The cheaters came from “Viacard”
How the Kurmaev family clan is trying to “drain” 28 billion rubles from fuel suppliers.
The original of this material
© eadaily.com08/30/2022, Attack on the largest oil companies in Russia: “giveaway game” from the Kurmaev clan, Photo: korpurist.ru
Russian politician and public figure Sergei Markov in his TC “Markov Logic” warns: “British intelligence agencies want to take 28 billion rubles from the Russian oil market and wreak havoc on motorists in Russia.”
According to the ex-deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, in the dispute between the Terminal Service and Viacard companies, whose own assets amount to several million rubles, hundreds of billions can be recovered from the largest enterprises of the Russian fuel market, including SO Tvernefteprodukt LLC, LLC Trade House NM (filling stations Neftmagistral), OOO Tatneft-AZS-Zapad, Surgutneftegaz.
The interests of the plaintiff are defended by the law office of Rustam Kurmaev, “who has gone through many years of work in Russia in the interests of the conditional West,” and his father, Musa Kurmaev, is among the defendant’s shareholders.
“What else is interesting and what no one has paid attention to yet: the whole situation was artificially created immediately after February 2022. Sabotage? Elements of a hybrid war? Sergei Markov asks questions.
Details of the scam Andrey Karaulovcharacterizing what is happening as “an attack by the Kurmaev family clan at once on the ten largest oil companies in the country.”
“That is, under the pretext of a dispute about 800 thousand rubles, in fact, with each other, the father and son of the Kurmaevs are trying through arbitration courts to recover from the largest fuel suppliers the entire turnover through the Terminal Service fuel card system for all the years of its operation at 1,000 gas stations – now more than 28 billion rubles, and in the future it will be hundreds of billions. Moreover, the oil workers must allocate money to the Kurmaev family “here and now”. And only then by separate courts for many years to prove that the fuel was actually supplied. Directly according to the logic of the deceased Boris Berezovsky: “Everything that is mine is now mine, but let’s discuss about yours later,” Markov writes.
“A seemingly unremarkable dispute between two small companies in the field of fuel card processing is developing into a real threat to strategic oil refineries and could result in real disruptions in the supply of fuel to key regions of Russia.
For many years, Terminal Service has maintained the fuel card system under contracts with OOO SO Tvernefteprodukt, OOO TD NM, OOO Tatneft-AZS-Zapad and other suppliers of motor fuel (15 legal entities and individuals, more than 1 000 gas stations throughout Russia). The processing software was provided by a certain Viacard LLC.
In 2018, the software supplier accused Terminal Service of copyright infringement, after which it began to go bankrupt. The initial amount of claims was about 835 thousand rubles, and although over several years of “sitting” in various courts, the debt grew to 205 million rubles, these were still not the amounts for which it would make sense to destroy a long-term established partnership and create problems for large networks gas station.
But “Viacard” at some stage declares that all contracts “Terminal Service” for the supply of fuel on fuel cards with oil sales companies were allegedly concluded illegally, which means that they must be recognized as invalid and the entire turnover on them – that is, all multi-year payments for fuel supplies in several regions of the country – it is necessary to “win back”, collecting from the oil companies brought to subsidiary liability in favor of the creditors of the “Terminal Service” over 28 billion rubles (and the amount is clearly not final, because at this stage it is important set a precedent).
The fact that fuel for these amounts was actually delivered and successfully sold to motorists in retail is left out of the equation. The burden of proving this is not at all the subject of Viacard’s interests. Say, we will win our case and get the money – and the oilmen, if they want and can, then let them sue for their own interests.
To date, the volume of case materials has exceeded 40 thousand sheets, which also plays into the hands of the initiators of the process, since it is quite difficult for an outsider to understand them. But Andrei Karaulov managed to establish the identity of the main organizers of the scheme.
This is the lawyer Rustam Musaevich Kurmaev, who, as the head of the company named after himself, represents the interests of the plaintiff – that is, Viacard LLC. And his own father, Musa Bulatovich Kurmaev, who, through RSC Capital, is, by a strange coincidence, one of the founders of the defendant, i.e. LLC Terminal-Service.
It becomes clear that the whole story with the bankruptcy of the Service Terminal was originally conceived as a “battle of the Nanai boys” and the real goal of this performance is at least billions from the pockets of fat oil cats, and at the maximum – the capture of key enterprises in the industry, ”the message says. -Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Sergey Markov.
According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, On June 20, 2022, the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Surgut opened a criminal case against an unidentified circle of persons from among the employees of Viacard and a number of other enterprises related to them on the fact of intent and prior conspiracy to embezzle funds from Tvernefteprodukt and Surgutneftegaz, in particular large size. Earlier in April, at the request of Tatneft-AZS-Zapad LLC, a criminal case was also initiated in Tatarstan. Investigations are underway in criminal cases.
“The fact that all this happens literally immediately after the start of the SVO in Ukraine could be considered a coincidence, but only if you do not look at the biography of the lawyer Rustam Kurmaev,” Markov continues.
“For almost 15 years, from 2003 to 2017, he worked for lawyer Andrei Goltsblat. In the 1990s, lawyer Goltsblat had a lot of contact with foreign (mostly American) consultants who were then seconded to Russia as curators of writing the famous “Yeltsin Constitution”. Later, he created Goltsblat BLP, a joint venture with the British Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), focused on serving the interests of large foreign players in Russia. Subsequently, the British teamed up with the American Bryan Cave. Well, after the start of the NWO, Goltsblat quietly “relocated” to the UK, where, as intelligently wrote “Kommersant”will “pass his further practice”.
14 years of internship with such teachers are worth something. And many did not believe in the sincerity of the “divorce” between Kurmaev and Goltsblat, which happened in 2017. Then, we recall, the first wave of sanctions against Russian business passed, and working with him for Andrey Goltsblat, oriented towards the “respectable” West, became somewhat toxic. This problematic part of the business, according to professionals, was “outsourced” by his grateful student Rustam Kurmaev.
With this optics, let’s look again at the situation around the “Service Terminal”. For some strategically important fuel suppliers, the stated multibillion-dollar claims will result in serious financial difficulties, up to bankruptcy and hostile takeovers. All this will introduce instability into the Russian oil market, which is already experiencing understandable turbulence. In addition, confidence in the very idea of using fuel cards, thanks to which Russian carriers have made serious savings, is being undermined. Ordinary car enthusiasts will also suffer, since the price of fuel for them will include all the new risks and all the additional costs of the oil industry. That is, the legal game of giveaway from the Kurmaev family clan “suddenly” deals a significant blow to at least two key, strategic sectors of the economy and “bonus” endangers social stability in a number of regions. You don’t wish this on your enemy.
The speed of the processes taking place around this case, their focus on strategic industries and the surprising unwillingness of the courts to notice obvious facts (such as the obvious connection between the plaintiff and the defendant, the disproportionateness of the stated requirements to the real scale of the disputed business, the demand for a refund for the actually delivered fuel with an unwillingness to consider confirmation of the relevant supplies, etc.), some facts from the biography of the direct authors of the scheme – all this is clearly already beyond the scope of ordinary arbitration litigation, it deserves the qualified and very close interest of the competent authorities – including the police, and the prosecutor’s office, and – possibly – counterintelligence, ” Sergey Markov states.
