Bonum Certa Men Certa

From Belarus With Love — Part IV: “Software from Minsk” via Gilching and Rijswijk

Series parts:

  1. From Belarus With Love — Part I: Schizophrenic EPO Policy
  2. From Belarus With Love — Part II: “Techwashing” an Autocratic Regime?
  3. told
  4. YOU ARE HERE“Software from Minsk” via Gilching and Rijswijk


Organisational structure of SaM Group
The organisational structure of the SaM group.



Summary: The story of how EPO 'hooked up' with Belarus (Team Battistelli arranged for contracts through shadowy proxies), later resulting in the illegal outsourcing of EPO operations to Microsoft, which relies on a lot of corruption going unnoticed and/or unpunished

As we mentioned in the opening article of this series, SaM stands for "Software aus Minsk", a German moniker meaning "Software from Minsk".

But as one of the company's founders, Andrej Bakhirev, told Wirtschaftswoche back in 2011:



"It's important to our customers that they work with a German company rather than a Belarusian one."


Management of SaM Group
The management of the SaM group led by Chairman Andrei Bakhirev and CEO Pavel Khovrenkov.



"Despite being officially headquartered in Gilching in Bavaria most of the company's employees actually work at the company's main "delivery center", located at 15 Filimonova Street in Minsk, close to the Belarus High Technologies Park (HTP)."So it is not surprising that the "corporate headquarters" of the SaM group is in Gilching, a provincial Bavarian village, located within the functional urban area of Munich.

The current address of the company's HQ is listed on its website as Römerstrasse 32 in Gilching.

According to the company register in Germany, SaM Holding GmbH was previously registered under the number HRB 118260 with the following address:

Am Bahnhof 4a, 82205 München - West (Gilching).


Gilching's SaM group
The corporate HQ of the SaM group used to be located in a building beside the train station in Gilching, near the Bavarian capital Munich. The HQ recently relocated to a new address in Gilching at Römerstrasse 32.



Despite being officially headquartered in Gilching in Bavaria most of the company's employees actually work at the company's main "delivery center", located at 15 Filimonova Street in Minsk, close to the Belarus High Technologies Park (HTP).

SaM Solutions in Minsk
SaM Solutions "delivery center" at 15 Filimonova Street in Minsk.



Although SaM's "delivery center" is not directly located on the grounds of the HTP, the company has been registered as a "HTP resident" since 2006 and consequently it benefits from the HTP's special "exterritorial" tax regime.

"Although SaM's "delivery center" is not directly located on the grounds of the HTP, the company has been registered as a "HTP resident" since 2006 and consequently it benefits from the HTP's special "exterritorial" tax regime."Because the EPO's core in-house data processing facilities are mostly located in its Netherlands branch office in Rijswijk, SaM's Dutch subsidiary - SaM Solutions BV - has played a key role in the group's EPO-related business.

As far as is known, project manager responsible for this area of SaM's activities is a guy by the name of Alexander Khval.

Alexander Khval
Alexander Khval, reputed to be the project manager responsible for SaM's EPO-related activities in the Netherlands



According to the company register in the Netherlands SaM Solutions BV is registered under the number 34350956 with an address at Pauwhof 135 in a residential area of the municipality of Rijswijk, adjacent to the Hague. Postcode: 2289 BL

SaM's Dutch subsidiary
SaM's Dutch subsidiary is located at Pauwhof 135 in a residential area of Rijswijk.



SaM Solutions has been a certified Microsoft partner since 2002 and more recently it has been heavily involved in promoting cloud-based "solutions". It is rumoured to have played a key role in the EPO's recent controversial "cloud migration" project overseen by Vice-President Steve Rowan.

SaM Solutions as Microsoft partner
SaM Solutions has been a certified Microsoft partner since 2002 and is rumoured to have played a key role in the EPO's recent controversial "cloud migration" project.



In the next part, we shall see how the founders of the SaM group received significant assistance from Germany during the company's start-up phase.

Belarus and EPO
Belarus and EPO: Not as distanced as António Campinos wants you to believe... and possibly a conduit of Microsoft corruption/illegal activities in Europe



Recent Techrights' Posts

When It Comes to Social Control Media, Linus Torvalds is Channeling Techrights
GAFAM workers know exactly who to aim at
New EPO Paper: Promoting (Rewarding) People Who Grant Many Illegal European Patents to Make More Money (at Europeans' Expense) While Patent Courts in the EU Are Themselves Illegal
now the coup is sort of complete and even the "courts" are part of the corruption
Slopwatch: Carnival of LLM Slop and FUD Spewed by Bots, Pasted in by MaKenna Hensley and Day
Welcome to the Web in 2025. Articles about "Linux", "Security", and the Web (e.g. "Firefox") are fake.
Links 07/02/2025: Amazon’s Stock Collapses and US Government Being Dismantled (Still)
Links for the day
 
Unlike GAFAM, Free Software Serves You, It Does Not Serve Governments and MElons (Overlapping Forces)
Tired of oligarchy controlling your life through gadgets and "apps"?
On Wars Against Founders
We need to insist that founders remain
Links 08/02/2025: News Corp Admits Traffic Declines, Wildlife Trafficking Tackled
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/02/2025: Lamp and Notions
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 07, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, February 07, 2025
Gemini Links 07/02/2025: Mid-level Details and Simple Code
Links for the day
Links 07/02/2025: US 'Demolition Crew', e-ID Loopholes, and Sanctions
Links for the day
Professor Eben Moglen on How Social Control Media Metabolises Humans and Constrains Freedom of Thought
Nothing of value would be lost if all these data-harvesting giants (profiling people) vanished overnight
Social Control Media is Narcissism
Nowadays there's a lot more literature and even press coverage explaining the harms of Social Control Media
Debian Left Twitter (MElon "X"), We Think the Free Software Foundation (FSF) Should Do the Same
What would the FSF really lose if it stopped posting there?
statCounter Sees GNU/Linux Share Doubling in China Over the Past Year
It'll be interesting to see what data in the coming months shows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, February 06, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, February 06, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Confirms Next Week's Talk in Europe
He gave at least 2 talks in Europe last month
Nationalism As A Service (NaaS) by Microsoft Azure, Gutting the US Government for Profit
Will Microsoft be receiving bailouts as a reward for all this?
Rumours of IBM Layoffs Apparently Confirmed Yesterday, IBM Canada Consulting Impacted (as Rumoured)
when IBM has layoffs we must also read it as Red Hat layoffs
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 05, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025