Billion-dollar proceedings around the bankrupt asset of Gazprom – the company Energogaz, which acted as a sub-general contractor for the expansion project of the Punginskoye UGS facility in Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, received a new intriguing turn. The cassation partially canceled the decisions of previous instances, proposing to reconsider the issue of the responsibility of a number of major managers and Gazprom Tsentrremont for the debts of Energogaz. The decision, in particular, affected the former head of Gazprom Tsentrremont, and now the general director of the VIS Group, Dmitry Doev, as well as, according to market participants, his family partner and manager of another Gazprom asset, Alexander Karabanov, who has already appeared in criminal case connected with Energogaz. Now the dispute will again be considered by the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region, and in this regard, industry experts are talking about a whole series of high-profile conflicts that accompany the Gazprom asset – from arguments about deliberate bankruptcy to claims by the Federal Tax Service under an illegal tax scheme for hundreds of millions. Another aggravation is taking place in parallel with the problems of the VIS in the Novosibirsk region, where the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia has already opened a criminal case on fraud, and a petition for bankruptcy of the group’s asset has gone to court, as well as against the backdrop of close attention to the relatives of the head of the VIS, who, apparently, made a bet on foreign assets.
The Arbitration Court of the Moscow District overturned the decisions of previous instances regarding the refusal to bring subsidiary liability for the debts of the bankrupt structure of Gazprom – Energogaz (according to Kontur.Fokus, 99.99% belongs to JSC Centerenergogaz) LLC Gazprom Tsentrremont ”, Alexandra Karabanova (currently the director of another Gazprom asset – Elektrogaz JSC), the former head of Gazprom Tsentrremont, and now the general director of VIS Group JSC Dmitry Doev and Alexander Psatia (ex-director of LLC Scientific – 6″ – “daughter” of “Energogaz”).
It should be noted that initially creditors, demanding the responsibility of these persons, based their statement on extremely dubious real estate transactions in Moscow, which were eventually challenged and canceled, as reported in detail by the publication.
Despite the arguments of the creditors, the courts of several instances did not see a connection between the operations and the bankruptcy of Energogaz, which raised questions from representatives of the legal community. “These transactions were later declared illegal. It is likely that creditors were harmed by such actions, since the value of the debtor’s property has significantly decreased. <...> I believe that this part has the potential to challenge the judicial act, ”lawyer Roman Lukichev told the publication at the time.
I found flaws in such logic and cassation. “The creditors rightly drew attention to the fact that after the alienation of real estate in favor of Gazprom Tsentrremont, the value of the shares of Nauchny-6 significantly decreased, while 100% of the shares in the capital of Nauchny-6 belonged to the debtor,” noted Arbitration Court of the Moscow District.
The authorities also emphasized that the third stage of the register of creditors’ claims, excluding penalties, included claims in the amount of 2.6 billion, while 1.2 billion fell on an affiliated entity – Gazprom Tsentrremont LLC, and the amount of imputed transactions amounted to 1, 5 billion rubles
“… The District Court considers that the conclusions of the courts regarding the refusal to hold liable <...> were made without establishing the actual circumstances, assessing the evidence and arguments of the persons participating in a separate dispute, without taking into account the explanations set out in the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation <...> ” On some issues related to bringing the persons controlling the debtor to liability in bankruptcy. In this connection, the contested acts in this part are subject to cancellation … ”- concluded the cassation.
The bankruptcy of Energogaz provoked a whole series of resonant scandals. Thus, market participants discussed the possibility of a deliberate bankruptcy of Gazprom’s asset, pointing to the ties of the aforementioned Dmitry Doev with the shareholders of Seligdar PJSC, who at some point were associated with Megabuild LLC. The latter, in turn, initiated the case on the financial insolvency of Energogaz.
In addition, the Schelkovskoye Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia attached to the audit materials data on possible illegal actions in financial transactions with the participation of Energogaz LLC.
A major tax scandal unfolded around the Gazprom asset. Fiscals came to the conclusion that Energogaz has created a scheme to include technical units – Stroyenergomash and Stroyenergokompleks – in real deliveries of goods – “in order to artificially increase the cost of supply, followed by an unlawful underestimation of the base for corporate income tax and the amount of VAT payable “. After that, the company was presented with claims for more than 600 million, which are included in the register.
Further, it turned out that a criminal case related to taxes was even opened against the aforementioned Alexander Karabanov, which was closed due to compensation for damages. As noted by the publication, this fact did not prevent him from continuing to work in the circuit of Gazprom. At the same time, industry workers called Karabanov a partner in the family of Dmitry Doev, pointing, among other things, to possible problems now with Elektrogaz.
We add that earlier the name of Dmitry Doev caused associations among market participants with the conflict between Gazprom NGCC and PF VIS. As part of it, the Gazprom asset lost billions of rubles in court cases, and after that Doev headed the VIS Group of his “old good friend Igor Snegurov.”
In connection with this set of conflicts, the attention of specialists was riveted to other assets of the VIS. In particular, Pravda UrFO reported on the problems of Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC (part of the VIS Group, whose beneficiary is Igor Snegurov) and allegations of abuse worth hundreds of millions. In January, it became known that the investigator of the SCH GSU of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Novosibirsk Region opened a criminal case under Part 7 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “fraud” related to the activities of the VIS asset.
“According to the investigation, <...> unidentified persons from among the leaders of Ecology-Novosibirsk, knowing in advance that they would not fulfill contractual obligations in full <...>, starting from 2018, entered into service agreements with legal entities. In 2019, the organization provided services for the transportation of solid municipal waste in the Novosibirsk region in the amount of 75 million rubles, of which 30 million rubles were not paid by Ecology-Novosibirsk. At the same time, the funds received on the settlement accounts of Ecology-Novosibirsk from activities as a regional operator from citizens and legal entities in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles were transferred to an affiliated legal entity for the purpose of embezzlement,” the prosecutor’s office reported.
We add that recently the external manager of Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC sent the minutes of the meeting of the debtor’s creditors to the court, as well as a petition to declare the company bankrupt and open bankruptcy proceedings. “All this is happening in parallel with the likely development of foreign assets of the Doev family in countries hostile to Russia, which is doubly questionable,” the source says.
“Under the conditions of sanctions pressure, Russian oligarchs and representatives of large businesses associated with the development of budget money are forced to find new schemes. <...> So, Anna Arkadyevna Berkovich, who has tax residency in Switzerland, in December 2022 changed the name of her legal entity from Alibra international language school to Smart education club limited (Company number 14042205). Anna Berkovich opened this company in England on April 12, 2022, where her son Mikhail Doev, who headed one of Gerard Lopez’s firms – NEKTON SERVICES (UK) LIMITED, has been living for a long time, he is currently listed as the director of Atreides Consultancy Ltd. Also in London, the daughter of Dmitry Doev, Sofia, is studying at a private school, ”the telegram channel “Bankruptcy of Yugorskremstroygaz LLC” describes its version of events.
Note that earlier Pravda UrFO reported in detail about Berkovich’s asset in London, as well as other noteworthy connections.
“One gets the feeling that at first Gazprom, with someone’s careful patronage, helped money disappear, and now they have gone to other projects with state participation and public funds. The volume of conflicts is colossal, and the names are closely intertwined, so one can only be surprised at the lack of a commensurate reaction from the law enforcement agencies, ”concludes the source of the publication in the legal community.