Source: www.rucriminal.info
The Gaz-Alliance company of the fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko is ruining Russian enterprises, banks and even the budget. Details are in the Rucriminal.info investigation. A small unknown Nizhny Novgorod organization Gaz-Alliance Company LLC (OGRN 1142311010885) with an authorized capital of 70 thousand rubles owes about 60 billion rubles to creditors according to arbitration case A43-40570/2020. There are even foreign creditors among the creditors claiming the return of debts from LLC Gaz-Alliance Company, dozens of enterprises from different regions of Russia.
The Gaz-Alliance company is controlled by the fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko. In Ukraine, the oligarch Sergei Kurchenko was called "Yanukovych's wallet." After the coup d'état, he fled to Russia, receiving Russian citizenship. Various sources associate a series of scandals in the LPR and DPR with his name: the monopolization of the market for the export of coal from the Donbass to Russia and the non-payment of salaries to miners - in June 2020, miners in the LPR went on strike right underground for several days, demanding payment of money. Now in Russia, the ruinous activity of LLC "Company" Gaz-Alliance "is the result of the work of the schemes used by Sergei Kurchenko. Everything that this businessman touches dies, and this is evidenced by the bankruptcy of almost all companies associated with him. And in the event of economic and legal death, its affiliated legal entities “destroy” profitable enterprises that conscientiously conduct their business activities.
Geography of ruined enterprises
Legal entities from the Crimea, Rostov region, Komi Republic, Nizhny Novgorod region, Sverdlovsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm Territory, Kurgan region, Belgorod, Kemerovo, Lipetsk, Smolensk, Kaluga , Voronezh, Volgograd, Saratov, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Moscow region, as well as foreign companies from the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany.
Companies from these regions and countries, according to the materials of arbitration cases, supplied goods and services to Gaz-Alliance, but Gaz-Alliance did not pay for them.
Grand schemer
During the trial, it was established that Gaz-Alliance Company LLC, starting from November 2019, was already an insolvent legal entity and could not fulfill its obligations to counterparties, for example, to Metallkomplekt-M JSC (OGRN 1027700288087) for the total amount: 1,127,523,024 rubles 99 kopecks (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated October 06, 2021 in case No. A43-40570/2020), as well as to Promresurs LLC (OGRN 1175476047658) for the total amount: 199,189,341 rubles 49 kopecks (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated June 18, 2021 in case No. A43-40570/2020).
However, despite its insolvency, Gaz-Alliance still entered into various civil law contracts and positioned itself as a quite decent company, receiving goods and services from enterprises worth tens of millions and even billions of rubles from all over Russia, including , and from foreign ones. The scheme of tricks and financial fraud of Gaz-Alliance did not end there.
Beggar surety
For 1 year and 7 months, Gaz-Alliance acted as a Guarantor to PJSC Energomashbank, having almost nothing to receive huge loans from various companies. According to some reports, these organizations are also affiliated with Sergei Kurchenko.
As Rucriminal.info found out, Gaz-Alliance signed the first guarantee agreement with Energomashbank PJSC on 10/23/2019: Alliance Trade Company LLC received a credit line for 2 years in the amount of 250,000,000 rubles. Within a month, Gaz-Alliance will be insolvent and will not be able to actually fulfill its financial obligations to other creditors, but, nevertheless, for another year and a half, Gaz-Alliance will be a “reliable guarantor” for a total of 39 firms in receipt of loans to the same bank - PJSC Energomashbank. The last such agreement was signed by the almost impoverished guarantor Gaz-Alliance on May 11, 2021: Energomashbank PJSC issued a loan to Prof Capital LLC for 1 year in the amount of 4,000,000 rubles.
In total, under the guarantee of the insolvent Gaz-Alliance, PJSC Energomashbank issued loans for a total amount of about 18,000,000,000 rubles (!). About 3,000,000,000 rubles of them, in the form of loans, including interest, also under the guarantee of the insolvent Gaz-Alliance, will be received by companies registered in offshore China:
Vartech Enterprise Limited (TIN 9909479450) - 407.7 million rubles;
Loud Technologies Limited (TIN 9909541067) - 404.6 million rubles;
LORDTECH LIMITED (TIN 9909527418) - 527.3 million rubles.
GERMES ENTERPRISE LIMITED (TIN 9909554059) - 592 million rubles.
ROWELL TRADE LIMITED (TIN 9909520451) - 879.4 million rubles.
The court found that Gaz-Alliance had only 2.09 billion rubles secured by collateral - goods in circulation. And under the guarantee of Gaz-Alliance, PJSC Energomashbank issued loans, including interest, for a total of 18,294,835,946 rubles.
Bank of Soviet Times is also ruined
PJSC Energomashbank, wishing to get into the register of creditors, in the bankruptcy arbitration case A43-40570 / 2020 also filed claims against the Debtor (Gaz-Alliance) for the amount of loans issued under its guarantee - 18.2 billion rubles.
However, the court refused to include Energomashbank in the register of creditors to receive funds from the debtor - Gaz-Alliance Company LLC, describing in detail in the Ruling the entire fictitious financial scheme of the Bank's interaction with a poor guarantor and affiliated borrowers.
