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- Villas on the water: blogger Domogatsky, who deceived clients, spent $2 million on a house in South Africa
Villas on the water: blogger Domogatsky, who deceived clients, spent $2 million on a house in South Africa
Entrepreneur and blogger Sergey Domogatsky, whom his clients accuse of fraud, bought an apartment in a prestigious area of Cape Town for almost $ 2 million, Izvestia found out. At the same time, his companies are in a pre-bankruptcy state, and he explains to deceived investors that he does not even have money for employee salaries. Complaints against Domogatsky are considered by the police in both Russia and Indonesia. The businessman promised to build houses in Bali at below-market prices, and his project was advertised by popular actress and TV presenter Larisa Guzeeva and other celebrities. But when dozens of investors had questions about the timing of their homes, Domogatsky first reported problems with the local mafia, and then disappeared altogether. About a scam worth millions of dollars — in the investigation of Izvestia.
Lay low in Cape Town
Scandalous developer Sergei Domogatsky bought apartments in South Africa for almost $ 2 million, Izvestia found out. An extract from the Property24 service states that the property was purchased on October 1, 2024 by Domogatsky Pty Ltd for 29 million South African RAND from Saracens Capital Inv Incorporated In the United Kingdom (documents on the transfer of ownership are available to Izvestia). The lot is a 443 sq. m room on the top floor of a three-storey house in the elite area of Cape Town Camps Bay.
A fragment of an extract from the sale of a villa in Cape Town to Domogatsky
Domogatsky's African company is registered in Cape Town at the address of a house owned by Unoventure Ltd, whose director is a certain Pavel Grigorov. Izvestia tracked down this man and contacted him. Pavel stated that he really knows Domogatsky and helped him with providing a legal address for company registration.
"He owes me money himself." But, apparently, we will have to wait a long time," Pavel noted.
The villa in Cape Town where Domogatsky bought apartments
According to Domogatsky's neighbors in Cape Town, interviewed by Izvestia, they had not seen him for a long time, but his wife or girlfriend lived in the apartment. At the same time, they complained about the girl, calling her behavior "strange" and "defiant." It also became known that Sergey Domogatsky owed money to the Urban Index management company, which maintains the building.
Certificate of transfer of ownership of the apartment from Saracens Capital to
Domogatsky Pty Ltd
Bali Villas
In 2022, Sergey Domogatsky launched a project to sell villas on the Indonesian island of Nusa Penida (12 km southeast of Bali). The advertisement was published on his social networks, in which he promised customers spacious villas with panoramic walls and magnificent views (both of the ocean and separately of the valley of volcanoes). However, the villas were not sold ready-made, but in the form of "house kits" that must be assembled by builders on site. Investors were offered facilities at prices below the market, as well as "short" terms of sale.
To advertise the villas, Domogatsky attracted actress and TV presenter Larisa Guzeeva, who in one of the videos even allegedly bought herself such a house. The advertisement was also posted on Guzeeva's own social media (it has now been deleted from there). In the video, Domogatsky promoted the villas with the words: "Do you want to become Larisa Guzeeva's neighbor? The house next door is vacant and for sale." It was not possible to establish whether Larisa Guzeeva really bought a villa in Bali from Domogatsky, she refused to answer Izvestia's questions, ending the conversation and hanging up the phone.
Larisa Guzeeva, to Domogatsky's applause, signed the documents about the alleged
buying a villa in Bali
After this advertisement, Domogatsky's Bali villas were booked by a total of 26 people who paid for the houses in cash and for crypto wallets totaling $8 million. At the same time, the houses were not built for three years, and Domogatsky and his assistants, as confirmed to Izvestia by the clients themselves, constantly reported postponements for various reasons.
One of the unfinished villas of Domogatsky's clients in Bali in October 2025
— There was an active advertisement on the Internet, the project was advertised by Russian stars, including Larisa Guzeeva. Domogatsky had authority, he was promoted as an honest and reliable entrepreneur and developer. Believing in this advertisement, I gave him the money. Specifically, 12 million rubles. After that, construction started, but it's been more than three years, and nothing has been built. My villa is a foundation and bare walls, there is nothing else. He doesn't return the money to us, and it's unclear where it went," Victoria Neizhmakova, who bought the villa from Domogatsky's firm, told Izvestia.
