RUSSIAN TYCOON’S DREAM QUICKLY TURNS TO RUIN
Sergei Polonsky had started building island resorts off Sihanoukville, but was then deported to Moscow
In Koh Dek Koul, a tiny island off the Cambodian coast, Russian real estate tycoon and playboy Sergei Polonsky’s extravagant lair is slowly but steadily falling apart.
Since Polonsky was deported in May to face fraud charges over a real estate scheme in his native Russia, the island, despite being seized and occupied by Cambodian police, has been left more or less abandoned.
Weeds grow in the cracks of the narrow passageways that criss-cross the island, while some of the buildings are already falling apart. A giant metal frame inside the generator room has crashed through a wall, leaving a gaping hole in the building. Metal staircases lie irreparably twisted by the sun and salty spray.
Some valuables remain. In a working area with opulent leather couches, Apple computers sit unused along with a drum kit in the corner. However, it appears that at least some of Polonsky’s belongings have disappeared.
The man’s office, a grandiose cupola topped off by a statue of a Bayon temple head, lies completely empty. One room’s opulent collection of statues and other curiosities has been cleaned out, save for a figurine of a Buddha riding three elephants.
For a place once bustling with Polonsky’s dozens of staff from all over the world, Koh Dek Koul is now eerily quiet. If the place has any appeal in its current state, it is as a Russian oligarch’s Ta Prohm — a crumbling temple slowly being swallowed by the jungle.
Back on the mainland, Nikolay Doroshenko, a sharp-eyed Soviet-born businessman and Polonsky’s arch-rival in Cambodia, is flustered. Doroshenko, who was once a partner with Polonsky to develop Koh Dek Koul, believes he has a claim to the island, but all he can do is watch from a distance as decay takes its toll.
The two men became sworn enemies in 2013, with Polonsky accusing his former business partner of wanting to “sell my islands” out from under him.
Doroshenko spent two months in jail earlier this year over one of the numerous legal disputes the two were embroiled in, complaining that Polonsky personally ensured his bed and fan were removed, just to exacerbate his discomfort. But the ordeal ended after he was released on bail, a few weeks after Polonsky was deported to Russia.
There seemed to be no better time for Doroshenko to take control of Koh Dek Koul, the crown jewel of the island empire Polonsky was trying to build, but he is forced to wait.
“I don’t go to the islands. I’m scared to go there because [the court] will say I stole things,” Doroshenko said, clearly exasperated.
Even though Polonsky was unceremoniously arrested while wearing nothing but swimming trunks and flip flops, Doroshenko’s struggle is far from over. The court case Doroshenko was jailed over — he was charged with attempting to steal Koh Dek Koul by faking signatures — is still ongoing, along with several other cases from the 14 Polonsky filed against Doroshenko and his son Ostap.
That means the family is routinely called to court, even though the plaintiff is imprisoned in Russia. “We cannot understand,” Doroshenko said. Many of the expensive goods on Koh Dek Koul and other islands have been “removed” by police and other Cambodians, he said. Ostap, who helps in the family business, was also agitated.
“Next month, they’re calling us to court because I stole some telephone or something like this from Polonsky. What the f--k? All you can do is laugh, but for the [court] it is serious.”
Ostap is also no longer a captain in Sihanoukville’s provincial immigration police. He was mysteriously transferred to Phnom Penh during his father’s jailing, but chose to remain on the coast and give up his position.
His father wouldn’t give specifics about
why the cases have remained active, but he hinted that for once, Polonsky — the man the Doroshenkos accused of orchestrating several assassination attempts against them — was not the one pulling the strings. “We are very scared to tell the truth today,” Nikolay Doroshenko said.
He said, however, that the issue was not necessarily the islands themselves, but the wealth the Doroshenkos had acquired over the years.
“It is clear … that we are rich people,” he said, adding that “very expensive” taxes must be paid to authorities for the island.
