The shadow of a Moscow guest: the interests of Vice Mayor Liksutov again emerged far from the capital

Behind an attempt to extort millions from KREVRZ on the debts of an enterprise affiliated to it, the interests of Iskander Makhmudov from Transmashholding may stand.

According to a correspondent for The Moscow Post in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the local electric car repair plant (KrEVRZ) faces subsidiary liability of 1.6 billion rubles for the debts of the bankrupt Afina Pallada Construction Company JSC. The latter was part of the holding “Pallas Athena” of Gayk Magakelyan, who is now on the international wanted list for theft. His own holding, meanwhile, can be used as an “instrument” of pressure on the Krasnoyarsk plant.

A likely interest in what is happening is clearly looming – Transmashholding, or rather, its founders Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev. The fact is that they are probably close to the direct competitor of the Krasnoyarsk enterprise – the Moscow Locomotive Repair Plant. And here it would be appropriate to remember that Makhmudov is a long-time business partner of Moscow Vice Mayor Maxim Liksutov, whose interest in rail transport is also known.

A minority creditor of the bankrupt Afina Pallada Construction Company JSC, DEM Trading House LLC, filed a lawsuit with a request to bring 12 defendants controlling the debtor to subsidiary liability. Among them was the Krasnoyarsk Electric Car Repair Plant. The amount of subsidiary liability imposed on him and other individuals and companies included in the list of TD “DEM” exceeds 1.6 billion rubles.

And there are a lot of oddities in this case. For example, it is not very clear how Athena Pallas got such a large debt to the trading house DEM – the latter has an authorized capital of only 10 thousand rubles, last year’s revenue – 16 million, profit – 1.7 million. So where could the company get the large sums that it allegedly lent to Pallas Athena?

And, what is noteworthy, “DEM” launched a particularly active struggle just against the Krasnoyarsk asset. Last fall, the trading house asked the court “due to newly discovered circumstances” to reconsider the decision made in 2016 to include about 587 million rubles of KREVRZ claims in the register of creditors’ claims of IC Athena Pallada. Like, the company carried out a controlled bankruptcy and planned to cash in on it.

The affiliation of KrEVRZ and IC “Pallada Athena” has already been established in several judicial acts on bankruptcy. And it’s not a secret for anyone that back in 2012, CJSC Construction Company Athena Pallada (SK, Novosibirsk, part of the group of companies of the same name) became the owner of OJSC Krasnoyarsk Electric Car Repair Plant (KrEVRZ), having bought at an auction almost 100% shares of this company. Prior to that, they belonged to Russian Railways.

“The previously proven connection of companies does not in itself give rise to vicarious liability. The judge, considering the petition, is not bound by any previous decisions, facts and statements. The judge decides this issue “here and now” according to the evidence presented by the parties in support of the position “for” and “against” bringing to subsidiary liability. At the same time, the judge will not consider and take into account any external factors: rallies, possible dismissals of employees of the enterprise and much more. Only exhaustive evidence and their correct interpretation,” Alexei Gorelov, senior partner at the consulting company Dubinin & Partners, told The Moscow Post.

It’s not that simple

But according to DEM, the scheme may be more cunning: they say that the same person is behind the Krasnoyarsk plant and Athena Pallada – Hayk Magakelyan. And he could ensure the conclusion of an additional agreement dated June 2016, according to which KrEVRZ JSC fully assumed the obligations of IC Athena Pallada under the company’s loan agreement, “getting the opportunity, as a majority creditor, to control the bankruptcy procedure.” Then Magakelyan officially left Pallas Athena.

But no one forgot about him – he is on the international wanted list in the case of embezzlement of more than 400 million rubles in the implementation of contracts concluded with Russian Railways in 2013-2015 for a total of 2.9 billion rubles. It was about an ambitious project to build a light metro in Damascus (Syria).

As a result, Viktor Morgachev, the former general director of SK Athena Pallada-Moscow LLC, was convicted in that case, Kommersant wrote. Previously, he had already received two years probation for non-payment of taxes on an especially large scale, he owed the state 600 million rubles. But he got off lightly – people are given real terms and for less money, the prosecution article provided for 6 years in prison, but Morgachev was released from this punishment under an amnesty.

