A candidate for a flight from Italy to Russia, before leaving the post of director of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery, under a fake protocol, issued himself a bonus of $ 10 million

In Tyumen, the local department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) filed a new charge in absentia with Gennady Lisovichenko, the former general director of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery (OR), who was recently detained in Italy at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.

In addition to abuse of authority when concluding a deal that is unprofitable for the enterprise, Mr. Lisovichenko is now charged with an attempt on a particularly large-scale fraud. According to investigators, in 2018, before his dismissal, the director illegally issued himself a bonus for good work in the amount of $10 million. The defense believes that the new charge was brought to increase the volume of claims against Mr. Lisovichenko, counting on his speedy extradition to Russia. Meanwhile, the businessman himself, speaking in the court of the city of Bari, asked the Italian authorities to grant him political asylum.

The decision to bring Gennady Lisovichenko, who held the post of general director of Antipinsky Oil Refinery JSC for 14 years, as a defendant under Art. 30 and part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted fraud on an especially large scale) was issued by the investigative department of the TFR in the Tyumen region at the end of January this year. The other day, the investigation turned to the Leninsky District Court of Tyumen with a petition for the arrest in absentia of Mr. Lisovichenko. The defendant’s defense objected, pointing out that the investigation had no convincing grounds for choosing such a harsh measure of restraint. However, the court granted the petition of the investigation. At the same time, it should be noted that on the first charge – abuse of power (Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), which caused significant harm to the organization (Antipinsky Oil Refinery), in the summer of 2019, Mr. Lisovichenko was already arrested in absentia by the same Leninsky District Court.

As stated in the decision to bring a new charge against the ex-general director of the refinery, Gennady Lisovichenko in 2018, on the eve of his dismissal, “in order to steal money” of the plant, made a false protocol of a meeting of the board of directors of the enterprise on establishing an incentive payment in the form of a bonus to the general director in the amount of $10 million .

In addition, according to the investigation, Mr. Lisovichenko issued an order to reward himself in “connection with the achievement of production indicators.”

The lawyer of Mr. Lisovichenko, Ruslan Elkanov, told Kommersant that the reason for initiating a new criminal case was the statements of representatives of the current management of the refinery, as well as the testimony of employees of the enterprise. The defender has not yet commented on the details of the case, as they “have yet to be sorted out.” At the same time, he does not agree with all the claims previously made against Mr. Lisovichenko.

In particular, in the first case, the ex-general director is charged with abuse of power when concluding an agreement on the sale of the railway access track of the Antipinsky Oil Refinery for 20 million rubles. According to the investigation, the track was an important object for the plant, and the examination estimated it at 35.2 million rubles. The TFR decided that by doing so, Mr. Lisovichenko caused damage to his enterprise. According to Elkanov’s lawyer, Mr. Lisovichenko sold the access road to Oil and Gas Concern (NGK) Alfa LLC, which he himself created at the refinery. On the basis of the oil and gas complex, the defender notes, it was planned to create its own railway operator, which would allow the refinery to save up to 2-3 billion rubles. in year. After NGK Alfa became the owner of the access road, a lease agreement was concluded, the cost of which, according to Mr. Lisovichenko’s calculations, was comparable to the cost of maintaining the road when the plant was the owner, but this excluded the costs associated with the maintenance of the tracks and service personnel. At the same time, the lawyer noted, the sale of the railway track did not create obstacles for the transportation of finished products. Lawyer Elkanov also emphasized that after the “undisputed” bankruptcy of the enterprise, the bankruptcy trustee put the railway track up for sale, valuing it at only 16 million rubles. “What is the abuse here and what damage did my client cause if he sold the route for the benefit of the refinery?” the lawyer wonders.

It should be noted that the criminal prosecution of Mr. Lisovichenko is not limited to the “Tyumen” cases.

In 2019, as Kommersant told, the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (large-scale fraud) in relation to Dmitry Mazurov, the founder of the Novy Potok group of companies, which previously owned the Antipinsky Oil Refinery. Among the episodes incriminated to Dmitry Mazurov, whose case is now being considered in court, is embezzlement of $ 29 million from Sberbank and embezzlement of 473 million rubles. The second episode concerns the withdrawal of the company’s funds under a fictitious contract, which Mr. Mazurov allegedly carried out together with Gennady Lisovichenko. In June 2020, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow, at the request of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, arrested Mr. Lisovichenko in absentia as part of this case.

Now Mr. Lisovichenko is in a prison in the city of Lecce in Italy. As Kommersant reported, the businessman was detained on January 20 this year by police while checking documents in the city of Bari. The reason for the detention was the fact that the former general director of the refinery was wanted by Interpol at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. The local court ordered his detention pending trial. During the meeting, Gennady Lisovichenko appealed to the Italian authorities with a request to grant him political asylum. He stated that the criminal case in Russia against him was fabricated with the aim of seizing the plant and its subsequent bankruptcy. At the same time, Mr. Lisovichenko pointed out that inhuman conditions of detention in prison await him at home, as well as unlawful methods of influence that are allegedly applied to prisoners in order to obtain evidence. Lawyer Elkanov, referring to his Italian colleagues representing the interests of the former general director of the refinery, said that the court ruled not to extradite the Russian “until the case is fully resolved.”