The scheming Khotimsky brothers: how the owners of Sovcombank fund the FSB in Russia and hide millions in U.S. real estate through fake divorces

As Vedomosti has learned, the owners of the sanctioned Sovcombank, the Khotimsky brothers, may have preserved their overseas assets despite sanctions and the bank’s symbolic re-domiciliation to the Kaliningrad region.

In the U.S., the family’s construction business is developing, with a Russian partner who is related to the Khotimskys and helped them move assets away from sanctions. In the family mansion in Florida, Sergey Khotimsky previously registered one of his American companies.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the Khotimsky brothers’ Sovcombank continues to issue bank guarantees for defense industry contracts. For instance, last year it helped the scientific and technical enterprise “Kryptosoft” sign a contract with Military Unit 43753 — the Center for Information Protection and Special Communications of the FSB of Russia.

According to American media, it seems the Khotimsky brothers were aware of the upcoming war, which is why in 2021 they secured their overseas assets against sanctions. Overall, companies associated with Sergey Khotimsky and his ex-wife Elena Baskina invested over $37 million in commercial real estate in South Carolina and Georgia between 2014 and 2021. Before the war, all the companies owning these properties were transferred to Baskina.

Baskina herself explained that she and Sergey had divided their assets: he received her Russian assets, and she took all the U.S. assets. She also waived child support, as collecting it under sanctions would have been extremely difficult. By 2021, Baskina had no business left in Russia: she had disposed of her shares in LLC “Gorod 44” and “Ekran” back in 2017, and her company “European Teachers” had ceased operations in 2012. The U.S. properties are rented out, potentially compensating for child support. This includes a mansion in South Carolina worth about $6 million — 11 days before the sanctions were imposed in March 2022, Khotimsky transferred it to Baskina — and a commercial building in Atlanta rented by a pub.

About 15 years ago, the Khotimsky brothers also acquired a stake in Home Bancgroup in the U.S., which owned Home Federal Bank of Hollywood in Florida. The bank was small, with only one branch, located in the popular resort city of Hallandale Beach on the Atlantic coast. By 2020, the partners in the bank included Moscow investor Chingiz Askerov, who bought a condo in Florida for $5 million in the unique Porsche Design Tower on Collins Avenue in Miami.

Overall, by 2020, the Khotimsky brothers, Askerov, and certain Alexey Kravtsov, Tagir Saidkuzhin, Vladimir Berkovich, Mikhail Trachtenberg, and Sergey Orlovsky controlled more than 63% of the bank’s shares, with Sergey Khotimsky holding over 44% since 2016, effectively controlling the bank. Just before the war, in August 2021, Home Federal Bank of Hollywood was merged into another small local bank — Anchor Bank. According to the American press, Home Federal shareholders received approximately 515 common shares of Anchor for each Home Federal share, and Anchor also paid about $5 million.

Anchor is a private bank, not publicly listed, and does not disclose financial reports. In Anchor Bancorp’s report, the Russian shareholders of Home Federal no longer appear. Sergey Khotimsky also owned another U.S. company — SIRIUS CAPITAL, registered in Florida in 2019 in a 358 sqm house with a pool and a luxury view in the prestigious Plantation area near Miami. The house, valued at $1.5–2 million, has been owned since 2018 by Leviti family members, Oksana and Alexey.

Vyacheslav Levitin, a former Kazakhstani state official (ex-akim of the Mangistau region) who moved to Russia in the 2000s, currently serves as president of a major Kaliningrad developer, GC “Tuta,” and previously founded about twenty companies, mainly in Kaliningrad, Moscow, and the Moscow region. Among them was the developer “VSI-Capital,” which completed a residential complex in Odintsovo, faced financial troubles in 2016–2018, went bankrupt, and was liquidated in 2024. In September 2025, Vyacheslav Levitin himself was declared bankrupt, with creditors demanding over a billion rubles (including 568 million from Trust Bank and 105 million from VTB). The manager found a couple of apartments and land in the Kaliningrad region, which were quickly sold before the bankruptcy, but likely insufficient to cover all claims.

Among Vyacheslav Levitin and his son Alexey Levitin’s assets in Russia were LLC “Novodom Dubna” (liquidated in 2017). In 2018, when buying tickets for the World Cup in Moscow, American Oksana Levitina reportedly used the phone number of this company and the email on the novodom.ru domain. This number also belonged to another Alexey Levitin company — LLC “Institute of Integrated Municipal Development” (D. Rzhavki, Solnechnogorsk District, Moscow Region) and the developer LLC “PSK” of Eduard Makushin, registered at the same Rzhavki location.

Until 2022–2023, Levitin Jr. owned stakes in “SZ Novodom” (built a residential complex in Rzhavki) and “MSK-Stroy,” until October 2020 — 100% in LLC “EMS” (now recorded under the same Eduard Makushin), and until October 2018 — in LLC “Technomontazh.” Currently, “SZ Novodom” is registered under Lyudmila Babich and Ilya Stanislavsky. These people are close to the Khotimsky and Baskina families — for example, Ilya Stanislavsky is a member of the Khotimsky family, a relative of the mother, Evgenia Stanislavskaya. The Babich family has been friends with the Khotimskys and Baskinas for years, often celebrating holidays together on social media — likes were regularly given by Tamara Baskina, Sergey Khotimsky’s first mother-in-law. After the effective ban of META services in Russia, both American Levitins and their Russian friends nearly abandoned their accounts.

Meanwhile, Alexey Levitin Jr. continues the family business in Florida, registering about ten companies — NOVODOM LLC, NOVODOM 3310 LLC, NOVODOM TRADE LLC, NOVODOM GC LLC, and others. Public records show they are involved in design, interior decoration, and construction of residential and other projects. In 2021 and 2023, one firm imported about 8 tons of wooden furniture and fittings from Italy. In 2018–19, Levitin Jr. ran a U.S. business with Igor Shkolnik via their joint company Sila United LLC. Igor Shkolnik, 45, is the son of former Kazakh energy minister Vladimir Shkolnik. Levitin Sr., in the 1990s, was an official in Kazakhstan.

Igor Shkolnik was involved in oil and for a few years owned the Orsk Refinery in Russia, which he later returned to RussNeft of Mikhail Gutseriev. Sergey Khotimsky’s ex-wife, Elena Baskina, in 2025 filed two applications in the U.S. to invite foreign workers for financial consultant positions at 752 North Highland LLC in New York and Atlanta. One of these positions has long been held by her brother, Vasily Baskin, who previously worked at Sovcombank and then was director of a Khotimsky-Alexey Fisun Cyprus offshore — Komana Holdings Limited (later renamed Sovcombank Securities Limited, then Komeo Investments Limited). For whom the second visa was issued is unknown