The Sharkov System: The $99 Million Flip
A Russia-founded developer went from selling Putin Bars to flipping a warehouse to ICE. Now they want to build AI data centers.
A Russia-founded developer made $99 million flipping a warehouse to ICE. Now they want to build AI data centers.
The warehouse at 1365 East Hightower Trail sits on 235 acres in Social Circle, Georgia --- a town of 5,400 people about an hour east of Atlanta. PNK Group, a logistics developer, bought the land in 2023 for $29.4 million and built a 1.2-million-square-foot distribution center on it. The building never signed a tenant.
On February 3, 2026, the Department of Homeland Security paid $128.6 million for the property --- land and warehouse together. Walton County’s 2025 tax assessment, completed as the warehouse neared completion, valued the same property at $29.8 million.
The gap: $98.8 million in four months. Social Circle officials learned their town would house up to 10,000 ICE detainees from a Washington Post story published on Christmas Eve. The deed was recorded four days after escrow opened --- faster than most home purchases.
PNK Group was founded in Russia.
The RAMM documents the connections that beat reporting can't see — 4,776+ sourced events at capturecascade.org.
Free subscribers get every investigation. Paid subscribers get draft chapters of the book and access to the research infrastructure.
The Origins
PNK Group was incorporated in Russia in 2004. Its founder, Andrey Sharkov, built his fortune in Russian industrial real estate --- warehouses, logistics centers, manufacturing facilities --- before expanding to the United States and European Union. The U.S. arm, a subsidiary of the Russian parent, has operated since 2017 and is now headquartered in New York.
Before warehouses, Sharkov made chocolate.
His St. Petersburg company Shokobox produced a “President” series of Putin-themed chocolate bars: “dobry” (kind) showed Putin hugging a puppy, “nezhny” (tender) showed Putin nursing a fawn, and “gorky” (bitter) showed Putin crying after his 2012 election. The company also produced a chocolate bar with a map labeling Crimea as “new territory” of Russia and Ukraine, the Baltics, and Alaska as “promising” territories. Shokobox marketed the bars with the slogan: “By buying this product, you are raising Russia’s gross domestic product.”
In 2016, PNK Group entered a partnership with Sberbank Asset Management. PNK’s projects were folded into Sberbank’s industrial property fund, and a flagship PNK distribution center near Moscow was later acquired into a Sberbank-managed closed-end mutual fund. Sberbank is Russia’s largest bank --- a state-controlled institution that handles government payroll, pension disbursements, and serves as a primary vehicle for Russian state financial operations.
On February 24, 2022, the Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Sberbank under the Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account (CAPTA) Directive. On April 6, 2022, the Biden administration escalated to full blocking sanctions, effectively cutting Sberbank off from the U.S. financial system entirely. The Sberbank partnership was still active when sanctions were imposed.
In 2023 --- one year after Sberbank was sanctioned --- Sharkov says he “recalled the brand from Russia” and formally separated the U.S. entity from its Russian parent.
The same year, PNK purchased the Social Circle property.
The Offshore Layer
Sharkov appears in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ Offshore Leaks Database. Node 202996 identifies an entity called CDP System Corporation, incorporated on May 28, 2004 --- the same year PNK Group was founded. Sharkov is listed as both Director and Shareholder, alongside a co-officer named Evgeny Andryushin in the same dual role.
The entity’s formal jurisdiction is recorded as “Not identified,” with linked countries listed as the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands. The registered agent is Commonwealth Trust Limited, and the address routes through Unitrust Corporate Services Ltd. in Greenwich, London.
The offshore footprint extends further. According to OffshoreAlert, Sharkov is currently involved in litigation over a $20 million private jet. The lawsuit, filed by a former pilot, involves corporate entities in Bermuda, Cyprus, the Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, and the Marshall Islands --- five jurisdictions across three continents, each chosen for its opacity.
In a sworn deposition given February 20, 2025, Sharkov stated he is no longer a Russian citizen. He lives in New York most of the time, he said, and splits the rest between Monaco and Moscow.
A trademark filing for “PNK” submitted to the European Union Intellectual Property Office on July 29, 2020 lists the applicant’s address as “Moscow 124365, RUSSIAN FEDERATION.”
The Pattern: Georgia
Social Circle isn’t the first Georgia community to reject PNK.
Banks County, March 2022: PNK proposed a $325 million warehouse development. The county commission rejected the project. Charles Turk, chairman of the Banks County Board of Commissioners, told local media: “This county is not a county for warehouses. That’s Jackson County.”
