The Novosibirsk prosecutor’s office succeeded in initiating a criminal case on fraud in connection with the activities of the regional operator for the treatment of municipal solid waste (MSW) company Ecology-Novosibirsk. According to law enforcers, the company paid one of the carriers only a part of the amount for the services rendered in 2019 – 45 million rubles. instead of the due 75 million rubles. In addition, according to the case, the amount of more than 1 billion rubles collected by the regoperator as a payment from the population and organizations in 2020-2021 was transferred to an affiliated company for the purpose of embezzlement. The prosecutor’s office reported that the investigation had refused to open a case three times.
In Novosibirsk, a criminal case has been initiated on fraud on an especially large scale (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), in which the management of the company-regulatory operator Ecology-Novosibirsk appears. This was reported to the supervisory authority.
In 2018, the Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities and Energy of the Novosibirsk Region and Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC entered into an agreement on the organization of activities for the treatment of MSW in the region.
According to the investigation, unidentified persons from among the management of Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC, starting from 2018, entered into contracts for the provision of waste transportation services with firms, not intending to fulfill them in full.
Law enforcement officers found that the reoperator paid only a part of the amount for the services rendered in 2019 to one of the carriers – 45 million rubles. out of 75 million rubles.
“Funds received on the settlement accounts of Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC from activities as a regional operator from citizens and legal entities in 2020–2021 in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles were transferred to an affiliated legal entity for the purpose of embezzlement,” states in a report from the District Attorney’s Office. The department added that the investigation issued a decision three times to refuse to initiate proceedings.
Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC declined to comment at the time of publication. The position on the case was expressed by a source of Kommersant-Siberia in the former management of the regooperator company. “We are well aware of the repeated appeals of one of the creditors to the investigating authorities with the same thesis that Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC allegedly did not pay for the services of carriers. This is not true, which is confirmed by numerous checks. The Arbitration Court also checked this in the framework of the Ecology-Novosibirsk bankruptcy case, having studied the movement of funds on the accounts, ”said the source of Kommersant-Siberia.
He believes that in 2019, when the “garbage” reform was launched, Ecology-Novosibirsk, like most of the country’s regional operators, faced a number of problems, including low collection of payments for garbage collection from subscribers.
“The amount of expenses was more than the amount of income,” the source said, expressing the hope that the investigation would be able to figure everything out. Suspicions in the withdrawal of 1 billion rubles. to an affiliated firm, he considers unreasonable.
Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC (part of the Vis group) has been the regional operator for the treatment of MSW in the Novosibirsk Region since 2018. In December 2021, the company applied to the arbitration court with a statement of self-bankruptcy, indicating the presence of 1.9 billion rubles. debts, mostly to carriers for garbage transportation services. In October 2022, external management was introduced in the company, but at the meeting held on January 16, the creditors voted for the transition to the bankruptcy proceedings. The founders of Ecology-Novosibirsk, as reported on the website of the court, are four individuals and Project Finance Company LLC (KPF) with a 75% share in the authorized capital. According to SPARK-Interfax, 100% of LLC KPF belongs to the production company Vis.
One of the creditors, Ecoline LLC, filed a petition for the recovery of 299.8 million rubles as part of the bankruptcy case. losses from the former CEO of Ecology-Novosibirsk Larisa Anisimova, who held this position from August 2018 to October 2022. At the end of 2021, the director of Eco-Line, Andrey Kharlanov, sent an appeal to Anatoly Seryshev, the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in Siberia, in which he asked “to assist in eliminating the shortcomings in the activities” of the government and the Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities of the Novosibirsk Region, “expressed in inaction to take urgent measures to depriving Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC of the status of a regooperator and developing the necessary mechanism for directing all funds from utility consumers to the account of the ministry.
The head of Operator Eco-Sphere LLC (managed the network of MSW carriers in the region) Vladimir Bulychev then noted that the authorities should have terminated the contract with the regional operator in the spring of 2019 on the basis of accumulated debts to contractors, which, according to his estimates, exceeded the amount allowed by law 1/12 of the required gross revenue of the company. Mr. Bulychev clarified to Kommersant-Siberia that he had sent letters to the prosecutor’s office on this matter, but whether the initiation of a criminal case was the result of these appeals, he does not know.