Perhaps then Hayk Magakelyan himself helped him to “rescue”, who, according to rumors, is a very difficult person. Earlier, The Moscow Post told how in 2012, Gaik Magakelyan’s partner Oleg Khripunov committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. First, a murder case was opened, and then it was reclassified as incitement to suicide. Although the Khripunov family was sure that he had been shot.

Who knows, maybe the entrepreneur has solid connections. But Magakelyan was a member of the “Investors Club of Armenia”, created by the head of the “Tashir” group Samvel Karapetyan, and could use his support.

In addition, Magakelyan’s firm could have colluded with the Arctic Mining Company (AGK), which then belonged to Dmitry Bosov. Back in 2015, IC Athena-Pallada, which is part of the holding of the same name, contracted to build all the necessary infrastructure for AGK around a coal deposit planned for development near the coast of the Arctic Ocean, near the port of Dikson. The construction company performed a significant part of the work at its own expense without prepayment.

In total, the work was performed in the amount of 160 million rubles, which included the salary of workers. Subsequently, the management of Athena Pallada allegedly found out that the AGK customer did not have a license to develop the deposit and stopped work. Is it possible that there really were some agreements between the company?

But those are things of bygone days, Dmitry Bosov died, Magakelyan is hiding somewhere behind the cordon, and the same “Arctic Mining Company” has passed into the hands of businessman Roman Trotsenko. That’s just that he has no interest in the railway, to which Pallas Athena is so close.

Business interests on rails

On the other hand, Transmashholding Makhmudov and Bokarev have corresponding interests. And here it is time to remember that the Krasnoyarsk plant is a direct competitor of the Moscow Locomotive Repair Plant. Back in 2013, he mentioned in his annual report that the repair of AC and DC electrical sections is carried out by KREVRZ, which competes with the Company in the segment of DC electric rolling stock repair services.

According to “Rusprofile”, the only customer for JSC “Moscow LRP” is JSC “Central PPK”. And, according to unconfirmed information, a controlling stake in Central PPK may belong to the owners of Transmashholding Iskander Makhmudov and Andrey Bokarev, longtime partners of Moscow Vice Mayor Maxim Liksutov.

The latter knows Makhmudov from the time of doing business in Estonia – there, the then future Moscow official in the 90s was engaged in the supply and transshipment of Kuzbass coal and was a partner of Iskander Makhmudov, whose Kuzbassrazrezugol was the main supplier of his coal business. Later, Liksutov also secured relations with Makhmudov through Aeroexpress and Andrey Bokarev.

So that it is precisely this trio that can act in the interests of the Moscow LRZ? This could clear up a lot. For example, an enterprise may also be very interested in the “light” metro project in Damascus – a lot of money is spinning there!

That’s just the name of Liksutov appeared in ugly stories related to the subway – specifically the metropolitan. So, earlier the possibility of introducing drones into the subway was very actively discussed. Moreover, there is even a technical possibility for this, since all the trains that Moscow has been purchasing for the past eight years have the function of an unmanned control mode. The reason for the refusal to use a high-tech solution was the movement interval: for drones, at the time of the discussion, it was 180 seconds, while the usual interval for the capital is 90 seconds.

But Muscovites reacted rather coolly to such an initiative, since many still remember the largest accident in the metro on the stretch between the Slavyansky Bulvar and Park Pobedy stations of the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line in 2014 – then several head cars of the train derailed and crashed into a wall tunnel. As a result of the incident, 23 people died (20 at the scene of the tragedy, three in hospitals), 271 were injured, more than 150 were hospitalized.

Maxim Liksutov, who at that time was in charge of the transport sector at the mayor’s office, said that the main version of the causes of the train crash in the Moscow metro is considered to be an incorrectly fixed arrow. On this fact, a criminal case was opened. As a result, the senior road foreman of the track service Valery Bashkatov, his assistant Yuri Gordov, production director of Spetstekhrekonstruktsiya LLC Anatoly Kruglov and deputy head of the overhaul department of the track service of the State Unitary Enterprise Moscow Metro Alexei Trofimov turned out to be in the dock, Vesti reported.

But none of the officials were brought to justice then. It is possible that for Liksutov this could become a kind of sign: should he not let go of the topic of the subway?

And so it turns out that in the current trial of the Krasnoyarsk plant and the minority shareholder, the shadow of the Moscow mayor’s office looms. Carriage construction is a profitable niche. And as soon as one of the participants in this chain (“Athena-Pallas”) ran into problems, movements in the market immediately began.