Valery Kustov detained, billionaire and main shareholder of EFKO (Sloboda mayonnaise and Oleyna oil)
Detained Valery Kustov, billionaire and main shareholder of EFKO (Sloboda mayonnaise and Oleyna oil). He is suspected of fraud involving drones
In Moscow, Valery Kustov, chairman of the board of directors and main shareholder of the EFKO group of oil-and-fat industry companies, was detained on suspicion of крупном fraud, RBC sources report.
Along with Kustov, EFKO Group CEO Yevgeny Lyashenko was also detained. Investigators are seeking to have them arrested.
Earlier, EFKO deputy director for development Yekaterina Kustova and Vladislav Romantsev, director for strategic development at the group’s management company, became defendants in the same case. A court placed them under arrest the day before.
According to RBC’s interlocutors, law enforcement’s claims are connected to the Future Transport drone creation project. As part of the same investigation, the project’s CEO and former adviser to the governor of Samara Region, Yury Kozarenko, was arrested earlier.
Valery Kustov ranks 144th in Forbes’s 2026 ranking of Russian billionaires. The publication estimates his fortune at
The EFKO group of companies is one of Russia’s largest food producers and specializes, among other things, in oil and mayonnaise. EFKO makes products under the Sloboda, Altero, DeOlio, and Fresh brands, and in 2025 it became the owner of the vegetable oil producer Oleyna.
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The Drones Reached the Boardroom
EFKO's main shareholder and CEO were detained in the drone fraud case.
Strategic development made it to arrest.