British accent in the port of Perm

The liquid assets of the port of Perm “floated” into the hands of British citizen Charles Butler.

“Port Perm”, which was nationalized not so long ago, will again be sold under the hammer – such a decision has already been made by the Government of the Russian Federation, which included shares in the program for 2023-2025. In the meantime, “privatization 2.0” stumbled over yet another foreigner – a British citizen Charles Butler, in whose hands the liquid property of the port turned out to be. Judicial battles unfolded around the latter, one of which was initiated by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

A strategic asset was snatched from the hands of foreigners, but there is a nuance

The Port of Perm is one of the largest ports on the Kama River and was a state-owned enterprise until the 1990s.

In June 1993, the Perm Region Property Management Committee authorized the privatization of the port. Although in this respect the law spoke unambiguously – the privatization of port facilities and facilities is prohibited. But this cunning officials and businessmen of the era of the 90s, however, did not stop. As early as 2009, the state lost control over this strategic asset, which changed hands, becoming virtually under foreign control. At some point, the shares of the Perm port were even owned by companies associated with the American billionaire Mark Rich.

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru

Only in 2017 did a long (last verdicts were issued in June 2023) legal epic to regain control of the asset by the state begin. At the end of October 2022, the court finally issued a corresponding verdict, recovering the shareholdings of Anna Saygina, the Czech companies Bossworth SE and Amager to the state’s income. The state eventually became the holder of a controlling stake – 79.63% (at the end of June 2023).

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/

The shares came to the final defendants through a whole chain of transactions. The FAS, which was the plaintiff in the case of the nationalization of the asset, noted that the transactions led to the establishment of control by a foreign investor – Charles Butler, through persons controlled by him, over a joint-stock company of strategic importance for Russia. For example, in 2010, Butler represented shareholder Naomi Britz at the shareholders’ meeting. Butler was also the sole owner of the foreign company “Tetetice”, which was once also among the shareholders. At the same time, a certain Ninel Sheybalova was among the shareholders. But in the future, the stakes in these two individuals and the Tetetice company went to three Czech companies – BOSSWORT, SE, GRYLUSON, SE and Amager, sro, which received a total of 79.29% of the shares. In 2016, a stake in Griluson SE was transferred to Anna Saygina.

According to Rusprofile, Saygina is the director of two Perm companies – Port City LLC and Digital Port LLC. They belong to the citizen of the Czech Republic Petr Soukop and the European company “Daltamen, SE”. At the same time, earlier the owner of Digital Port was Charles Butler, already known to us. That is, Saigina later could well represent the interests of the same Butler, since she was appointed to the position even under him.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru/

Butler managed to flash not only among the shareholders. According to Rusprofile, in June 2016 – March 2017, he was the general director of Port Perm JSC. In addition, he owned shares in four companies, including the construction LLC Cathedral (liquidated in 2021), LLC ” NSM Port Perm” (owned in 2015-2017) and LLC “Gastro Port” (owned for several months in 2016). The last one for today was also handed over to the notorious Peter Soukop. The company previously managed a restaurant of the same name in Perm, which was built on the former sites of the port of Perm. In 2017, the Gastro Port company even managed to be a supplier of lunches, receptions and dinners for the Administration of the Government of the Perm Territory for more than 1 million rubles, but the performance was terminated by agreement of the parties. At the same time, almost the entire amount was paid to the supplier.

All the mentioned companies, where Butler noted, had close ties with the port of Perm. For example, the co-owner of Kafedral is the former general director of Port Perm, Marek Kinzl, and the director of Kafedral, who later became the owner of NSM Port Perm LLC, Alexei Bolotov, also owns a stake in UK Terminal LLC. The second co-owner of the management company is Andrey Maltsev, who from May 2021 to June 2023 was the director of Port Perm JSC.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru/

It would seem that the state regained the shares of the port back in October 2022 and gained control of the asset. But by the time the verdict was issued, the liquid property of the company had already managed to float away in different directions, including into the hands of foreign citizens. The same Mr. Butler.

Liquid assets “ran up”

In 2022-2023, as part of a long-running lawsuit, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Perm Territory tried to return transformer substations, power lines, a heating network and 31 land plots to the balance of the port. But, alas, in April 2023, the arbitration refused the supervisory authority to invalidate the sales contracts and recover assets from illegal possession. The defendants were the previously mentioned Digital Port, the European company Daltamen, SE, Port City, Port Perm LLC (a subsidiary of Port Perm JSC), Port Perm JSC itself, a certain “InvestGroup” and the Federal Property Management Agency, which in 2009 sold the assets, in fact, selling into the hands of foreign and Russian businessmen the entire Malomaly liquidity of the port.

In 2009, the property of the port, according to the prosecutor’s office, illegally left the control of the state, and later completely passed into the hands of foreigners. As the prosecutor noted in one of the court disputes, private companies in the process of making a number of transactions turned out to have property and plots under them, which could not be privatized and subsequently sold to the defendants.

“Due to successive transactions, the state lost control over this property. In addition, the Port Perm company was under the control of a foreign investor,” the supervisory authority noted.

Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru

When the court in 2023 refused to satisfy the claim to the prosecutor’s office, it referred, among other things, to the missed deadlines. The prosecutor did not agree with the verdict and will appeal against it today. The next meeting is scheduled for August 22, 2023.

