The head of the Department for external Church relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev Gregory) owns a penthouse in the Spanish city of Altea (province of Alicante) cost about 1 million euros. This is stated in the investigation of “Novaya Gazeta”.
According to the publication, the Metropolitan for eight years, owns a duplex penthouse in a cooperative Mare Nostrum II. The apartment has an area of 235 square meters there are open and covered terraces, BBQ area, pool and two bedrooms. In 2011 this apartment was worth 950 million euros. Several apartments in the same building belong to the famous Russian people: singer Tamara Gverdtsiteli, the film Director Julia Gusman, producer Timur Weinstein. Also, the complex is home to former Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Novruz Mammadov and Ukrainian businessman Yuri Pharmacist.
“Metropolitan infrequently arrives in Altea. More precisely, we only know about one visit there when riding on a luxury yacht in the Mediterranean, he stopped briefly in the Spanish town. But in the penthouse I saw the mother of the Hierarch Valery A. – Soviet writer, whose name he was given as a child (by father Ilarion – Dashevsky). Neighbors Valery A. crossed rarely the penthouse has a separate exit to the street, bypassing communal entrance,” – says the publication.
The authors of the investigation note that the official salary of the Metropolitan is not enough for the purchase of such housing, but Hilarion receives revenue from the sale of books, movies and music. In addition, he repeatedly became the laureate. In theory, the total income of Hilarion may be required to purchase a penthouse in Spain, but the neighbors of Metropolitan believe that the apartment Hilarion gave, and he said the neighbor Elena Mishchenko, accumulated debt for utilities in 20 thousand Euro.
According to “Novaya Gazeta”, this apartment Hilarion received a gift from the Spanish businessman of the Russian origin Michael Botsko. His company VeraBosco in a residential complex owned several apartments. Mishchenko said that the majority of apartments Bocko sold with the encumbrance in the form of a mortgage, which was under construction, but was not repaid. This information was not reflected in the certificate of ownership, and some buyers, including Guzman and the Pharmacist gave Bosco in court. In the process of investigation it turned out that the businessman is involved in 79 criminal cases in Spain. The Spanish Bank, which Bosco has applied for a mortgage, sold his debt to Deutsche Bank, which, according to some, intends to sue bona fide purchasers and to arrest their property to repay the debt.
Near the residential complex Mare Nostrum II is situated a wooden Church of St. Michael the Archangel, which is subordinate to the ROC. The buildings of the temple through the Fund owns Sam Michael Botsko, who is the head of parish (the businessman’s wife was listed as the Treasurer of the parish). 12 years ago this Church was consecrated by Metropolitan Kirill, who then became Patriarch. He was awarded Bocko the order of St. Sergius of Radonezh.
According to the newspaper, the Church in Altea Botsko built with money loaned from a fellow countryman from Rostov-on-don Nikolay Gorelov. He did not return, but Gorelov managed through the Spanish court to arrest all apartments Bocko. However, in 2011 it agreed to withdraw from custody that same apartment, which now owns Hilarion, and later, the lawyers Bocko has achieved removal of arrest with other units. Debt Gorelov Bosco promised to return the money before the end of 2012. In March 2014, the judicial Board on civil cases of the Rostov regional court recognised that Bosco not returned to duty, and ordered him to pay Gorelov more than 13.5 million rubles. This decision was not executed on Bosco imposed restrictions in the right to departure from Russia, however, according to his partners, he crosses the border on the second passport. 77-year-old Gorelov lost a son and wife, left without a livelihood, seriously ill and needs help.