The court established a sign of sham in these credit transactions aimed at creating artificial accounts payable between affiliated persons. The bank issued loans worth billions of rubles without any analysis of the borrower's solvency.
The court repeatedly requested from PJSC Energomashbank: materials of the credit file in order to find out the grounds on which the Bank made decisions on issuing loans; conclusions of a credit officer on the financial position of the borrower and his guarantor (Gaz-Alliance), but the Bank did not provide them to the court.
The court found that Gaz-Alliance opened a current account at Energomashbank PJSC under No. 40702810101070171488. According to the statement provided on the cash flow on this current account, it follows that the received credit funds were immediately transferred by the borrowing firms to the account of their Guarantor - Gaz-Alliance itself and its other creditors, and subsequently redistributed between them, in connection with which “These transfers of funds are of a transit nature and lead to the formation of accounts payable for the inclusion of claims in the register of creditors’ claims,” says the Ruling of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated May 19, 2022, case No. А43-40570/2020.
The same court ruling informs about an affiliated relationship between the creditor bank PJSC Energomashbank and Gaz-Alliance: “The specified behavior of the Bank, when it did not properly maintain credit files, did not assess financial risks, issued loans during the bankruptcy of the debtor is non-standard behavior in banking practice and indicates the existence of an actual affiliation between the debtor Bank" ["Gaz-Alliance"].
The court found: “The debt in the form of the full amount of the loan was formed simultaneously on the eve and during the bankruptcy of the debtor [Gaz-Alliance], before that PJSC Energomashbank did not file a claim against the debtor and the court for the enforcement of debt collection, for termination of the credit agreement and early recovery of the entire loan amount, foreclosure on the subject of collateral (at the same time, no evidence was provided that the debtor has goods for the indicated amounts), which indicates the absence of the intention of the parties to fulfill the loan agreement and the occurrence of other legal consequences, ”the above Definition states court.
Reference
PJSC Energomashbank is a small St. Petersburg bank in terms of assets, one of the oldest banks in the Russian Federation. The credit institution was registered by the State Bank of the USSR in January 1989 under the name "Power Engineering Bank". Its first participants were large St. Petersburg industrial enterprises - Elektrosila, Sevkabel, Leningrad Metal Plant, Turbine Blade Plant, Nevsky Plant.
The bank, having distributed loans with the support of the poor Guarantor, is now also in bankruptcy proceedings.
The Bank of Russia, by Order No. OD-1112 dated 09.06.2021, revoked the banking license from the Power Engineering Bank (ENERGOMASHBANK). Included in the Book of Memory.
The provisional administration for the management of a credit institution, appointed by the Bank of Russia after the revocation of the banking license from the credit institution, conducted an examination of the credit institution and determined that it had signs of insolvency (bankruptcy). The provisional administration of PJSC Energomashbank established that as of the date of revocation of the license, the Bank's liabilities amounted to 16,750,360,000 rubles, of which fixed assets are: funds of customers that are not credit institutions - 16,391,160 thousand rubles, including deposits (funds) of individuals and individual entrepreneurs - 14,006,129,000 rubles, other liabilities - 274,226,000.00 rubles, deferred tax liabilities - 84,967,000 rubles. (Decision of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated September 10, 2022 in case No. A56-60344/2021).
The amount of the Bank's debt obligations: 16,750,360,000 rubles correlates with the amount of loans issued under the guarantee of Gaz-Alliance. It is entirely possible that if the Bank had not issued loans for 18 billion rubles, it could have survived.
It turns out that the main obligations of the Bank are debts on deposits of ordinary citizens-depositors and individual entrepreneurs: 14 billion rubles, and also to the state - in the face of tax authorities, almost 85 million rubles.
Damage to the state
The Office of the Federal Tax Service for the Nizhny Novgorod Region has established that this small, unknown Nizhny Novgorod organization called "Gaz-Alliance Company" LLC, around which tens of billions of rubles revolved, did not pay taxes for 3 whole years: from 01/01/2016 to 12/31/2018. The IFTS for the Nizhny Novgorod region, after conducting an audit, revealed the total debt of Gaz-Alliance in the amount of 2,898,447,468 rubles, including taxes, penalties and fines. By the way, the fine for a company with multi-billion dollar cash flows is meager - only 50,943,320 rubles, which Gaz-Alliance did not provide proof of payment to the court. De facto and de jure, the budget did not receive 2.89 billion rubles. The Arbitration Court included the claims of the UNFS for the Nizhny Novgorod Region in the register of creditors (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region of September 27, 2021 in case No. A43-40570/2020).
The tax inspectorate has also received applications for inclusion in the register of creditors' claims, which have not yet been considered by the court, for example, for 70,765,208.48 rubles. (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region of October 04, 2021 in case No. A43-40570/2020).
The creditor in the bankruptcy case of Gaz-Alliance is another bank - JSC Russian National Commercial Bank.
Reference
"RNKB Bank" is the key bank of the Republic of Crimea, is 100% federally owned. Founder - Federal Property Management Agency.