But this is by no means the only litigation over the port’s assets.

The port was taken under control, but a massacre unfolded for the assets

According to Rusprofile, since June 2023, the full namesake of the former prosecutor of the North-Eastern Administrative District of Moscow, known in the case of the Khachaturian sisters, Anri Rizaev, has been appointed director of Port Perm JSC.

Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru

Meanwhile, the appointment of a security official, who, according to the Kommersant newspaper, was pushed through by federal structures, is an application for a tough solution to the issue. To date, Rizaev, apparently, has already begun to form his team. So at the end of June 2023, a new director was appointed to the “daughter” of the port – Port Perm LLC Ilya Chernyshev. The latter is the owner and director of the construction company SK Planeta.

Port Perm LLC is a provider of services under state contracts to the Federal State Institution “Administration “Kamvodput” and the MKU “Perm City Department of Civil Protection”. At the end of 2022, the LLC indicated revenue – 641 million rubles and net profit – 52 million rubles. For comparison: the revenue of JSC Port Perm in 2022 – 36 million rubles, and instead of profit – a net loss of 11 million rubles.

Simultaneously with the strengthening of control on the spot, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit on July 19, 2023 against Port Perm JSC, Charles Butler and Port Perm LLC. The plaintiff demands the application of the consequences of the invalidity of the transaction in the form of the return of movable and immovable property, the recognition of ownership of the Russian Federation and the invalidation of the right to pledge assets. They demand to return to the balance of Port Perm JSC a whole list of property that appears in the transfer act signed by the head of that period (in 2014). The plaintiff also demanded to recognize as absent the right of ownership of Port Perm LLC to the property, which was transferred to him in the same period as an additional contribution to the authorized capital. Finally, the prosecutor is requesting that the pledge of assets issued to Mr. Butler in 2015 be declared absent. Probably, property was pledged under the guise of collateral for certain loans.

As interim measures in the case, all movable and immovable property owned by Port Perm LLC was seized. On July 25, a writ of execution was issued for interim measures. The meeting on the main dispute is scheduled for September 12.

At the same time, in parallel with the claim of the supervisory authority, the port itself initiated a litigation. The defendants are Digital Port and Port City (owned by the Czech company Daltamen, SE, which also owns Terminal Port LLC). In this situation, we are also talking about the recovery of property from illegal possession, but the list of property has not yet been disclosed. The claim was dismissed due to deficiencies.

The second major shareholder, Dmitry Lepeshkin (share – 19.21%), also intervened in the story with the assets that floated off the balance of the port, whose legal claims have so far been suspended. Back in November 2022, in a lawsuit against Daltamen, SE, Port City, Digital Port, he demanded to invalidate real estate purchase and sale transactions and apply the consequences thereof through the return of land plots and buildings standing on them to the balance of the port.

Here it would not be superfluous to note that the British citizen Butler is also not sitting idly by. Back in 2021, he filed a lawsuit to recover from the port and its “daughter” a certain debt under a loan agreement dated March 2015, as well as interest and penalties, as well as foreclosures on pledged assets. The total amount of claims at that time was more than 210 million rubles. Probably, we are talking about the pledge of those assets that are mentioned in the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Meetings on Butler’s claims starting in 2021 are being postponed. The next meeting is scheduled for August 8th.

An interesting fact: the mentioned shareholder Lepeshkin, who is a co-owner of two law firms (in Moscow and Perm), decided to play on the field of Governor Dmitry Makhonin. Judging by the decision of the latter dated April 14, 2023, Lepeshkin donated one share of Port Perm JSC to the regional government back in March. This, in turn, allowed local authorities to intervene more legally in the affairs of the port.

According to the information disclosure website, in 2023, and. O. the heads of administration of Governor Makhonin – Alexander Smertin and Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Territory Andrey Alyakrinsky. Also on the board of directors is Anna Drokova – the full namesake of an employee of the Federal Property Management Agency, as well as Sergey Suvorov – the namesake of a high-ranking official from Rosmorrechflot.

Photo: https://www.disclosure.ru

At the beginning of July 2023, the annual meeting of shareholders was held in the port, but they decided not to approve the annual report. Apparently, they will wait for the decision on the courts for liquid assets.

Photo: https://www.disclosure.ru

The intervention of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the appointment of a former prosecutor, personnel reshuffles from Makhonin’s team and the federal center in the board of directors are links in the same chain, the result of which will be the re-privatization of the port. This is also confirmed by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of May 30, 2023 No. 1420-r, which included a 79.64% stake in the port of Perm in the plan for the privatization of federal property for 2023-2025.

Photo: hzikhidtidekrt http://government.ru

Thus, the return of liquid property to the balance of the port is also a matter of the future price of the block of shares. Without buildings, structures and land, the port will be a dummy, which is unlikely to be of interest to serious business. But still, the question arises, why shouldn’t the government transfer the strategic enterprise to a specialized state-owned company and replenish the budget from the profits of the port, instead of re-risking and after many years of litigation, selling it into private hands? After all, nothing prevents the buyer after a while, when the foam of the scandal settles, to again shake off the port to foreigners from some country not friendly to Russia …