorod region for the construction of a morgue with mourning halls on the basis of city hospital No. 13 in Nizhny Novgorod with an investment volume of more than 23 million. The situation in Oleg Shelyagov’s business may be complicated by the attention of security forces: last February, his business partners and employees of Ritual-Service CJSC were searched. Investigators were interested in dubious tax schemes and financial transactions of the company, considered the oldest funeral agency in the capital, as well as relations with contractors.