She added that Domogatsky's company, apparently, does not even have a building permit, since for three years she has not obtained permits from the company. Moreover, when Victoria began to suspect that she was faced with fraud, she tried to contact Domogatsky, but he did not answer her, as did another employee, a certain Ekaterina Ozyorinskaya, who was in charge of finances at the company and separately collected money from clients, for example, allegedly for surveying the land.
However, Domogatsky still answered his other clients. They gave Izvestia screenshots from their chats with him, in which he even responded with threats like "if you spoil my business, I won't solve your problems" and stated that he didn't even have money for employee salaries.
A fragment of correspondence between one of the clients and Domogatsky
As Izvestia found out, Domogatsky tried to whitewash himself in his social networks and said that the construction had stopped allegedly because of the decision of the Indonesian authorities to transfer the land under construction to agricultural villas.
In one of his recent posts on social media, Domogatsky stated that he had been abducted and beaten by the "mafia", whose representatives tortured him with a taser and a plastic bag over his head. However, these statements were not believed by Victoria Neizhmakova's lawyer Alexander Zorin, who noted in an interview with Izvestia that in this way Domogatsky was simply trying to portray himself as a victim and evade responsibility.
— Our position is that we do not believe Domogatsky's words, because he did not produce a single document. As a lawyer, I believe in documents. And after all, they asked him how much: give them the documents that the money was deposited to you. There is not a single document that the money was transferred to the accounts of his Indonesian companies. There are no documents on the clients' ownership of the land, although this was promised to them, despite the fact that in Indonesia land ownership is not transferred to foreigners. But there are no documents that it belongs at least to Domogatsky's companies," Zorin told Izvestia.
The applicants' materials include the Indonesian companies PT Reflection Heavens Penida, PT World Class Projects, PT Best Global Solutions, PT Bali Development Group.
Alexander Zorin confirmed to Izvestia that four of these five companies are 99% owned by Domogatsky (another one is registered to one of his assistants), who also acted as their founder. According to the lawyer, these are "dummy companies," but Domogatsky used them to draw up fictitious contracts with those clients who most actively demanded documentary evidence that the villa was allegedly booked by the client.
The geography of the promised construction projects included the already mentioned island of Nusa Penida, Kintamani and Pechatu districts. Domogatsky created the image of a successful entrepreneur through the ostentatious consumption of luxury goods and premium services — photos in branded items, business class photos of airliners, dinners at expensive restaurants. Domogatsky often posted footage of his white Lamborghini Aventador, which was a novelty for local Balinese. However, it later turned out that the car was not bought by him and was issued to other persons, and the numbers under which Domogatsky drove the car were invalid.
Advertising shaft
As Izvestia has established, their houses are half-timbered (the technology of constructing frame houses in the German style) Domogatsky advertised not only on personal social networks, for example, on Instagram (owned by Meta Corporation, which is recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation), where he has more than 1 million subscribers. The advertising of Domogatsky's Fakhwerk LLC, which he opened in 2023 for the construction of mansions already in Russia, was actively carried out through the Ivans Media advertising agency owned by Ivan Bakurov. The latter is also Guzeeva's personal advertising agent, which is confirmed by the publication of his phone number in the corresponding section of the actress' profile.
The website of Bakurov's advertising agency also features Domogatsky's Fakhwerk LLC, and there are joint photos of Ivan and Guzeeva, who advertised Domogatsky's houses and promoted his project "Home to a subscriber."
The Ivans Media agency is closely connected with Larisa Guzeeva through Ivan Bakurov.
Singer Lolita Milyavskaya and a number of other celebrities also advertised Domogatsky's "half-timbered windows" through Bakurov. Larisa Guzeeva could receive 1.5 million rubles for one reel advertising Domogatsky's villas in Bali, Izvestia found during a conversation with Ivan Bakurov.
— A post with text and photo will cost 200-500 thousand, depending on the social network. Telegram is cheaper, Instagram is more expensive — up to 700 thousand. Reels — 1.5 million rubles,— Bakurov said when a correspondent from Izvestia approached him under the guise of a potential advertiser.
