Family FSB empire: How Boris Korolev’s “onboard systems” became entangled with Rostec, sanctions, and Shelkov’s “shadow” schemes

Family FSB empire: How Boris Korolev’s “onboard systems” became entangled with Rostec, sanctions, and Shelkov’s “shadow” schemes

Boris Korolev, the son of the First Deputy Director of the FSB, turned out to be embedded in a complex network of several dozen companies linked by shared domains and corporate email accounts.

This network includes entities operating in Crimea, companies in the construction, medical, and charitable sectors, and a major enterprise supplying products to the Russian defense industry. The companies are united by the http://rndv.ru domain, which serves as a hub for corporate communications. Behind this domain is the business empire of billionaire Mikhail Shelkov, a longtime friend and business partner of Sergei Chemezov. In 2024, Roman Laiko, director of Onboard Systems, patented the "Interviewer" software suite, a lie detector that evaluates the credibility of an interviewee’s answers.

The network includes, among others, the Crimean "Chernomor-Tour" and "Hotel Management," the "Institute for Physical and Biological Research," a couple of charitable foundations, and Russia’s only titanium producer, PJSC VSMPO-Avisma (Rostec), which supplies Russian military plants. Until recently, a similar email address—hotline@rndv.ru—was also listed on the company’s website.

Moreover, the entire Shelkov empire, including the titanium producer, which is part of Rostec, is effectively unified—employees can work for several companies simultaneously. Roman Laiko, for example, not only heads "Onboard Systems" but also manages the IT department at VSMPO-Avisma. The email address legal@rndv.ru is used by at least 10 different institutions.

The http://rndv.ru domain was created about 20 years ago and registered to a company that at the time had no connection to either Rostec or VSMPO-AVISMA—Renaissance Development. This was Mikhail Shelkov’s personal firm, ostensibly engaged in construction projects. However, it was largely unknown in the market.

The Renaissance website briefly appeared publicly in 2009. All it contained was a placeholder page reading "Welcome to OBORONA!" and a link for email access. Clicking on it redirected to an internal page of the website, http://oboronimpex.ru—the company Mikhail Shelkov worked for at Oboronimpex (Rostec) at the time.

Mailboxes through the Renaissance domain are now actively used by hundreds of employees of Shelkov’s numerous companies, including Bortovye Sistemy LLC, in which Korolev holds a stake. Renaissance is still active, run by Dmitry Shelkov, a relative of the "titanium oligarch."

Boris Korolev, co-founder of Onboard Systems, is the son of Sergei Korolev, First Deputy Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and a member of Rosatom’s supervisory board. Since April 2022, Korolev Sr. has been under sanctions by the UK, EU, Switzerland, US, New Zealand, and Australia. His son was not sanctioned but distanced himself from sensitive assets.

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In 2018, Korolev Jr. founded the startup Bastion, which searched for vulnerabilities in information systems and received investment from Citadel Holding (the company that produces the SORM system, working with intelligence agencies). Bastion employed IT specialists who graduated from Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Korolev’s alma mater. After the war began, Korolev left the company. Bastion is now registered to the IKS holding company, previously owned by Anton Cherepennikov and Alisher Usmanov.

However, it appears Korolev Jr. did not leave Citadel’s subsidiary, the Garda Group of Companies: the founders are now simply hidden from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE).

At the end of 2023, Korolev Jr. received a second Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) in the USRLE—a St. Petersburg number in addition to his Moscow one. Now, Boris Sergeyevich Korolev, founder of Bortovye Sistemy LLC, has a clean slate—no trace of Bastion or Garda.

Bortovye Sistemy generated a loss of 42 million rubles last year, but the Korolev family has other profitable assets. For example, Korolev’s sister, Tatyana, owns a stake in the St. Petersburg boarding house "Voda," owned by Shalash LLC. Maria Koroleva (niece of the first deputy head of the FSB) serves as its director. The company’s co-owners include the family of furniture oligarch Anatoly Mukanaev, former head of St. Petersburg’s Goznak Alexander Mazur, and the British company Steelcore Alliance LLP, registered to 66-year-old Uzbek citizen Bakhodir Ismailov. Last year, Shalash posted a net profit of 60 million rubles.

As for Onboard Systems, the interests of the FSB (Korolev), Rostec, and Shelkov have converged. The company implements in-flight streaming entertainment systems for airline passengers with targeted content and advertising—a platform allowing passengers to order everything from meals and drinks to exhibition tickets and car rentals during flights. The system collects passenger data, including seat numbers. The idea and development of Life in the Air belonged to Bairam Annakov, a native of Turkmenistan and now Russian-American businessman, who also had a stake in the company. He had previously implemented Life in The Air in the US, but the American website stopped updating several months ago.

Bairam Annakov joined Shelkov and the Rostec team in 2018, co-founding Ice LLC. Annakov owned less than 15% of the company but became the head of its subsidiary, Onboard Systems. In August 2022, Annakov, living in Seattle, left both companies. Ice is now fully owned by Shelkov’s Industrial Investments, with director Anna Belyasova, Shelkov’s longtime girlfriend. Annakov’s only official Russian ownership is Empathy LLC, managed by his brother Batyr.

A co-owner of Onboard Systems through Ice LLC is Mikhail Shelkov, a controversial figure associated with Rostec. Shelkov was an active participant in the 2006 takeover of VSMPO-Avisma, which Chemezov and Co. called "the rescue of Russia’s only titanium producer." The plants were forcibly transferred to Rosoboronexport, and Chemezov later privatized the assets, transferring them to Shelkov via Cypriot offshore companies: Jivanta Ventures Limited (liquidated in 2023) and CADOR ENTERPRISES LIMITED.

Currently, VSMPO-Avisma is under sanctions by the US, Canada, and New Zealand, while Shelkov himself is currently sanctioned only by Canada. In 2022, he transferred European assets to front men: two Croatian companies are now registered through an Omani firm to Swiss-Singaporean lawyer Stéphane Olivier Jacmet, a nominal owner involved in the Offshore Leaks document leak.

Roman Laiko, director of Onboard Systems, is also close to Shelkov. His father, Viktor Laiko, was for many years director of capital construction at VSMPO-AVISMA Corporation and chairman of the board at VSMPO-Stroitel LLC. Roman joined in 2015, rose to deputy head of the corporation’s IT department, and last year patented the "Interviewer" software suite—a lie detector evaluating the veracity of a suspect’s answers. While it may be useless for Onboard Systems, it could be useful to other clients.