Aluminum bankrupt
The court placed under house arrest the former co-owner of the Voronezh aluminum profile manufacturer Ava-Trade LLC Leonida Arapova. He has been charged with grand larceny. We can talk about fraud for 250 million rubles. The investigation believes that Arapov spent the company’s money, among other things, on his family’s expensive tourist trips. However, this story primarily concerns the relationship between Leonid Arapov and business partners Sergei Solodov and Roman Buzdalin.
aluminum giant
Voronezh company LLC “Ava-Trade” is the main asset of the AL5 holding. AL5 is the leader manufacturer aluminum profile price Russia | Ava-Trade LLC was registered in 2008, the offsite says that since that time the company’s plant has been producing aluminum cylindrical ingots and profiles for various applications: “from construction to elements used in the construction of aircraft and space stations.”
How reported local online publications, Moscow partners appeared in the business of Leonid Arapov back in 2014. Interest in the production of aluminum was shown by the former co-owners of the A5 pharmacy group at that time Sergey Solodov And Roman Buzdalin. Then, through Koltsovsky Square LLC, Buzdalin and Evgeny Solodov (Sergei Solodov’s father) acquired 50% of the aluminum producer Ava-Trade. Probably, the deal took place due to the financial difficulties of the Voronezh enterprise. Buzdalin subsequently left the co-owners, and the Solodov family and the general director of Ava-Trade Leonid Arapov created the AL5 holding company in 2016, which on March 22, 2017 became 100% owner of Ava-Trade.
The industrial holding “AL5” today includes enterprises in Voronezh, Belaya Kalitva, Rostov Region and Pavlovsky Posad. Leonid Arapov served as CEO of the enterprise until 2022. And in April last year, his powers in this post, which lasted eight years, were terminated. And Sergey Solodov began to lead the company.
According to last year, Leonid Arapov belonged 4.55%, and another 45.5% through AL5 Holding LLC. The remaining shares were owned by AL5 Invest LLC (45.5%, founders – Evgeny Solodov and Anton Voronov) and Solodov’s sister, Anna Lazareva (3.64%).
Corporate conflict
Relations between partners completely deteriorated. Businessmen considered that Arapov was spending the company’s money for personal needs and, naturally, were very unhappy with this. As a result, the partners filed claims against Arapov for the recovery of expenses for air travel and tourist trips in 2019-2022, as well as the alleged withdrawal of funds from the accounts.
Last year, according to local online publications, almost a dozen lawsuits were filed against Leonid Arapov to recover about 195 million rubles in losses. At the end of October, the court satisfied the company’s claims against the former CEO for 21.5 million rubles, which he spent on a certain tourism product. The documents say that Arapov paid for the service with the company’s money in March 2022 on an application for a tourist booking for himself, his wife Yulia Buryak, three children, a stepdaughter and another relative. Also, through the court, the company tried to obtain from the former head of the transfer of documents and pay a penalty of 50 thousand rubles for each day of non-execution of the act from the moment it entered into force.
In February of this year, the Arbitration Court of the Voronezh Region satisfied the claim of Ava-Trade LLC against Arapov for the recovery of damages for his vacation trips at the expense of the company in the amount of 15 million 797 445 rubles. As follows from the case file,
It was also established that the company paid for Arapov’s accommodation in Turkish hotels. D Mar Bay, Fortezza Beach Resort. At the same time, the activities of Ava-Trade LLC are carried out in Russia, and there could not be any production purposes for trips to Turkey and long-term accommodation in a hotel. The defendant did not appear at the court hearings, he did not present evidence to the contrary, such as travel sheets, reports on the expenditure of funds in the interests of the plaintiff. Currently in the Voronezh Arbitration there is a process on declaring Arapov bankrupt.
In total, Ava-Trade is trying to recover from Arapov about half a billion rubles, which the former leader spent on tourist trips and flights of his family, and due to which he “unjustly enriched himself.” Arapov tried to get out of the situation by rewriting the business to his father, but the court invalidated the donation agreement.
