The court of Yaroslavl satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office and decided to collect more than 80% of the shares of TGC-2 to the budget of the Russian Federation. It is one of the largest generating energy companies in Russia.
The beneficiary of the company is a former senator Leonid Lebedevwho left Russia in the mid-2010s after instituting criminal case on the theft of 220 million dollars.
Leonid Lebedev is a member of the Forbes list. In the 1990s, he founded one of the first private oil companies, Negusneft, in 2001, together with Vekselberg And Blavatnik owned shares in TNK, from 2002 to 2015 represented Chuvashia in the Federation Council. Of note: he also had a production company, Red Arrow, which released the films Stilyagi and The Geographer Drank His Globe Away.
TGC-2 Lebedev I bought in 2008, the shares cost him about 16 billion rubles. TGK-2 has become the largest thermal power company in the Northwestern and Central federal districts. It owns 12 thermal power plants, 30 boiler houses and four heating networks.
In 2016, one of the company’s minority shareholders filed a lawsuit accusing the ex-senator and top managers of TGK-2 of stealing $220 million from the company’s budget. A criminal case was opened. Then it turned out that Lebedev had left Russia. Since then, the businessman has not been particularly featured in the media.
The lawsuit for the withdrawal of TGC-2 shares in favor of the state was registered in June of this year. The hearing took place in one sitting. A representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office said that Lebedev acquired the business with corruption proceeds. In addition, at the time of the purchase, he was a senator and, by law, had to give up business activities. The defense noted that billions for the purchase of TGCs were taken on credit from Sberbank, and asked for time to prepare evidence, but the court did not give it.
“Kommersant”, 07/14/2023, “TGC-2 was taken under supervision and confiscation”: Leonid Lebedev, according to a prosecutor’s lawsuit considered by the Leninsky District Court of Yaroslavl on Friday, was a member of the Federation Council from Chuvashia from 2002 to 2015. The appointment required him to give up entrepreneurial activities, but the then member of United Russia, according to the supervisor, was very active in it. As a result, in 2008, he acquired 99% of Kores Invest LLC, which, “in order to create a false appearance of compliance with the law,” he transferred to the trust management of the Sintez group. In fact, the only participant in the latter was Mr. Lebedev’s wife, a housewife. Then Mr. Lebedev and Kores Invest bought shares in TGK-2. “Lebedev committed a crime of corruption,” Ivan Zhdanov, a spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office, argued, noting that his opponent declared an income of 710 million rubles from 2002 to 2008. and had no legal means to buy shares.
The case file noted that Mr. Lebedev was personally involved in the management of TGC-2. In any case, meetings of the company’s board of directors were held in Moscow in the office where the senator’s reception room, the Sintez group and Cores Invest were located. “The board of directors of TGC-2 also consisted of affiliated organizations whose beneficiary was Lebedev,” prosecutor Zhdanov noted.
Subsequently, the senator’s stake was transferred to organizations controlled by him, according to the supervision, which were presented in court as defendants: Janan Holdings Ltd, Raltaka Enterprises Ltd and Litim Trading Ltd. “All this was done in order to hide the fact that Lebedev owned shares in TGC-2, as well as his personal participation in the management of the generating company,” prosecutor Zhdanov said, noting that in any case, the income from the activities of the TGC was received by the senator, on whose structures funds were withdrawn. — Inset K.ru
Now a controlling stake in TGK-2 should go to the state. The representative of the company estimated the damage from its withdrawal from the owners at 3.5 billion rubles.
IA “Interfax”, 07/14/2023, “The court decided to recover a controlling stake in TGC-2 to the state’s income”: During the meeting, the judge stated that the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office refers to the transfer of shares of Kostroma Kogeneratsiya Limited, Janan Holdings Limited, Raltaka Enterprises Ltd., Litim Trading Limited, Kores Invest LLC, as well as Leonid Lebedev and Dolgovoye LLC to state income agency” (in total, they own 81.39% of the shares of TGC-2, which, apart from the shares of Kostroma Kogeneratsiya, are currently in trust management of Sovlink LLC – IF). At the same time, the prosecutor during the meeting did not specify what block of shares he was talking about. […]
The representative of the “Debt Agency” at the court hearing said that if the shares were withdrawn, the agency’s loss would amount to 2.4 billion rubles. According to a representative of TGC-2, the damage to the energy company will amount to 3.5 billion rubles. The representative of “Kores” also petitioned to postpone the case, arguing that not all the defendants were notified in time, but the judge rejected it. “The court sees the petition as a way to drag out the case,” he said.
Earlier it was reported that the Leninsky District Court of Yaroslavl at a meeting on Friday refused the representative of Kores Invest LLC to satisfy the petition to change the territorial jurisdiction and transfer the case to the Presnensky District Court of Moscow. — Inset K.ru
Igor Yushkov, a leading expert of the Financial University and the National Energy Security Fund, discusses what will happen to TGC-2 and what the court decision means for the energy market.
Igor Yushkov
leading expert of the Financial University and the National Energy Security Fund
“The owner of this company now has no lobbying support, no lobbying resource, and in this regard, he is largely alien to the current political elites and close to the old political and economic elites. He did business with the so-called tankers, that is, representatives of the Tyumen Oil Company – with Blavatnik, Vekselberg, Fridman, and so on. And in this regard, this story is somewhat different from how the Russian authorities are now dealing with the business of foreign companies. We see that nothing is taken away from anyone just like that, and the same shares of BP in Rosneft, for example, are still preserved. Yes, it cannot receive dividend payments now, but nevertheless, it is not necessary to say that some kind of wave of seizures, nationalization and other things has begun. And the story with TGC-2 is more of an internal Russian elite conflict, when all the claims that were put forward in court against Lebedev are quite justified here. Another question is that if he had a lobbying resource and apparatus weight, this conflict would probably have been resolved in some kind of pre-trial procedure. And the prospects for TGC-2, I think, are quite good, the company is profitable. The current court decision on the change of ownership, in general, does not affect the company’s operations, it will continue to produce and sell electricity and heat, so the court decision does not mean that the power plant will stop. No, now it will become the property of the state, in the future the state, apparently, will privatize this package, and one of the major players will probably become the owner. Therefore, the only question is who will become the owner of these assets, otherwise the state will simply sell its stake in TGC-2, which now belongs to it.”
Formally, Lebedev does not appear among the owners of shares. They belong to several companies, but the Prosecutor General’s Office considers them under the control of the ex-senator. Representatives of these companies said they intend to appeal the decision to transfer shares to the state budget.
IA “RBC”, 14.07.2023, “The court recovered the controlling stake in TGC-2 to the state’s income”: Earlier, the press service of TGC-2 told RBC that during the trial, temporary interim measures were taken against the Company. The company continues to carry out production and economic activities and preparations for the autumn-winter period.
In 2015, against the former CEO of TGC-2 and the executive director of the Sintez group Andrey Korolev filed a case. According to investigators, he caused damage to Gazprom Mezhregiongaz Tver in the amount of more than 2.6 billion rubles. — Inset K.ru
