The beneficiary of RATM-Holding will be “undressed” in the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee
Novosibirsk oligarch with a scandalous reputation, owner of RATM Holding Eduard Taran (according to public data from the Federal Tax Service, has TIN 541005091683) came on the radar of law enforcement agencies. What is the reason for the interest in the person involved and what role can former and current officials play in it?
Media sources reported that Taran may become a defendant in a criminal case, but its plot is not yet known. Kompromat-Ural editorial colleagues put forward several versions.
The first point is the resonant story with the nationalization of PJSC Rostov Optical-Mechanical Plant (ROMZ), which is based in the Yaroslavl region.
In September 2023, ROMZ, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), was returned to the state balance sheet, taking shares from Sibmir LLC (owner – RATM Holding JSC Eduard Taran), and Isnov JSC. It was pointed out that the privatization of a defense enterprise was illegal. The defendants are still trying to challenge this verdict. The word “illegal” in this story may well imply a subsequent criminal case.
And not so long ago, a recording appeared in the public space in which a voice very similar to Taran sounds, talking about the possibility of “whitewashing” the ex-beneficiaries of the plant from RATM and obtaining compensation from the state in the amount of billions of rubles. He also expresses the hope that, at the instigation of Rostec and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the enterprise will again be transferred to the management or even ownership of RATM.
“We need to talk to the territorial FSB about help through the courts until we sort it out with the governor…If we get 3-4 billion from the state, then let them take it…we have something to do.”
In this audio recording, Taranov’s voice gives instructions regarding the situation with the attempt of supervisors to seize the Rostov Optical-Mechanical Plant (ROMZ) from the RATM-Holding group. Taran says with knowledge of the matter that behind this claim lies the “attack” of the prosecutor’s office on the Federal Property Management Agency, but he has strong defenders.
This is the regional FSB Directorate, and on the part of the Russian government – the Ministry of Industry and Trade. It seems we are talking about Mantura’s deputy Vasily Shpakewho provides Taran with full support.
Such impudence could easily backfire.
Judging by a similar case regarding the deprivatization of the Ural factories of the clan Antipovs, then the next step after the court verdict is an inventory of all transactions of the enterprise returned to the state. For the Antipovs, for example, this ended in a criminal case for fraud. Its essence is revealed by a new lawsuit from the Prosecutor General’s Office: billions of rubles were withdrawn from factories under the guise of loans with subsequent debt forgiveness.
Now let’s return to ROMZ Taran.
From the annual report for 2022 it follows that the company’s net loss was more than 40.9 million rubles, which is 2.8 times lower than the same figure for 2021. That is, ROMZ showed losses for the Federal Tax Service for at least a couple of years. That did not prevent him from receiving a subsidy of 1.02 billion rubles for the production of certain products. Probably, we are talking about military products. That is, money poured in, but the situation did not improve. Strange, isn’t it?
Right now, an inventory is being taken through ROMZ, which, judging by the arbitration database, has already led to the challenge of some previously concluded transactions. For example, the prosecutor is trying to remove the pledge from the shares of ROMZ, which since 2018 have acted as collateral for loans from the Taranovsky JSC Ekran-Optical Systems. By the way, a representative of the latter was on the board of directors of ROMZ before nationalization.
That is, as we see, the defense plant, which showed losses, was used in credit schemes of other Taran enterprises. Is everything going smoothly with them?
Moreover, several years ago, tax officials identified violations at Screen-Optical Systems and assessed additional taxes. Moreover, one of the episodes involved a scheme in which the plant claimed deductions using, in the opinion of the fiscal department, documents of companies with which there was no real economic activity.
As a result, the Federal Tax Service presented an overstatement of expenses in the amount of 22.1 million rubles.
And this is not the only experience of schematosis among companies associated with Taran.
The battering ram will pay for the long tongue
In 2018, the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for Moscow already opened two cases at once on the fact of non-payment of taxes in a large size. Both are related, but the first was filed against “unidentified managers” of Sibtopenergo LLC, and the second was filed against the management of Invest Plus LLC.
The case was based on a double transaction for the sale of 24% shares of the Lytkarino Optical Glass Plant (LZOS), which produced products for the Russian Ministry of Defense. First, in 2013, Sibtopenergo and Invest Plus sold shares for 180 million rubles to a certain Cypriot Labrosan Holdings LTD, and then two months later it resold them, but five times more expensive – for 862.6 million rubles to the Rostec state corporation “, headed by Sergei Chemezov.
Investigators saw in this scheme an attempt at tax evasion. The investigation claimed that both the selling company and the offshore company were related specifically to Taran.
Many were surprised when in 2019 the Novosibirsk Investigative Committee first merged two cases into one, and then stopped the investigation altogether due to the alleged absence of a crime. At the same time, the presence of this event was noticed at one time by Moscow investigators, who in their letter asked the tax authorities to inform the Investigative Committee about the availability of information from the Federal Tax Service about violations of Sibtopenergo LLC. But Novosibirsk investigators suddenly did not see the event. Strange, isn’t it?
And what’s interesting is that in 2021 the head of the Novosibirsk Sledkom Andrey Leleko left the Bastrykin department, it was rumored that he had been sent into retirement amid a number of high-profile stories, including the “Taran case.” Now Leleko occupies a warm chair as the head of the Department of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) in Crimea, where, by the way, his interests converged again with Taran.
And what’s interesting: if Labrosan Holdings LTD was slammed back in 2015, then Sibtopenergo and Invest Plus, through which they carried out the deal with LZOS, are quite alive and continue to work, being an asset, the first is RATM Holding, the second is also Tarana personally.
Interestingly, the audit commission of ROMZ in 2022 included an employee of Invest Plus – a certain Arkady Tarabrin, he was also the director of RATM-Development LLC, liquidated in 2023. The latter belonged to Taran personally. The fact that Tarabrin is a very trusted representative of the oligarch is also evidenced by the fact that he participated in many stories, including the corporate conflict around the assets of Iskitimcement and the story with promissory notes of the Altrax PA.
Time will tell what else the inventory of ROMZ transactions will reveal. But as if everything for Taran would not end as darkly as for Antipov.
Although he himself, apparently, believes in the best. For example, at the end of February 2024, Taran established a new company – Ratm-Invest LLC. Isn’t this a preparation for managing the ROMZ transferred back to him? Here comes the new asset Natalya Savinova – Director of Sibmir, which was a shareholder of ROMZ.
Rescue service for Taran
The reason for the unsinkability of Taran, whose name has appeared in scandals about corporate raiding, tax evasion and other matters, is attributed by many to his high connections. This businessman likes to bring former officials under his belt.
For example, among his advisers, as well as as a member of the board of directors of the Ekran plant, at one time there appeared the ex-governor of the Novosibirsk region, later Putin (*international criminal)’s plenipotentiary representative in the Siberian Federal District Victor Tolokonsky.
In Taran’s inner circle there is the ex-deputy head of the regional administration, the ex-head of the Novosibirsk Department of Property and Land Relations Dmitry Verkhovodand through the Isnov company, which was a shareholder of ROMZ, he is completely connected with the ex-deputy Novosibirsk interdistrict environmental prosecutor Alexey Zgursky. A former Krasnoyarsk and Moscow region official also showed up next to Taran Sergey Gurovthat at one time he occupied the position of deputy head of the administration of Sergiev Posad.
By the way, the name of the dollar millionaire flashed next to the high-profile case of bribes to the ex-prosecutor of the Novosibirsk region Vladimir Falileev and his ex-deputy Andrey Turbin.