Domogatsky's case in Bali is currently being investigated not only by the local police, but also by senators. So, one of them named Ni Lukh Jelantik posted a video on her social networks in which a Harasser shows aggression and obscenities against her. The senator accuses the blogger of holding sex parties in Bali, and also claims that he was previously detained for drugs.
The search for truth
There have already been legal proceedings in Russia around this story. In October 2025, the Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow considered the complaint of investor Victoria Neizhmakova about the inaction of employees of the Department of Internal Affairs in the Southern Administrative District, who for more than three months could not complete the check on her fraud claim (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against Domogatsky.
According to the applicant, the materials were repeatedly returned for further investigation, and twice the case was refused, which was canceled by the prosecutor's office. On October 6, the deputy prosecutor of the Southern Administrative District requested the elimination of violations, pointing out the need for completeness of the verification measures.
In parallel, claims against Domogatsky are being investigated in Indonesia. According to Balinese media, in the period from October 17 to October 21, 2025, at least 10 foreigners from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, France and the UAE filed reports with the Bali police, estimating the total damage at more than 31 billion rupees (about $1.9 million). The applicants claim that they were attracted by professionally designed presentations of "luxury villas", and payment was offered outside of bank control — in USDT or cash in Moscow. Bali Police are conducting an investigation by the economic and cybercrime departments, examining financial flows and digital correspondence.
According to investigative blogger Andrei Alistarov, who was contacted by Izvestia, Domogatsky cannot leave Indonesia now due to checks by local law enforcement officers.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Domogatsky is trying to bypass the bankruptcy procedure to sell off the property of his companies. This was announced by Andrey Larin, a former interior decorator at Domogatsky in Bali. He called one of the managers of Domogatsky's remaining companies in Russia asking if it was possible to buy a house kit, to which she replied that she could give the timber for cash or cryptocurrency.
"The timber is located at our factory 200 km from Moscow. I can offer several payment options, preferably cryptocurrency or cash. Logistics: you can pick up the timber with your own transport or we will provide a car," Galina Kovergina, the manager of Domogatsky's Half—Timbered House, wrote in a message to Larin.
According to Andrey, in this way, bankrupt companies sell off their remaining assets, bypassing bank sanctions.
In debt as in silk
According to sources, the story of Domogatsky's construction of half-timbered buildings began with a group of companies under the brand "Ecocomplex". Formally, Sergei Domogatsky was not among the founders and executives. His former assistant Evgeny Nazarenko, whom Domogatsky appointed CEO before leaving for Bali, was in charge of management.
A fragment of data about SK Ecocomplete LLC in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities
Nazarenko closed the original legal entity and opened new ones — Ecocomplex Management Company, Fabrika Ecocomplex and SK Ecocomplex, distributing functions between them. The management Company became the parent company, while Fabrika and SK, according to Izvestia, were used to "split up" the business. Domogatsky, through his sole proprietor, officially sold patents for sketches of half-timbered houses and received fixed payments from each sale. Unofficially, it is alleged that some of the funds were withdrawn in cash and in cryptocurrency in Bali. Ecocomplex Management Company is currently going through bankruptcy, dozens of clients are suing and cannot receive either houses or refunds due to lack of assets.
Since the beginning of 2022, the cash gap in Ecocomplex has been growing, deadlines for the completion of houses have been disrupted and employees have been reduced. Domogatsky publicly blamed Nazarenko, accusing him of stealing money, and then appointed Ilya Ginzburg as CEO, whom he later also accused of embezzlement. In parallel, the Domogatsky Half-Timbered company was created. In total, there are over 65 affected clients in various legal entities associated with the brand, with probable damage amounting to more than 650 million rubles.
In May 2025, Domogatsky and Galina Kovergina reported the theft of 100 million rubles by the commercial director and chief accountant. Sources also claim that of the promised Balinese projects, only one house has actually been built — for Domogatsky himself.
Lawyer Alexander Zorin believes that Domogatsky will now evade justice as much as possible. Recently, he came up with a new explanation for the reasons for stopping the construction of villas in Bali — allegedly, now the local authorities have "banned flat roofs", ordering all buildings to have roofs with a "house". Meanwhile, in Moscow, on November 1, the bankruptcy petition of IP Domogatsky was launched, and on November 11, a bankruptcy court and the appointment of a bankruptcy trustee in LLC Fakhverk Domogatsky were appointed.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