Hout Vichet, the deputy provincial prosecutor, said there were so many legal cases between Polonsky and Doroshenko that he could not remember enough details to comment.
And as the cases hang over their heads with no end in sight, the Doroshenkos are forced to watch Koh Dek Koul fall apart.
“Everything is closed,” said Ostap. “I cannot come and check everything, make fixes, upgrades and open it up for customers to go.”
Provincial police chief Chuon Narin said two of the islands Polonsky had built facilities on — Koh Dek Koul and Koh Damlong — were being guarded by police and the military, respectively.
“No properties were stolen. The forces are guarding them to protect someone from breaking in,” he said.
Apparently powerless to end the cases, the Doroshenkos are focusing on finishing construction on their latest project, a million-dollar condo tower overlooking the city of Sihanoukville.
The bright, white building includes the Doroshenkos’ Antonov jet and a museum displaying about two dozen luxury cars, from a Lamborghini Murcielago to a bright red Chevy Impala.
Known as Classic Condo, it has become something of a tourist attraction. Cambodians come to take wedding photos and tourists pay US$50 (about 1,800 baht) to be given a tour of the coastal city in one of the cars.
But Doroshenko knows that compared to the island, the condo project is not the real deal. Rumours circulate of the Doroshenkos’ departure from Cambodia, but after thriving for so long in the kingdom — he and his family have Cambodian citizenship — Doroshenko said he had no plans to move anywhere. “I love Cambodia and I’m ready to fight until the end.”
Yet the Doroshenkos’ worst nightmare could materialise, if some of Polonsky’s friends in Cambodia are to be believed.
They are hoping Polonsky can return to Cambodia and restart his island dream.
Vladimir Palancica, a Moldovan tour operator and friend of Polonsky, said the tycoon left “a piece of his heart” in Cambodia. “I know he wants [to come back], because he loves this country — he invested a lot of money, he’s willing to invest more.”
But Polonsky’s need to return is not just for sentimental reasons. Mr Palancica said Polonsky was one of the few people who have the money to truly develop Cambodia’s islands.
Before he was deported, Polonsky was in the process of building what he claimed was a $100 million tourism project across several islands. He wanted “Project Archipelago” to change the face of tourism in Cambodia — to become the next Angkor Wat, as he put it.
“We need to build hotels, we need to build service, infrastructure, piers, marinas,” said Mr Palancica.
“[We need] to bring boats and rich people who spend a lot of money, not backpackers who spend $5.”
Mr Palancica said the undeveloped Cambodian islands had huge potential — particularly with the Russian market increasingly unlikely to head to the usual favourite destinations of Turkey and Egypt.
Some in Polonsky’s legal team think there is a good chance he will return — although the Russian media has reported on Polonsky’s misadventures in jail, from being sent to a psychiatric prison to requesting a saxophone so he could play behind bars.
Polonsky is being investigated for embezzling billions of rubles from investors for a real estate project in Moscow. Hopes of proving him innocent are pinned high on Boris Titov, Russia’s presidential commissioner for entrepreneurs rights, who vouched for Polonsky’s innocence in October.
“In Russia, everyone understands already that Polonsky has nothing to do with what was incriminated and it is only a matter of time until he is released,” said Kaspars Cekotins, one of Polonsky’s lawyers.
Still, his release is far from certain, particularly given the lengths Russia took to get Polonsky home. And whether Polonsky’s island project finally comes to fruition is another matter.
Several former associates have complained that one of Polonsky’s flaws was his massive circle of friends and business partners, descriptions of which often overlapped and do not appear to have involved much vetting.
“Sergei trusts people very much. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. If you’re a good Christian, you believe in Jesus Christ, so OK, you have to believe in people. But in business this is dangerous,” Mr Palancica of Lotus Tours said.
Pierre Kann, a former contractor for Polonsky, put it a different way as he described the collection of lawyers, authorities, friends and others that circled the eccentric tycoon.
“He had only one big problem. He had too much money and he was in Cambodia.”