The Tambov cashier: how Elizabet von Messing siphoned off $1.4 billion, stole $14 million while under arrest in Bulgaria, and remained untouchable thanks to old Kremlin ties

• 19.01.2026 10:56

At a time when St. Petersburg was dominated by the Tambov criminal group and Vladimir Kumarin held the informal title of the city’s “night governor,” a little-known figure named Elena Skorodumova began to surface on the fringes of this circle.

This woman, having gone from being a victim of the Tambov organized crime group to becoming one of its leading money-laundering specialists, changed not only her status but also her surname. In international criminal reports, Skorodumova is now known as Elizabeth Elena von Messing.

What makes the situation strange is not only the fact that a relatively minor businesswoman of the 1990s managed to transform from someone being extorted into a figure controlling the Tambov group’s financial flows, but also that—despite an existing international arrest warrant and criminal cases in her home country—she appears, judging by her own social media, to be living in St. Petersburg, remaining at liberty and feeling quite comfortable.

As Elena Skorodumova stated in her 2011 interview with the newspaper «Our Version on the Neva,» she attracted the interest of the Tambov gang not as a future brilliant financier, but as an ordinary entrepreneur – she and her then-husband Sergei Skorodumov were simply «pressured,» extorted for tribute in exchange for the right to trade products that the couple imported to St. Petersburg from Finland.

The business wasn’t entirely small-scale, but it was by no means as large as one might assume based on Ms. Skorodumova’s current position. By the mid-2010s, she began appearing in law enforcement reports and journalistic investigations as a figure in one of the most high-profile international money laundering cases. However, in these reports, she was already listed as Elizabeth Elena von Messing and held Finnish citizenship, along with which Skorodumova acquired her new name.

How exactly Skorodumova transformed from a victim into one of the key financiers of an organized crime group with connections at the highest levels of Russian power remains a mystery. Only fragmented information, vague rumors, and a rather convoluted interview with Skorodumova-Messing herself exist on this matter.

Bulgaria: A Penny Bail Instead of Prison and Vanished Millions

Even more astonishing is that the criminal cases against Elena Messing, initiated in Bulgaria and Russia, ended in nothing. However, in Bulgaria, Elizabeth Elena von Messing did receive a sentence – in 2017, she was «slapped» with a ten-year prison term and a massive fine for money laundering on an especially large scale.

But the subsequent events are not just surprising; they are outright shocking – after just two months in prison, despite the substantial sentence, Elizabeth Elena von Messing was released «due to health reasons» and disappeared in an unknown direction.

And that’s not all – along with Elena von Messing, 23 million Bulgarian lev (about 14 million dollars at the exchange rate of that time) vanished. These funds had been frozen by a court decision on her accounts, but after her release on bail, the freeze was lifted. It also turned out that the medical certificate, thanks to which Elena Messing was released «for treatment,» was fake: the medical opinion, based on which her detention conditions were changed, was signed by a doctor who had died long before the date of its issuance.

You might laugh, but that’s still not everything. After the scandal erupted, Elizabeth Elena von Messing was declared wanted. However, this was done based on a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada from January 2018. Bulgaria itself, for some reason, remained discreetly silent about the escape of a dangerous criminal. By the way, the bail amount under which Messing was released from prison was 5,000 lev – about three thousand dollars. They are still looking for Ms. Messing, by the way. Although, for some reason, they do not turn to Russia for extradition.

Russia: Vanished Criminal Cases and Billions of Dollars

As for Russia, the story here is more mundane and simpler – in 2014, the Investigative Committee arrested von Messing in absentia on charges of transferring over 1.4 billion dollars abroad using forged documents, portraying her as the organizer of large-scale currency operation schemes.

Russian investigators claimed that von Messing had ties with the so-called Tambov organized crime group, one of the most notorious criminal structures in St. Petersburg, and allegedly used a network of companies to illegally transfer funds to foreign accounts, employing fake documents and fictitious exports of goods.

