An acquisition of Scottish castle by a Russian tycoon Sergey Fedotov gave rise to a scandal in Russia. However, it is not the first real property bought by Mr. Fedotov in Britain On 30 of May 2015 Daily Mail published the information regarding forthcoming sale of former XIV century private railway station East Lodge in Morayshire, Scotland. In accordance with the publication, the citizen of Russia Sergey Fedotov acquired a 15th century Castle Grant - originally named Freuchie Castle - for £1m pounds. Nobody is surprised when Russian businesspersons and tycoons acquire real property in Great Britain, while this particular acquisition inspired a media and public scandal in Russia. The point is that Sergey Fedotov is the managing director of Russian author society - RAO, a non-commercial organisation that accumulates the copyrights in entire country. The activity of Mr. Fedotov was questionable by RAO shareholders for the long time. RAO is the monopolist with state accreditation. In the territory of Russia all copyrights for music are in RAO competence automatically. If an author or a publisher does not want that RAO collects his fees, he must withdraw his compositions and control it by himself. Those authors, who are not members of RAO’s board of directors or did not leave it by some reasons, are not satisfied by RAO’s business activity, believing that they were not paid in full. The fact of acquisition of ancient castle by the managing director of RAO - his monthly is about 2,000 pounds as the Russian press reports - gave rise to great repercussions in the cultural society. However, the castle in Morayshire is just a single event in Fedotov’s abroad activity. In 2013 Mr. Fedotov has been granted the investor visa in the UK. This led the reporters to exploring that apart from Castle Grant, Sergey Fedotov already has more real property in UK: several houses in Brighton and a flat in Greater London. One of his houses in Brighton at 25 Withdean Road is on sale now. Two-store house with a garden, five bedrooms, three bathrooms, 3 living rooms and double garage which was bought by Mr Fedotov for £1.3m pounds is on sale for £1.55m pounds. Sergey Fedotov owns another two houses on the same street, including a one-storey house with a swimming pool at 27 Withdean Road, acquired in May 2014 for £2.5m pounds.

Another house at 42 Withdean Road belongs to luxury category and is remarkable for its design and construction history. In 2006-2007 Mr. Barry Surtees got local council permission for demolition of two detached houses and construction of two new detached dwellings. The planning permission also included an enlarged lower ground floor and ground floor balcony to No.42. As an artist, carpenter and experienced developer, Barry Surtees had much to bring to this project from the beginning. With masses of open-plan living space, five bedrooms, a helix staircase and a swimming pool spread over three expansive floors plus a further gigantic bedroom pod perched on the roof with fantastic views across the London Road valley, his expertise was not just helpful – it was simply invaluable. Barry himself and Brighton-based architect Bernard Howells designed the house. By acquiring three detached neighboring properties, Barry was able to build his dream home whilst converting the flanking buildings (one of which was the family home) in complimentary styles. Later on Barry Surtees sold two houses at 42 and 44 Withdean Road to Sergey Fedotov. The house at 44 Mr. Fedotov sold in May 2014 for £1.3m pounds, though he had acquired it in 2012 for £1.46m pounds. In October 2013 Sergey Fedotov acquired the flat at 2 Mansfield Street, London for £5.7m pounds. Sergey Fedotov was elected managing director in RAO in 2004 when he was 27 years old. In 2008 and 2009 he created two subsidiary organisations of RAO: Russian organisation of intellectual property - VOIS and Russian union of right holders - RUR. In July 2015 was announced that all three organisations were merged in one. Some artists, who are the members of RAO, accused Mr. Fedotov that he tries to hide stealing by the way of merging.