Madison, November 2023: PNK sought annexation approval for a 2.4 million square-foot distribution center near the Rivian electric vehicle plant. The Madison Mayor and City Council voted it down.
Social Circle, 2023--2026: PNK built a 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse on spec. When no tenant materialized, they sold to ICE. The city was not consulted. PNK cited a non-disclosure agreement with the federal government and refused to meet with local officials.
The pattern: build speculatively in rural communities -> face local resistance -> pivot to federal buyers who can bypass local input.
The Friction
The Sharkov System assumes a frictionless environment --- rural land, compliant officials, and a quiet pivot to federal buyers who can bypass local input. In Social Circle, it hit a wall.
The Infrastructure Veto. The federal government can bypass local zoning. It cannot bypass local physics. DHS has projected the detention center will generate wastewater demand exceeding 1 million gallons per day. Social Circle’s wastewater treatment plant currently processes about 660,000 gallons per day --- and is already operating at capacity. Drinking water demand is projected at 1.1 million gallons per day; the city’s water treatment plant is permitted for 1 million gpd, with current peak demand already at 800,000 gpd.
City Manager Eric Taylor, backed by the City Council, locked the meter that would supply water to the facility. City engineers estimate that building adequate water and wastewater infrastructure would cost $44 million and take at least 28 months, pushing any realistic opening past Q2 2028. Until then, DHS owns a $128 million warehouse it cannot actually operate. Senators Warnock and Ossoff have flagged this directly in their letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: there is no plan, no permitting, and no funding for the infrastructure the facility would require.
The town has not stopped the sale. But it has, for now, stopped the facility from opening.
The Political Feedback Loop. Social Circle sits primarily in Walton County, which Trump carried by roughly 50 points in 2024. The resistance is not partisan --- it’s existential. Republican Rep. Mike Collins and Democratic Senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff have all expressed concerns. Local officials across Walton County, Newton County, and the City of Social Circle itself --- all Republican-leaning jurisdictions --- stand unified in opposition.
On March 2, Warnock visited Social Circle and stood alongside Mayor David Keener and City Manager Taylor. “Folks in Social Circle voted for this president overwhelmingly,” he said. “But here’s what they didn’t vote for: They did not vote for a 10,000-person detention center that will triple the size of their town and that will place a massive detention center next to an elementary school.”
The School. Social Circle Elementary School sits less than a mile from the warehouse. Approximately 1,100 children are enrolled. John Callahan, a ten-year veteran of the school board, resigned his position as board chairman over objections to commercial development near the school site --- before anyone knew the warehouse would become a detention center. He now greets attendees at community meetings with a petition in his hand.
This is what it looks like when the Sharkov System meets a town that refuses to be the pipeline.
The Pivot: Pennsylvania
PNK isn’t stopping at detention.
In Gregg Township, Pennsylvania --- a rural community along Route 15 near Allenwood --- PNK owns 158 acres at a site called Great Stream Commons. The company built a 478,388 square-foot warehouse there in 2024.
It has never been occupied.
In December 2025, PNK submitted an offer to Union County commissioners to purchase an additional 37-acre lot for data center development. The commissioners took no action.
“There’s been a lot of concern raised,” Commission Chair Preston Boop said. “At this point in time, I certainly don’t know enough about the unintended consequences of data centers to think about approving anything at Great Stream Commons. The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.”
This wasn’t the first data center proposal for the site. In August 2025, a different developer --- KSR Capital and Data Centric LLC --- terminated an agreement to purchase the same lot for $2.7 million. They walked away from the deal.
Now PNK is back, with something larger.
At an April 2, 2026 open house, PNK revealed plans for up to four AI data centers at Great Stream Commons:
Total capacity: up to 300 megawatts
Total footprint: approximately 1.5 million square feet
First building: retrofit of the existing 478,388 SF warehouse
Three additional buildings: new construction
Power infrastructure: a new 69-kilovolt substation
The site is a Keystone Opportunity Zone, which provides significant tax incentives for developers.
There’s one problem. Gregg Township’s zoning ordinance doesn’t currently permit data centers. PNK has applied for a curative amendment to change the rules. A public hearing is scheduled for May 4, 2026.
Opposition is already forming. At the open house, resident Jared Welch collected more than 120 signatures on a petition against the project.
PPL Electric Utilities, the regional power provider, has previously been described by Commission Chair Boop as lacking “the ability or the will” to deliver the electricity data centers require.
