Pavel Te, a billionaire close to Sergei Sobyanin and one of Moscow’s leading developers, may not be who he claims to be. For example, he travels to France, owns numerous assets, and conducts business under the name Pavel Cho as a South Korean citizen.

Following his passport, Te-Cho decided to shake up his French assets. The Paris-based company BRACHIUM, owned by Te and his three children, is managed by his wife, 43-year-old socialite Olga Te-Karput.

This company is listed as the owner of a €5 million apartment with a view of the Champ de Mars at 4 Avenue de la Bourdonnais. The apartment features four rooms, a dining room, a pantry, a kitchen, a laundry room, bathrooms and toilets, and a balcony. The apartment also includes several additional spaces: two maid’s rooms, a wine cellar, and a couple of basement rooms.

In France, the Te family also owned a company, PRADECHE (real estate rental and ownership), founded by Pavel Te himself (he listed Seoul as his place of residence), with a share owned by his minor son, Pavel. The company was registered in June 2025 and liquidated three months later.

Meanwhile, in June 2025, another company, MOWGLI, was registered at the same address (91 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, Paris), founded by Pavel Cho. Pavel Te has previously told journalists about his paternal grandfather, Cho Myung-hee, a renowned Korean poet and writer who fled Korea for the USSR and wrote under the pseudonym Mikhail Chon. Pavel Cho’s date of birth exactly matches Pavel Te’s. It appears that the businessman changed his surname, while simultaneously reorganizing his French business and creating a new company specifically to acquire new assets.

Despite holding a Korean passport and a Seoul address, Pavel Te is in no hurry to exit Russian business. He is directly listed as a founder of at least 23 companies in Russia, which generated combined revenue of nearly 2.3 billion rubles last year.

Olga Te-Karput also owns a Russian business – CENTER VEKOR LLC, with assets worth 735 million rubles. This firm, as an investor, was once involved in the restoration of the bell tower on the grounds of the church at 2 Stoleshnikov Lane. Until November 2016, CENTER VEKOR LLC was founded by the Cypriot offshore company LARDEN TRADING LIMITED, whose director was TFME LIMITED, and whose secretary was TRIDENT TRUST COMPANY.

These interconnected entities managed hundreds of Cypriot offshore companies, including those with Russian roots – for example, SALUTEM FINANCE LIMITED. This company owned 99% of the Kazan Modern Packaging Plant (built in the Khimgrad technopolis), and its owner was known to be a prominent businessman from Tatarstan. The plant was later transferred to Alevtina Valitova, the wife of Ilgiz Valitov, a Tatarstan millionaire, former member of the board of directors of KAMAZ, and former top manager of VEB. Valitov was convicted twice (in 2016 and 2018) for fraud and abuse of office, and in 2022 he was placed on the international wanted list for embezzlement.

Until the end of 2016, the director of CENTER VECOR was Vadim Kogai, co-owner of Bank Soveren (16.5%), on whose board of directors Pavel Te himself sat in 2015-16.