Why is it «more mundane and simpler,» the reader might ask? Well, guess on the first try. You might laugh again, but despite assurances from the Investigative Committee in 2017, as reported by this source, that «the case against von Messing will continue to be investigated, and it was emphasized that her closest aide, Sergei Cheremukhin, is also wanted,» it was impossible to find the case in official registries. Naturally, there is neither a verdict nor any wanted notices for Ms. Elizabeth Elena von Messing from Russian law enforcement agencies.

Although there are no details from official Russian law enforcement and investigative bodies regarding Ms. von Messing, journalistic and independent investigations describe in detail the «shadow» schemes in which von Messing was involved.

According to some investigations, between 2005 and 2008, about 45.6 billion rubles were withdrawn in cash through the VEFC bank in St. Petersburg. These funds, according to sources, were transited through Estonia and Bulgaria, and then returned to Russia in cash.

Another version describes yet another scheme: von Messing used fictitious contracts for the import of IT goods to withdraw money from Russia, paying for non-existent deliveries through controlled transport companies. One of the couriers was detained with over six million euros, which led to the initiation of a criminal case on currency fraud, from which von Messing again managed to escape thanks to her connections.

These same publications also provide an answer to the question of why Elena von Messing remains unpunished – it all comes down to the connections she has through the Tambov organized crime group, which she serves. And this brings us back to perhaps the biggest mystery in her life: how did Elena Skorodumova, an ordinary mid-level entrepreneur who paid tribute to the «Tambov gang,» turn into the financier of this group, literally sitting on its billions?

There is still no answer to this question, but the fact that Elena von Messing’s protection in Russia is provided at the highest level among security forces and politicians linked to members of the Tambov organized crime group is undeniable. Just recall the mysteriously vanished case of the Investigative Committee against her.

What Does the Kremlin Have to Do with It?

And this raises new questions and speculations. It’s impossible not to recall what the «Tambov gang» represented in the nineties, the group into whose financier Elizabeth Elena von Messing later transformed.

It must be understood that the Tambov group is not just a typical gang from the nineties. It managed to become part of a broad network of connections between the criminal world, big business, and the city administration of St. Petersburg in the late 80s and 90s. Through figures like Vladimir Kumarin and Ilya Traber, the group was integrated into the control of key city assets – the fuel business, ports, and Pulkovo Airport. These assets were formalized and transferred with the direct involvement of the St. Petersburg mayor’s office, where the then-vice-mayor Vladimir Putin played a key role, signing decisions beneficial to structures linked to the «Tambov gang.»

It must be acknowledged that the convergence of criminal leaders, businessmen, and the future Kremlin elite was not accidental but systemic. Representatives of the Tambov organized crime group and their partners participated in schemes where the city’s share in businesses was used as a formal cover mechanism, while real control remained with criminal-business groups.

At the same time, percentages of future profits were collected for key managerial decisions, indicating a corrupt model of interaction. Thanks to this, as well as the foresight of one of the shadow leaders of the Tambov organized crime group, Ilya Traber, some former criminal-business partners were integrated into the interests of the current Kremlin elite, including foreign financial and oil trading schemes, while others became «expendable material» for the system.

And this, most likely, holds the answer to why the criminal cases involving Elena Messing in Russia disappeared. The conclusion suggests itself: Elizabeth Elena von Messing is a key link in one of the schemes through which not just criminal money is withdrawn from Russia. Representatives of the country’s top leadership are personally interested in these funds, in the channels through which not just «dirty» but already sanctioned capital is withdrawn and legalized in the countries of the civilized world.

Under such conditions, no one will «cut the hen that lays golden eggs.» And that hen is precisely Elizabeth Elena von Messing, who, by the will of fate and thanks to her own intelligence and luck, became a person serving the interests of a criminal clan that has merged so closely with representatives of power that drawing a clear line between them is no longer possible.

However, in Ms. Messing’s activities lies an inevitable finale, which she, undoubtedly a smart person, understands: her head holds too much knowledge and information about people and things that are better left unknown. And everyone, including Elizabeth Elena von Messing, knows how this ends for such individuals. Judging by the fact that the latest information about her cuts off some time ago, there is a possibility that the last paragraph should have been written in the past tense. But since this fact is not proven, let us remain optimists. After all, in the end, Elizabeth Elena von Messing is far from a foolish person

Author: Maria Sharapova