The military asked for the ex-director of Remdiesel
At the trial, the Ministry of Internal Affairs asked to change the preventive measure for Faiza Khafizova, where a letter from the military arrived. As it became known to BUSINESS Online, this week the Moscow City Court during an open court session released Faiz Khafizov from house arrest. The former general director of Remdizel, and now an adviser, became a defendant in a large-scale criminal case in the spring of 2021 and had to go to court in a special order. But the respected automaker turned out to be needed by the Fatherland during the SVO: the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia received a letter of appeal from the Ministry of Defense with a request to allow the former top manager to work on the repair documentation of trucks of the Ministry of Defense. The investigation didn’t mind.
Why the former general director of a defense enterprise was placed under house arrest: the version of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
Faiz Khafizov, the former CEO of JSC Remdizel and one of the most respected automakers of Tatarstan, was detained on April 30, 2021. On that day, according to the agenda, he arrived at the building of the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Khafizov has been in charge of the plant since 2005 and retired in 2021, when he turned 71. Alexander Zakharov replaced him in the chair of the general director, Khafizov received the position of adviser.
Two months before Khafizov’s arrest, Remdiesel and a number of KAMAZ dealers in other regions of the country were searched as part of a fraud case. As the official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk reported, since January 2014, the members of the organized group, acting on behalf of the dealers of KAMAZ PJSC, “committed theft of buyers’ funds.”
“The attackers were selling cars that were made from repair kits. At the same time, the vehicles were equipped with engines of a low ecological class, prohibited for operation on the territory of Russia. Knowingly false information about their technical characteristics was entered into the passports of vehicles, ”the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a release.
The investigative department estimated the amount of damage at least 1 billion rubles. Before Khafizov, several KamSpetsMash employees fell under suspicion: the head of the company, Nail Manasipov, the commercial director, Ranis Shakurov, and the head of the technical documentation department, Olga Gilmutdinova. And also former employees of Remdiesel – Vyacheslav Borisov and Damir Nigmatullin, ex-head of the sales department. Together with them, another Remdiesel employee, Airat Mukhametzyanov, went on the case.
Khafizov was eventually placed under house arrest. This decision was made by the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow in May 2021. During this time, the case has acquired a particularly serious 210th article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
The court released Khafizov at the request of the investigator and the request of the military
For almost two years, the 74-year-old former top manager was confined within four walls. And it is not known how much more he would have spent in the “dungeons”. If not for SVO.
As it became known to BUSINESS Online, on March 7, a representative of the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs filed a petition with the court to mitigate the measure of restraint for the former director of a defense plant.
The reason for the petition was three appeals to the investigation that Khafizov be allowed to leave the house and work. These are the appeals of the defendant himself, JSC Remdiesel and the Russian Ministry of Defense. As follows from the court ruling, Khafizov was asked to be released due to the need for “urgent restoration and repair of military equipment in the areas of the special military operation with his personal participation as the main developer of military documentation.”
The demand of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the actual release of Khafizov at a court session open to the press was considered by the Moscow City Court. Judge Alexander Rybak considered it legal and justified, therefore he changed the measure of restraint to a ban on certain actions. Information about this in an interview with “BUSINESS Online” was confirmed by the lawyer of the accused Eric Valeev.
What is prohibited for Khafizov to do? Not so much: for example, no time limits are imposed on leaving the house. Perhaps the most strict thing that the former general director cannot do is to communicate with other defendants in the criminal case.
Already on March 9, according to our interlocutors, Khafizov joined the work and participated in working meetings. By the way, since his “imprisonment” under house arrest, the rules of the “game” have also changed: since 2022, against the backdrop of large-scale EU and US sanctions, Russia’s largest manufacturers have been allowed to operate cars with low-emission engines.
What does Remdiesel do?
Remdiesel was founded in 1978 in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny. In 2012, the company separated from KAMAZ and became an independent enterprise. This decision was made in order to avoid the threat of sanctions. Today, Remdiesel is one of the largest KAMAZ dealer centers in the Volga Federal District. The company is engaged in the sale and repair of a model range of cars and special equipment “KAMAZ”.
In 2017, the Special Vehicles Plant (ZSA) was transferred to the balance of Remdizel, where they began to assemble armored vehicles of the Typhoon, Shot and Tornado families, as well as a workshop for the manufacture of aluminum components for KAMAZ engines. Since June 2020, the company, as we already wrote, is headed by Zakharov.
The Remdiesel company has 20 production sites that provide a full technological cycle, and 90 thousand square meters. m of production space. To date, 1.8 thousand employees work there, who annually produce more than 5 thousand units of equipment for overhaul.
The main advantage of overhauled trucks is their price. “A repaired car is 25% cheaper than a new one. Updating all components allows you to almost completely restore the primary performance of cars and units, ”the company’s official website says.
Over the long years of work, Remdiesel has established partnerships with large companies such as CJSC Ormet, Bashneft and Gazprom Transgaz Kazan. According to the Kontr.Fokus portal, at the end of 2017 (this is the latest open data), the company’s revenue amounted to 8.9 billion rubles with a net profit of 395.2 million.