All hearings in court with the participation of this creditor are held behind closed doors. It is not possible to establish what other damage was caused to the state, represented by RNKB Bank, from the actions of Gaz-Alliance by Sergey Kurchenko.
"Gaz-Alliance" dealt a blow to the budget of the Russian Federation and in the bankruptcy of "Energomashbank". The State Corporation "Deposit Insurance Agency" at the state expense is obliged to reimburse the deposits of people who lost their money after the ruin of PJSC "Energomashbank". The amount of deposits from individuals and individual entrepreneurs is about 14 billion rubles (!).
It became obvious that not only commercial enterprises, but also the federal budget suffered from the actions/inactions of Gaz-Alliance.
Does he cheat even in court?
In the arbitration case on the bankruptcy of Gaz-Alliance, the court had questions regarding some creditors who could not prove and substantiate the reality of their debt for inclusion in the register of creditors of Gaz-Alliance. The court rejected the applications of these legal entities to be included in the register of creditors of Gaz-Alliance.
There is reason to believe that other legal entities affiliated with Sergei Kurchenko, who are also connected in one way or another with the debtor, Gaz-Alliance, have also decided to join the bankruptcy case. Such a scheme can be used when an unscrupulous debtor starts creditors affiliated with him, artificially creating his own debt to them for the subsequent distribution of the bankruptcy estate in favor of a “friendly” creditor, and actually returns the debt to himself, thereby leaving real creditors without money, whose debt is eroded into the bankruptcy estate of sham creditors and who will receive nothing, because the amount of their debt is much less than the amount of debts of dummy creditors.
The Nizhny Novgorod organization ANO "Center for Effective Logistics Solutions" (TIN 5263136970) was declared in the register of creditors of LLC "Company" Gaz-Alliance "in a judicial proceeding. This company allegedly provided transport services to Gaz-Alliance in the amount of 5.2 billion rubles. The court repeatedly asked the Applicant for a complete package of primary documents: bills of lading, applications, waybills, but ANO "Center for Effective Logistics Solutions" did not provide documentary evidence of the reality of relations between the debtor and the creditor, therefore ANO "Center for Effective Logistics Solutions" the court refused to include in register of creditors of Gaz-Alliance.
Important. The court found that ANO "Center for Effective Logistics Solutions" was established by the debtor himself (!). Thus, it becomes obvious that Gaz-Alliance was trying to bring controlled companies into bankruptcy proceedings, with a fictitious debt of several billion rubles, in order to eventually leave these amounts in their pocket. At the moment, ANO "Center for Effective Logistics Solutions" is in bankruptcy proceedings (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region in case No. A43-32873 / 2021 dated February 18, 2022).
In this case, there is another company that has debts to Gaz-Alliance, a state organization - FSBI Reserve-Postavka, the debt to which Gaz-Alliance transferred to ANO Center for Effective Logistics Solutions - for 5,180,748,968.56 rubles (Determination of the Arbitration Court of the Nizhny Novgorod Region dated May 06, 2022 in case No. A43-40570/2020). What did the impoverished Gaz-Alliance produce or sell to FSBI Reserve-Postavka for 5 billion rubles?
Reference
FSBI "Reserve Supply" is a structural subdivision of the Federal Agency for State Reserves. Rosrezerv manages state property in terms of material reserves. From these funds, urgent work is carried out to eliminate emergencies, provide humanitarian assistance and support to enterprises in case of temporary instability of the economy.
money centrifuge
As of January 1, 2020 current assets of Gaz-Alliance Company LLC amounted to 156.8 billion rubles
For a long time, "Gaz-Alliance" freely received goods and services worth tens of billions of rubles.
Almost all the money of the above-mentioned Energomashbank borrowers passed through Gaz-Alliance. The bank went bankrupt.
Gaz-Alliance did not pay taxes.
For many Russian firms, such non-payments by an unscrupulous Nizhny Novgorod debtor can generally turn into ruin and economic death. And during the period of the patriotic industrial agenda in Russia, significant spending on a special military operation in Ukraine and the allocation of colossal sums to stabilize the economy during the period of sanctions, they can completely leave the Russian market without some unique domestic enterprises and their products, as well as without tax revenues to the budget .
The main question remains unanswered - where and for what did these colossal sums go?
Of course, this is already a question for the investigative and law enforcement agencies, as well as the FSB and the Foreign Intelligence Service. Which of these departments is ready to defend the honor of business, the honor of Russia and force the debtor to pay creditors and pay off tax debts? Isn't the goal of the fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Sergei Kurchenko here to undermine the economic stability of Russia from the inside by ruining Russian enterprises, evading taxes to the budget, withdrawing funds to offshore? In whose interests is he acting in such a difficult period for Russia? Does he ruin our enterprises and inflict irreparable damage on them, their employees, their families on his own initiative? Or is there someone behind him? Who benefits? Does anyone know if Sergei Kurchenko surrendered his Ukrainian passport and renounced his Ukrainian citizenship?
To be continued
Arseny Dronov
Source: www.rucriminal.info