Paphos holiday
The claims of Ava-Trade LLC do not look groundless. For example, it became known about the mega-party in honor of the 30th anniversary of the wife of Leonid Arapov, Yulia, who took place in Turkey two years ago during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This event was celebrated on a grand scale. Actually, after that, the businessman became known in the media as the “aluminum king”. Celebrated at the five-star hotel D Mar Bay on the Datca Peninsula in southwestern Turkey. Journalists tried to calculate the cost of the event. According to booking.com, renting a double room in this hotel costs at least 100 thousand rubles per day. Junior suite – more than 200 thousand, and presidential suite – 658 thousand rubles. At the same time, it should be taken into account that there were dozens of guests at the birthday party, and it lasted three days. And we are talking not only about renting rooms, but also venues for holding a holiday.
We flew to Turkey, of course, on a business jet. In her social networks, Yulia Buryak thanked the airline Sirius Aero, which has its own fleet at its disposal. A flight to Turkey on it will cost about 4.5 thousand euros, or 400 thousand rubles per person.
And, of course, guest artists should have added a special piquancy to the holiday. Guests were entertained Dmitry Malikov, Leonid Agutin, Svetlana Lobodagroup B2, Grigory Leps, Valeriy Meladze. Their price per performance ranges from 1.5 to more than 9 million rubles.
Participated as leaders Ksenia Sobchak And Igor Vernik.
Also, screenwriters, decorators, photographers, videographers took part in the preparation and holding of Yulia Buryak’s birthday, and their work also cost money. In general, the entire mega-party, taking into account food and drinks, according to journalists’ calculations, drew close to to 100 million rubles. The pathetic celebration could be a personal family affair of the “aluminum king”. But the Ava-Trade company in 2020 showed a profit (according to Sb open data) in the amount of 132.2 million rubles. So, the question of what funds the event was arranged for is legitimate.
Tax fraud
In connection with the arrest of Arapov, the media remembered that this was not his first criminal case. In 2018, it became known that Leonid Arapov was suspected of non-payment of 20 million rubles in taxes. It was about fictitious contracts with a certain Voronezh firm. The results from “imaginary financial and economic relationships” were included in the tax deductions for VAT. The company of Leonid Arapov tried to challenge the punishment and applied to the arbitration court of the Voronezh region, but the court sided with the tax authorities. I had to pay everything. And a year later, the regional department of the ICR reported that the criminal case was closed, and the suspect compensated for the damage, taking into account penalties and a fine in the amount of about 25 million rubles.
Two years ago there was a new scandal. Now Ava-Trade and Leonid Arapov are involved in a criminal case. The investigation believed that the CEO of Ava-Trade in 2020 addressed to his friend with a request to find among the tax employees those who could reschedule the on-site tax audit of the company from the end of 2020 to 2021.
This should have made it impossible to analyze the timely payment of taxes by Ava-Trade in 2017. According to investigators, an acquaintance of the businessman turned to a former tax officer Maxim Merkelovand he, in turn, to the now ex-deputy head of MIFNS No. 1 Andrey Vodolazkin. He appreciated his “services” in 8 million rubles. Initially, former tax officials were charged with taking bribes and mediating in receiving bribes. However, the case was reclassified as fraud on an especially large scale and taken to court.
Leonid Arapov denied his involvement in the criminal case.
Difficult partners
The information that is about Arapov, willy-nilly, allows us to conclude that he is more likely to spend than to make money, and his economic activity was, to a sufficient extent, reckless. However, in fairness, it is worth recalling that Arapov’s partners, Sergey Solodov and Roman Buzdalin, are not the first corporate conflict. In 2011, they sued former employees and minority shareholders of the company Vladimir Kintsurashvili And Ivan Saganelidze. And showed an iron grip. Difficult negotiations went on for a whole year. The media then wrote that only the support of the A1 investment company, which is part of Alfa Group, helped the minority shareholders of A5 pharmacies. As a result, the shareholders of the network of pharmacies went to the global and divided the assets.
How the case of Leonid Arapov will end is up to the court to decide. Under arrest, the defendant will stay until July 3. Arapov does not admit his guilt.
