Legal disputes and development controversies
Erick van Egeraat
On 17 March 2008, an arbitration in Stockholm awarded architect Erick van Egeraat's practice €516,000 for unpaid fees and additional work on City of Capitals, €1.5 million for lost profits, and 12.5 million roubles for copyright infringement, as well as legal costs. On 10 October 2008, the International Commercial Arbitration Court at the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry awarded approximately US$1 million in the separate Barvikha Hills case.
The parties reached a settlement in September 2009. A representative of the architect put the total monetary claims at approximately US$4.3 million, but said the agreed payment was lower and would remain undisclosed. The settlement called for payment in instalments over six months.
A separate dispute arose in 2010 after van Egeraat criticised construction quality at City of Capitals in an interview with Interfax. Capital Group sued to protect its business reputation. On 11 January 2011, the Moscow Arbitration Court discontinued the proceedings following a settlement. Van Egeraat said that the Russian translation had changed the meaning of his comments and withdrew the disputed statement.
Kolbe house
In May 2011, Capital Group subsidiary ADS-424 demolished the remaining facade of the early-twentieth-century Kolbe house on Bolshaya Yakimanka Street, despite orders suspending work and protests by the preservation movement Archnadzor. Capital Group said the facade could not safely be retained and proposed a replacement reflecting the building's appearance. In a 2016 interview, Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the developer had faced fines and had been required by the city to reproduce the facade. He described the resulting building as a replica.
Zhivopisnaya Street
In July 2015, Capital Group obtained an urban development plan for a land plot at 21 Zhivopisnaya Street. Less than two weeks later, the rights and obligations under the site's lease were transferred to Stroitel LLC. Stroitel, part of the Kortros group, received the construction permit on 31 May 2016.
Residents and environmental campaigners later protested against the development being carried out by Stroitel. They raised concerns about its effect on the nearby Moskvoretsky park, access routes and the absence of public hearings. Radio Liberty reported a statement by the residents' campaign group saying that, in November 2016, the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights had asked Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin to examine reports of legal violations at the site. The development, named Dom Serebryany Bor, received its commissioning permit in December 2018.
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Pavel Tio investigation in Kyrgyzstan
In March 2024, Kyrgyzstan's State Committee for National Security announced an arrest warrant for Capital Group chairman Pavel Tio, alleging that he had financed the criminal group associated with Kamchy Kolbayev. Later that month, the committee announced that the charges had been withdrawn and the proceedings discontinued, stating that its investigation had found no involvement by Tio in the group's activities.
