Did they pull a greenmail out of the Hatter?
Can entrepreneur Yakov Shlyapochnik, whom opponents accused of taking funds from gullible clients, stand behind the attempt at a likely “corporate raiding” in Mechel?
According to the correspondent of The Moscow Post, at the suit of the minority shareholder of Kuzbassenergosbyt, the company Advalor-Consult, provisional measures were imposed on a number of assets of Mechel and its main shareholder Igor Zyuzin. In “Mechel” they regard this as nothing more than an attempt to force him to buy out his stake at an inflated price.
Behind Advalor-Consult itself are, in general, not very media entrepreneurs, but the company is a partner of the Nord-Capital company, founded by businessman Yakov Shlyapochnik. Opponents have repeatedly reproached him for the fact that an entrepreneur can withdraw money from partners who trusted him to offshore. And already from foreign accounts, it turns out, to send money at your discretion?
In the context of this, it seems not at all accidental that the provisional measures on assets belonging to the structures and shareholders of Mechel were imposed by the District Court of Nicosia. Could the Hatter “pull” his foreign friends if something happened?
Let us clarify that interim measures were imposed as part of the lawsuit of Advalor-Consult, which since March 2021 owns 25% of Kuzbassenergosbyt, 72% of which is controlled by Mechel). According to the estimates of the new minority shareholder, the damage caused to the company by various intra-group transactions with companies of the Mechel group is about 80 million euros.
In total, in April-May 2021, Advalor-Consult filed a number of lawsuits against Mechel structures for a total of 7.1 billion rubles, considering the agreements concluded between Kuzbassenergosbyt and other group structures as unprofitable and violating the procedure for approving transactions with interest. However, the arbitration court of the Kemerovo region has already rejected claims for 5.3 billion rubles.
But in “Advalor-Consult”, apparently, they are determined to go further. And in Mechel itself, they saw this as an attempt to force them to buy out a minority stake at an inflated price. This scheme is by no means new and even has a separate name – greenmail. The latter, as experts say, can be regarded as a kind of so-called corporate raiding, which is on the verge between law and crime. The Moscow Post has previously talked about similar stories, in particular, about the situation around Schelkovo-Agrokhim.
Partner “what you need”
Usually in such cases, someone’s massive figure is seen behind the greenmail attempt, while the main “work” is carried out by not very media characters. In this case, Artem Gerasimov and Sergey Tsibizov, who cannot be called big businessmen, stand behind Advalor-Consult. And the business of the company headed by them is not going very well – it has zero revenue and profit, and the value of its assets is negative – minus 140 thousand rubles. So where could the money come from to enter the Mechel structure?
None other than Yakov the Hatter could give them money. On the official website of “Advalor-Consult” the only company in the “Partners” column is “Nord-Capital” founded by him.
True, according to Rusprofile, this is no longer Nord-Capital, but Algo Capital, owned by the Cypriot company Quant Infinity Holding Ltd. Actually, the company has always been tied to foreign companies, which, replacing each other, were its owners.
All these details suggest that someone may be trying to hide some information. This opinion is also shared by businessman Andrey Smirnov, who last year filed a claim for 100 million rubles against the Nord-Capital investment group as a victim in a criminal case, believing that he was dragged into a banal financial pyramid, wrote TASS.
In 2012, as a private investor, Smirnov was offered to invest in an aggressive and balanced multi-strategy with a yield of 100% and 50%, respectively. Smirnov entered into an agreement with the offshore company Nord Capital Financial Advisory Services Ltd. and transferred first 60 million rubles, and later another 40 million rubles through a transit account with Gazprombank.
Then he tried to withdraw his money from the company, but this request was denied, he was dissuaded in every possible way from withdrawing the money and, according to him, he was allegedly persuaded to personally meet with the chairman of the board of directors of Nord-Capital, Yakov Shlyapochnik. At the meeting, he insisted on an additional contribution from the investor in the amount of at least 500 thousand dollars.
Representatives of Smirnov believe that this is precisely why the company could change foreign owners so often, but in reality the Hatter always stood behind it. Information about this, in particular, was published on the Finanz.ru website.
It should be noted that for a long time everything was calm in Nord-Capital. But on August 1, 2014, searches began in the Moscow office of the company, Versiya wrote. Even earlier, a criminal case was initiated on fraud on an especially large scale against unidentified persons.
The case was initiated at the initiative of the injured investor Viktor Vorobyov. In 2013, he invested $1.5 million in Nord Capital (NC) Financial Advisory Services (British Virgin Islands) through Cypriot TUL Finance. As in the case of Smirnov, Vorobyov tried to withdraw the money, but NC Financial Advisory Services refused to do so, citing the “negative effect on financial markets” caused by the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing programs. Did the Hatter act according to an already run-in scheme?
And there are many more similar stories with the participation of Nord-Capital on the net – however, they are published anonymously and on blogs. Perhaps their authors simply hope to come to an amicable agreement with the Hatter?
Didn’t stop at “achieved”?
Meanwhile, exactly one day before the searches in 2014, Nord Capital’s business in America was frozen. The National Futures Association (NFA) banned NC Advisors and its shareholder the Hatter from trading in the US market. They were forbidden to attract funds from clients for management, to conclude transactions on the market on all accounts under management, except for closing positions. It also prohibits the spending or transfer of any funds over which they exercise control without prior approval from the NFA.
But there is one caveat – according to unconfirmed information, the Hatter did not work directly with his clients. Allegedly, he signed an agreement with him on behalf of some offshore company, which was soon liquidated. And, they say, the rainbow figures of the reports in the electronic personal account of the client are falsification.
And in the implementation of dubious schemes, the Hatter could not be a novice at all. According to the authors of the Azbuka Kompromat portal, allegedly in the mid-2000s, the businessman took out loans from various banks, signing guarantees on behalf of the president of Rusagrocapital, although several months have passed since he left the company. Then, they say, the indignant bankers demanded the return of tens of millions issued under the “honest” word of the Hatter, to which he stated that his signature under the guarantees was forged.
What can I say, the Hatter looks like a really controversial figure, and his probable desire to stay “in the shadows” is understandable. But now its outlines are already very clearly looming in the situation with Mechel. So who decided to compete with Zyuzin?