The Model
The Sharkov System isn’t complicated. It works like this:
Build speculatively in rural communities with favorable tax treatment
Face local resistance when the scale becomes clear
Pivot to government or infrastructure buyers who can bypass local zoning
Use NDAs and federal preemption to shield transactions from public input
Collect the markup
In Georgia, the buyer was ICE. In Pennsylvania, it may be the AI industry.
The Structural Connection
The policy conditions enabling both transactions flow from the same administration. The Trump administration’s Detention Reengineering Initiative --- which Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons has described as “Prime, but with human beings” --- created the market for warehouse-to-detention conversions, with $38.3 billion in planned spending.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick --- whose family profits from every side of the administration’s policy apparatus --- is leading the administration’s push to accelerate AI data center construction, including streamlined environmental reviews, access to federal land, and financial support for “qualifying projects.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Madeleine Dean have pressed the Commerce Department Inspector General to investigate Lutnick’s family’s conflicts of interest in the data center industry. Separately, Senator Warren and Representative Jamie Raskin, joined by more than 50 lawmakers, have sent letters to six companies involved in the warehouse detention buildout, including PNK Group, demanding documents by April 13, 2026.
There is no documented personal relationship between Sharkov and Trump administration officials. The connection is structural: administration policy creates the conditions; developers like PNK capture the value. That’s the more defensible --- and more troubling --- claim. It doesn’t require a conspiracy. It requires only that the rules be written to make this kind of rent extraction routine.
What We Don’t Know
Several questions remain unanswered:
The separation timing. PNK claims it formally separated from Russia in 2023 --- one year after Sberbank was sanctioned. What triggered the separation? Was there any continuing financial relationship with sanctioned entities after April 2022?
The construction cost. PNK has not disclosed what it spent to build the 1.2-million-square-foot warehouse. The $98.8 million gap between Walton County’s 2025 assessment and the federal purchase price four months later is on the public record. The actual margin to PNK depends on costs the company has not made public.
The valuation methodology. Walton County’s assessment valued the property --- land and the completed warehouse together --- at $29.8 million in 2025. DHS paid $128.6 million four months later. What independent appraisal, if any, supported the federal purchase price?
The NDA. PNK cited a non-disclosure agreement with the federal government as grounds for refusing to meet with Social Circle officials. Who drafted that NDA? What does it cover?
The data center tenants. PNK says there is “interest” in the Pennsylvania data center but no committed tenant. Who has expressed interest? Is any federal agency or federally-funded project involved?
CDP System Corporation. What is the purpose of Sharkov’s offshore entity, incorporated the same year as PNK? Who is co-officer Evgeny Andryushin? What assets does the entity hold?
The Warren-Raskin letter deadline is April 13. The Gregg Township zoning hearing is May 4.
The Sharkov System is still operating.
Sources
Primary Documents:
Walton County, GA property records: PNK S1 LLC purchase (2023), $29,392,500
Walton County, GA 2024 tax assessment: $3,294,000 (land only)
Walton County, GA 2025 tax assessment: $29,786,800 (land plus warehouse)
Walton County Superior Court Clerk deed records: DHS purchase (Feb 3, 2026), $128,555,500
ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database, Node 202996: CDP System Corporation
EUIPO Trademark Registration (July 29, 2020): PNK, applicant address Moscow 124365, Russian Federation
Andrey Sharkov deposition (February 20, 2025): citizenship and residence statements
Congressional:
Warren/Raskin letter to PNK Group and five other companies (March 2026)
Warren/Dean letter to Commerce IG re: Lutnick data center conflicts (December 2025)
Sanctions:
Treasury Department: Sberbank CAPTA Directive (February 24, 2022)
Treasury Department: Sberbank full blocking sanctions (April 6, 2022)
Reporting:
The Covington News: Feds paid over $128.5 million for new ICE facility, deed shows (Feb 10, 2026)
The Daily Item: Residents push back on proposed data center in Allenwood (April 3, 2026)
The Express: Union County business park may see up to four data centers (April 4, 2026)
Yahoo News: Commissioner “not willing to take a risk” on data centers (December 31, 2025)
Warnock & Ossoff letter to DHS Secretary Mullin on Social Circle infrastructure (March 2026)
WhoWhatWhy: Saturday Hashtag #DHSProfitMachine (February 2026)
Related RAMM Coverage:
The Lutnick System: How One Family Profits from Every Side of the Trump Administration
The Bypass: How the Trump Administration Paid $364 Million Too Much for Detention Warehouses
This story is part of The RAMM’s ongoing investigation of the detention infrastructure. The detention expansion is tracked in the Capture Cascade Timeline.
If you have information about PNK Group, Andrey Sharkov, or federal warehouse purchases in your community, contact me securely.