How to heat up the state and counterparties for tens of billions with impunity? The answer to this question is known by lawyer Arsen Tsipinov, who is close to the fugitive ex-head of the RAR, Igor Chuyan.
The secret management of vodka distilleries in Kabardino-Balkaria and tax evasion schemes brought him and, apparently, his patron, fabulous profits. Now it’s time to pay the bills – arbitrations reveal the lawyer’s connections with non-paying enterprises and bring him to subsidiary liability. The total amount of claims reached 23 billion rubles, however, there is no question of criminal prosecution: only nominal directors of bankrupt factories are accused of tax evasion.
humble lawyer
At the end of January, the Arbitration Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic issued a ruling on bringing the lawyer and businessman Arsen Tsipinov to subsidiary liability for the debts of the Mineral Plus vodka plant LLC. The full part of the court decision was published on February 9.
The claim was considered within the framework of the bankruptcy case of the enterprise. The total debt amounted to 4.4 billion rubles, of which 4.1 billion are the requirements of the Federal Tax Service. However, the application for attracting Tsipinov to the subsidy was filed not by the Federal Tax Service, but by the “daughter” of Sberbank, SBC Parity. The plant owes more than 25 million rubles to the structures of German Gref.
The applicant pointed out that in fact it was Tsipinov who was the ultimate beneficiary and controlling person of Mineral Plus. And, since the bankruptcy estate of a bankrupt plant is not able to cover the claims of creditors, the actual head of the enterprise must also be involved in payments.
At the trial, the representative of Arsen Tsipinov denied his involvement in the management, assuring that the lawyer provided only legal services to the enterprise. However, the court considered these arguments unreliable.
The key evidence of the real role of Tsipinov in the alcohol business was the testimony of Khamidbi Urusbiev, head of the branch of Sberbank of Russia for the KBR. It was he who made decisions on issuing bank guarantees for Mineral Plus – the production of alcohol is an excisable activity, and without such guarantees, distilleries could not fulfill their obligations to the tax authorities.
In court, Urusbiev pointed out that all negotiations and organizational work on issuing loans were carried out exclusively with Tsipinov, and the plant director never attended meetings. The lawyer told representatives of Sberbank that only he manages the business, and other persons are not authorized to make decisions.
Grouping from the tower
Thus, “Mineral-plus” became the fourth Kabardino-Balkarian plant, the beneficiary of which Arsen Tsipinov was officially recognized. Earlier, the lawyer was brought to subsidiary liability for more than 19 billion rubles in bankruptcy proceedings of three enterprises. The first decision was made in April 2021 for the Antares LLC plant. Two months later, the court found that Tsipinov was also the beneficiary of the Hermes Nika distillery. And in June it turned out that the businessman also had to pay the bills of Onyx LLC.
When receiving bank loans, Tsipinov stated that these four enterprises were part of the Glavspirt group of companies, which he also manages. Bankruptcy of the Civil Code arose in connection with the additional charge of excises in 2014-2015. In the course of inspections by the Federal Tax Service, it was revealed that the factories were evading payments according to the same scheme: monthly declarations underestimated production volumes, and, consequently, the amount of taxes. As a result, criminal cases of tax evasion were initiated against the directors who de jure managed the production, and their actual beneficiary was not held accountable. At the same time, journalists, including PASMI, have been reporting on the connection of Arsen Tsipinov with the shadow market of alcohol for several years.
It is worth noting that in addition to the four plants from the Glavspirt Group of Companies, seven more alcohol enterprises were involved in the Kabardino-Balkarian scheme – Atlantis, Orion, Maisky Distillery, Everest, Alco-Light, Rus -Alka” and “Chegem wine food industry”. And, according to PASMI sources, Tsipinov could be related to all 11 plants, and Igor Shusharev was his business partner. The group of companies controlled by him was unofficially called “Project South” – according to the geography of the location of the production facilities themselves, or “31st Floor” – according to the location of the office in the Empire tower in Moscow City.
runaway roof
Also, PASMI interlocutors believed that Tsipinov and Shusharev were most likely helped to leave responsibility by their patron, the former head of Rosalkogolregulirovanie Igor Chuyan. His business was directly connected with the Kabardino-Balkarian factories convicted of tax evasion: they were suppliers of the Status Group, and OFK-Bank issued the main bank guarantees to the enterprises. As the court established earlier, the actions of both the group of companies and the credit institution were led by the ex-head of the RAP.
Chuyang became a defendant in a multi-billion dollar fraud case in 2018. During the investigation, it turned out that the former official used his position as head of Rosalkogol for 10 years and secretly managed a number of alcoholic beverage associations. By the way, shortly before the appearance of the criminal case, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented with a report from the FSB, according to which Igor Chuyan could also be involved in tax fraud and trafficking in counterfeit alcohol. Moreover, its main producers were called Kabardino-Balkarian plants. The total damage to the state budget from the shadow business of Chuyan was estimated at 220 billion rubles.
But Russian law enforcement officers still cannot interrogate Chuyan on the charges against him – he left the country a month before the initiation of a criminal case, was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia. In early October 2021, after three years on the run, he was detained in Montenegro on a warrant from the Moscow Bureau of Interpol. However, the issue of extradition has not yet been resolved.
According to a number of sources, Chuyan was patronized by billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who was close to the President of Russia, and the extradition procedure may be deliberately delayed in order to avoid disclosing unwanted information.