A Russian serial entrepreneur involved in payment services provider Qiwi claims he is short $16 million that he sunk into an unfinished Pembroke Park retail project after his business partner led collaborators to divert funds through fake invoices and sham companies.

Igor Mikhaylov, who lives in Russia, claims he paid $5 million to buy the land and put in another $11 million for the development of Seneca Town Center at the request of project manager Anatoly Zinoviev, from 2012 to 2017.

Holland & Knight Miami attorneys led by partner Israel Encinosa, who filed a lawsuit, identified Mikhaylov as the co-founder and a shareholder of publicly traded Qiwi. The company founded in Russia based in Cyprus reported $71.6 million in first-quarter revenue, according to its Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Seneca Town Center has been approved for a 98,992-square-foot building on 6.2 acres at 3195 W. Hallandale Beach Blvd. on the northeast corner of Hallandale Beach Boulevard and Southwest 32nd Avenue. Developer East Coast Invest LLC stopped construction at least six months ago after putting in pilings and beams, said Todd Larson, Pembroke Park public services director.

Zinoviev, who is Russian and believed to live in Broward County, instructed a construction company to turn in invoices for fake project costs, which was paid with Mikhaylov's funds. The construction company turned and paid kickbacks to Zinoviev, according to the Aug. 30 Miami-Dade Circuit Court complaint.

Zinoviev instructed Peter Di'Iorio — Zinoviev's “right-hand man” and East Coast Invest's daily operations manager — to create at least $700,000 in sham invoices, and Zinoviev and others converted the funds to personal uses, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit said Di'Iorio came forward to report the fake invoices. A declaration signed by Michael McManus, director of the Fort Lauderdale-based McManus Group Inc., an investigative firm hired by the plaintiff, recounts what Di'Iorio revealed, including that he is owed $80,000 for project work. Di'Iorio didn't return a request for comment by deadline.

Zinoviev also is said to have paid himself an unauthorized $30,000 monthly salary.

The attorney for Zinoviev and other defendants denied the claims but did not address specifics.

“The allegations and claims asserted in the complaint are false and emphatically denied, and we intend to vigorously defend this action and to file counterclaims seeking damages against the plaintiffs for their misconduct,” Ian Kukoff, a partner at Blaxberg, Grayson, Kukoff & Forteza in Miami, said in an email. “We look forward to the opportunity to vindicate our clients in these court proceedings.”

Zinoviev enlisted his secretary, Natalia Kouzmina, to create the state-registered Service Links LLC; his girlfriend, Genna Demircan, to take over Mikhaylov's investment interest; Adelino Agostinho and his Silva Group Construction LLC to file some fake invoices; and accounting firm employee Nelson Rincon to restructure Mikhaylov's investment, according to the complaint.

They are named defendants along with LucaBay Construction LLC and East Coast Invest.

The lawsuit said the relationship between Agostinho and some of the other defendants at one point went awry. In an Oct. 15 declaration, Agostinho said he and his Silva Group worked on Seneca Town Center but still are owed $476,768. Silva Group and East Coast Invest are locked in a separate lawsuit in which East Coast in part alleged issues with the Seneca project and that Silva Group declined to fix the problems and abandoned the project. Silva Group says it was wrongfully terminated and still is owed money. 

Silva Group and Agostinho's attorney in that case, Jason Katz in Davie, didn't return a request for comment by deadline.

Beyond the fraudulent invoices, Mikhaylov also claims he was taken advantage of due to his limited English and lack of understanding of U.S. law. He is also reportedly tied to venture funds Run Capital, iTech Capital and AddVenture III.

He ceded substantial control over the project to Zinoviev, granted him access to some of his accounts and allowed him to sign checks meant for project emergencies, according to the complaint.

The lawsuit alleged Zinoviev doctored an agreement to remove Mikhaylov's ownership interest.

Mikhaylov at first had 44.2 percent interest in East Coast Invest, but his funds were loaned to a trust and then East Coast Invest LLLP, according to the complaint. Mikhaylov received a 1 percent general partnership interest in East Coast Invest LLLP, but Zinoviev persuaded Mikhaylov to assign it to Demircan with a buyback option, which was later deleted. Demircan used her control of Mikhaylov's general partnership interest to invoke a capital call against the Igor Mikhaylov 2015 Irrevocable Trust, to which she was trustee until Mikhaylov had her removed in a separate court action.

The attorney for Rincon and Service Links LLC, Scott Alan Orth of Law Offices of Scott Alan Orth in Hollywood, didn't return a request for comment.

Kukoff, who represents Zinoviev, Demircan, Kouzmina and East Coast Invest LLC, denied the allegations against them.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko on Wednesday signed an order agreeing to the appointment of a forensic examiner and overseer of Seneca Town Center as well as East Coast Invest LLC and East Coast Invest LLLP assets.

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