The Insider’s latest investigation has found that Russian-Armenian billionaire Samvel Karapetyan, whose Strong Armenia party is competing in the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections, received unsecured loans from entities linked to Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom in 2016 to cover debts tied to a villa in France. Alina Kabaeva, Vladimir Putin’s partner and the mother of two of his children, has spent time at the property. The villa was used as collateral even though its debts exceeded its value. In effect, the Gazprom-linked entities transferred the villa to Karapetyan at the expense of Russia’s taxpayers and gas producers, making him its nominal owner. Karapetyan is under investigation in Yerevan, while his Strong Armenia party is running in Armenia’s June 7 parliamentary elections with the Kremlin’s backing.
Samvel Karapetyan has been reported as the owner of Villa Maria Irina on the French Riviera. Rumors that Kabaeva used the residence had circulated for years. In late 2025, former owner Shalva Chigirinsky confirmed the claim in an interview with YouTube blogger Yury Dud, saying he had learned about it from the villa’s manager.
The Insider examined the villa’s ownership history using financial records from the companies that have formally held the property. The records show that Gazprom-linked entities provided the money to buy the villa and cover debts tied to its upkeep effectively free of charge and with no expectation of repayment. Karapetyan can therefore be seen as the property’s nominal owner.
A gift disguised as a loan
Since November 2016, Villa Maria Irina has been controlled by Leyson Holdings Limited, a company registered in Cyprus. That same month, Samvel Karapetyan became the company’s majority shareholder, and on Dec. 29, its sole shareholder. On Dec. 23, 2016, Leyson (meaning Karapetyan) received a €115 million loan from Gazprombank secured by shares in his companies Subville and Maritime Villa Holding, the latter being the villa’s direct owner.
That collateral appears dubious. In Subville’s 2015 financial report, the value of its only asset — shares in Maritime Villa Holding — was listed as minus €55 million as of Dec. 31. Maritime Villa Holding’s own accounts confirm this: at the end of 2014, the company’s debt stood at €111 million; by the end of 2015, it was €117 million; and by the end of 2016, it had reached €120 million. In other words, the villa was burdened with debts exceeding the €70 million price for which Maritime Villa Holding had bought it. That means Maritime Villa Holding’s shares could not have served as real collateral for the loan.
Leyson’s accounts for the years before the villa purchase and Gazprombank loan show that the company conducted no real business activity and owned no assets. Yet by the end of 2016, a debt of about $121 million (roughly €115 million) to Gazprombank appeared on its balance sheet. Maritime Villa Holding in turn received the same amount as a loan from Leyson.
According to Leyson’s 2017 accounts, interest and exchange-rate differences pushed its debt to Gazprombank up to $137 million. Maritime Villa Holding owed almost the same amount to Leyson.
Starting in 2020, another secured creditor, Megan Agency Ltd., appeared among Leyson’s pledgeholders. According to the Cyprus registry, the company belongs to Vadim Tregub, whom independent outlet Important Stories has described as the “personal wallet” of Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. According to the accounts, Megan Agency Ltd. provided Maritime Villa Holding with a €50 million loan.
In substance, Gazprom-linked structures transferred money to Karapetyan’s offshore companies as a gift. The loan was not merely unsecured — it had negative collateral given that the shares of Subville and Maritime Villa Holding purportedly backing it obligated the holder to pay off previous debts exceeding the value of the villa itself. Even after the villa’s debts were covered, the transfer of money — also originating from Gazprom-linked sources — continued under the guise of loans.
The villa’s ownership history
Israeli-Russian businessman Shalva Chigirinsky bought the villa in 2001 from the family of African dictator Mobutu for $14.5 million, a fact confirmed by an entry in the French real estate register dated Jan. 7, 2002. Chigirinsky also paid off debts left on the villa by its previous owners. He said maintaining the residence cost about €4 million a year.
Maintaining the residence cost about €4 million a year
On May 12, 2010, Chigirinsky’s company, Tatik, sold the villa to Gazprom-linked Maritime Villa Holding for €70 million. Chigirinsky received only about €20 million, while the rest went to cover his debts to Gazprom-linked structures.
After the sale, corrupt customs official Anatoly Kruglov filed a claim in an English court alleging that Chigirinsky owed him money. On that basis, Kruglov sought to have the villa sale canceled. The court did not grant that request, but it did impose a €43 million compulsory mortgage on the villa, registered in 2014, in favor of Kruglov’s company Slocom Trading Limited. Most of that debt had been repaid by June 2015, and the remainder of less than €1 million was repaid by May 2016.
Who owned Maritime Villa Holding
When Maritime Villa Holding was created in 2010, 14,999 of its 15,000 shares belonged to the Luxembourg company SibVil Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sibir Energy Limited, while one share belonged to Igor Tsibelman. Chigirinsky was one of the directors of Sibir Energy Limited from 2000 to 2008.
On Feb. 15, 2011, Sibir Energy Limited became a wholly owned subsidiary of Gazprom Neft.
- As of Oct. 25, 2011, 14,999 of the 15,000 shares belonged to SibVil Holding, the wholly owned subsidiary of Sibir Energy Limited, and one share belonged directly to Sibir Energy Limited.
- As of Jan. 20, 2015, the shares were held in the same proportions by Luxembourg-based Subville SARL (which until Nov. 24, 2016, belonged to Russian company Zarechye-Club LLC), and directly by Zarechye-Club. The Russian company itself belonged to Cyprus offshore companies tied to the former Sibneft and Gazprominvest.
- As of Sept. 29, 2015, Maritime Villa Holding was owned in the same proportions by Luxembourg-based Subville and Cyprus-based Leyson Holdings Limited. Since Nov. 24, 2016, Subville itself has been under the control of Leyson Holdings Limited.
That ownership structure for Maritime Villa Holding remains in place today. As a result, the villa is fully controlled by Leyson Holdings Limited. Leyson Holdings Limited was previously owned by the Panamanian offshore company Le Gonks Stood before passing to Karapetyan.
Karapetyan in Armenia
Samvel Karapetyan created the Strong Armenia party in late 2025. Since June of that year, he has been under investigation in Yerevan on charges of money laundering, tax evasion, embezzlement, and publicly calling for the seizure of power. Strong Armenia is running as part of a bloc of the same name in Armenia’s National Assembly elections, which will be held June 7. Karapetyan himself cannot run for a parliamentary seat because, in addition to his Armenian citizenship, he holds Russian and Cypriot passports.
In a recent investigation, The Insider found that when Karapetyan received an international passport in Russia in 1999, his passport file listed an Interior Ministry notation in the “place of work” field that read “IC FSB.” An Interior Ministry operative told The Insider that these markings are usually used for foreigners working under FSB supervision or for confidential informants.
