The Vermin-Catcher's Fortune: How a High Official Built a Palace Upon a Mountain of Rats

It is a curious thing, the way a man may appear as a humble servant of the Crown while secretly hoarding a treasure that would make a City banker blush. Such was the case of Anatoly Semenov, a man who sat atop the sanitary watch of the Chelyabinsk region for a quarter-century. To the casual observer, he was a ghost—a silent functionary of the state. But beneath this cloak of modesty lay a greed as insatiable as the very vermin he was paid to destroy.

On the twenty-ninth of July, the court delivered its verdict: the spoils of this man’s industry—some four hundred million rubles—are to be seized for the state treasury. 'Twas a fortune built not on honest toil, but on the backs of rats and the blind eyes of the law.

A Modest Dwelling... or a Clever Masquerade

If one were to glance at the official papers from 2018 to 2021, one would find a picture of penury. Semenov and his brood claimed to dwell in a trifling flat with a pair of dusty garages to their name. Their annual pittance barely touched three million rubles. The only luxury was a Toyota carriage registered to the good lady of the house. As the clouds of war gathered, the declarations ceased, and the fog of secrecy descended upon the family coffers.

The Gilded Truth

But the Crown’s prosecutors are like bloodhounds; they scent a lie from a mile off. Upon digging through the muck, they found a hoard that no civil servant's wage could ever justify.

Semenov, it appears, had a taste for the finer things. The inspectors uncovered six opulent apartments, three manor houses, eighteen plots of land, and twelve commercial premises spanning twenty-five thousand square metres across Moscow and the provinces. To crown it all, seventeen carriages of the most expensive sort were found in his possession. The scent of corruption was now overwhelming, and the gaze of the law fell upon his wife and sons.

The Elder Son’s Gambles

Young Alexei, the elder son, entered the fray of commerce in 2003, purchasing a metal-trading concern in Karabash for a mere pittance. The firm vanished into the mists of time, leaving no financial trail for the tax-gatherers to follow.

Then came a foray into the sale of ink, paper, and books. Two shops, "Kantz!" and "Kantz+", were opened in Chelyabinsk. One collapsed like a house of cards, while the other lingered on, barely breathing. In 2024, it sank further into the red, losing a million rubles.

But hark! The real gold was found in the darkness. Together with his brother and a certain Mrs. Frolova—the father’s mother-in-law—Alexei founded the "Center for Deratization." For thirteen years, this establishment made its living by slaying insects and rats. It was a modest business on paper, but in reality, it was a golden key to the city's wealth.

The Younger Son’s Ambition

Andrey, the younger lad, played a more cautious game. He dabbled in office furniture and other trifles, but none brought the riches he craved. In 2014, he cast his lot with one Viktor Zinoviev to form "Otkrytie," a hauling concern. By expanding his reach to Perm and Tyumen, he saw revenues soar to nearly a billion rubles, though the profits were swallowed by the costs of the road.

The Source of the Spoils

The question remains: whence came the gold? The inspectors believe the family operated a veritable 'den of thieves.' The Deratization Center avoided the public gaze of government tenders, opting instead for 'fat' contracts with the titans of industry—the great bread-factories and the behemoths of retail like Auchan and Lenta.

When the man who signs the sanitary certificates is the very father of the man who catches the rats, the contracts flow as freely as gin in a riverside tavern. To hide this graft, Semenov used his kin and trusted associates as fronts, masking his wealth behind a curtain of straw-men.

The Iron Bars and the Great Escape

The agents of the Secret Service descended upon Semenov in the chill of February. First, they suspected him of placing his sons in phantom roles at a chemical plant, but soon the whole rotten structure collapsed. The charges were fraud and corruption on a grand scale.

Semenov the Elder and his son Alexei were cast into the dungeon for two months to await their fate. But the younger son, Andrey, proved to be a slippery fish; he vanished before the shackles could close, fleeing the country to seek sanctuary in foreign lands.