“At the bottom”, or what to do Konstantin Strukov

The global “scam” to rip apart the Petropavlovsk company is over. Founder Maslovsky is in jail, Roman Trotsenko and Vladislav Sviblov are rubbing their hands over a successful deal, and Konstantin Strukov is waiting to be approached.

Photo: RIA Novosti

The Moscow Basmanny Court found Pavel Maslovsky, founder and former CEO of the gold mining company Petropavlovsk, guilty of large-scale fraud and sentenced him to five years and six months in prison. Allegedly, he sold the asset at a hefty price. Few doubt that this criminal case at one time “spun” at the suggestion of the current owner of the company, Konstantin Strukov.

Now, once one of the largest gold mining companies in Russia, Petropavlovsk, is simply “sinking” because of the “effective” management of the Chelyabinsk billionaire, Vice Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the region Konstantin Strukov.

Read more in the material of The Moscow Post correspondent.

Successful capture

In 2022, corporate wars broke out in Petropavlovsk PLC. Many were interested in the company's assets. And at that time, Roman Trotsenko, the owner of the AEON investment holding, an experienced and talented entrepreneur, was among the buyers of the assets. He had grandiose plans, but he sold 22.37% of the company's shares, as well as bonds that could be converted into 5.97% of the shares, from Aeon Mining to Yuzhuralzoloto (UGK), a company whose beneficiary is Konstantin Strukov. There were rumors that the owners, including the company's management and its founder Pavel Maslovsky, allegedly did not want to sell part of the shares directly to the latter. But Trotsenko could “help” Strukov out of great friendship.

At the time of the purchase, the deal was estimated at $170 million. Vladislav Sviblov, a native of the infamous Rosbuilding company, also helped Strukov which was 4.62% of “Petropavlovsk”.

It is noteworthy that, according to rumors, the ousting of its founder Pavel Maslovsky from the company was nothing more than a “performance” “staged” by the new owners, among whom Sviblov later turned out to be.

But not only Sviblov and Trotsenko had plans for Petropavlovsk. In 2022, it became known that the Region Group of Companies was going to buy a stake in the Petropavlovsk Group of Companies from Strukov. But the deal did not take place: Sergei Sudarikov, the owner of the Region company, could have been stopped by professional intuition or competence. A month later, Gazprombank transferred to UMMC-Invest the rights to claim a $200 million loan from Petropavlovsk Group of Companies.

As for Pavel Maslovsky, he fought for his asset, but because of the large debt and sanctions could not affect the situation. On September 9, 2022, the transaction for the transfer of ownership of shares in subsidiaries between Petropavlovsk Group of Companies and UMMC-Invest was closed.

In fact, there was a takeover of the company, as a result of which Strukov was in the black. At the same time, it is worth noting that over the two years of owning a large block of shares in Petropavlovsk, Strukov lost a lot of money. In March 2022, the value of a 29.18% stake in Petropavlovsk is valued at $28 million on the London Stock Exchange.

Desires broken into reality

Mr. Strukov also planned to “get” a stake in the iron mining company IRC, operating in the Far East. This firm is known for being highlighted in history with the possible financing of a large fintech startup of Russian origin – Revolut neobank Nikolai Storonsky. However, in 2021, Gazprombank and co-founder of the Sputnik investment group Dmitry Bakatin bought out a share in the IRC iron ore company from Stocken Board.

Prior to this, Yuzhuralzoloto stated that the estimated price of the transaction with Stocken at $10 million is significantly lower than the exchange value 29 .9% stake in IRC on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. But this did not help to get a stake.

Konstantin Strukov's nose was wiped? Photo: ura.news

Now the beneficiary of the YuGK and at the same time the Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk Region, Strukov, has problems in his other businesses. So, the tax inspectorate rolls over a businessman and his family. We are talking about tax debts of the coal mining company MelTEK. The Federal Tax Service insists on the joint recovery of more than 1.5 billion rubles from MelTEK and a number of legal entities, as well as Strukov and his daughter Evgenia Kuznetsova, as part of the insolvency case of the Dzerzhinsky Mine. Also, earlier, the asset of Strukov's subsidiary, following the results of an on-site audit, was charged with a tax arrears of 244.5 million, penalties for 52.5 million, and a fine of 72.2 million rubles.

However, it is more interesting that the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow will consider the requirements of JSC “Bashkir mine tunneling department” (BSHPU; 51% of the voting shares belong to LLC “UK YuGK” of the vice-speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the Chelyabinsk region Konstantin Strukov) to invalidate the loan agreement concluded with bankrupt CB “Rosenergobank” (CB “REB”).

And all because earlier CB “REB”), represented by the bankruptcy trustee of the “Deposit Insurance Agency”, filed a lawsuit against BShPU for the recovery of funds in the amount of 1.789 billion rubles and the obligation to perform certain actions. The claims were related to transactions disputed as part of the EW bankruptcy.

In fact, now Strukov's asset is just trying to dump a debt of 1.7 billion under the control of Rosfinmonitoring.

Security is in the background

In addition to these problems, there is also the fact that Strukov does not particularly care about the safety of his employees. One of the largest inspections of Rostekhnadzor at its facilities took place in September 2019 – after a whole series of fatal accidents. The point is that on the horizons of the mines belonging to Strukov in the Chelyabinsk region, electric locomotives without service brakes were found, and life-threatening electrical systems were placed near the personnel work area.

We can also recall that at the Central mine In April 2017, two workers died. Two more were killed by rock in November 2015. Shortly before that, a tunneller died during blasting.

By the way, now Strukov’s business is so bad that against the backdrop of claims by the Federal Tax Service for 1.6 billion rubles, his Yuzhuralzoloto Group of Companies JSC placed bonds for 700 million yuan, which is 6 billion rubles. In September of the same year, the Moscow Exchange registered the group's exchange-traded bond program for 60 billion rubles at once for a period of 15 years.

As a result, one can observe how, thanks to Strukov, one of the largest gold mining companies in Russia goes to the bottom and always shines in scandals . It is unlikely that a businessman will be able to reanimate the asset that he received by capturing, first Strukov needs to sort out the problems that are growing like a snowball, and every time there are more and more of them.