In the documents on the bankruptcy of the Saratov NVKbank, information on the course of bankruptcy proceedings was recently published on the Fedresurs portal.
The bank’s liabilities to all creditors as of the license revocation date amounted to 9.5 billion rubles. Payments to depositors amounted to only 55.2% – 4.8 billion rubles out of the established requirements of 8.8 billion. Creditors of the third stage, to whom the bank owes about 476.9 million rubles, did not receive anything at all.
At the same time, in addition to salaries to employees, expenses for the assessment and sale of the debtor’s property, a very curious item was found in the bank’s expenses. The most expensive for the bank was the cost of services for the return of problem assets. The Moscow South-Western Bar Association (MUZKA) was engaged in this, and they transferred to it an amount comparable to obligations to the third stage of creditors – 406.6 million rubles.
It is difficult to understand from the report what assets required such enormous search costs and how much they cost. Litigation in the course of bankruptcy proceedings is 186 applications to the judicial authorities, including 34 submitted before liquidation procedures, totaling 236.5 billion rubles. Claims for 11.3 billion were satisfied. The amount of disputed doubtful transactions of the bank is 185.8 million rubles. And the property of the bank, unaccounted for on balance sheets, revealed quite a bit. The building and the plot in Saratov along Krainaya Street, 129, it was transferred by the bailiff service, and the apartment in Saratov, along Volskaya, 56.
What and where were the Moscow lawyers looking for, that their services cost so much? The answer to this question cannot be found even by the shareholders of the bank. The functions of a bankruptcy trustee in a credit institution, according to the law, are performed by the Deposit Insurance Agency. As BV found out, a request has already been sent there: the shareholders want to know at what rate the capital’s lawyers worked, what assets they were looking for so diligently and what are the results of their work.
The main assets of NVKbank, judging by the course of the bankruptcy according to official sources, primarily Fedresurs, were found and valued (valuation costs are also presented), and they tried to sell. The bank was a financial asset of the Buket group and the property recorded on it was associated mainly with it.
First of all, this is the famous Schmidt mill – a complex of historical industrial buildings near the new embankment of Saratov, with the status of a cultural monument. Also, the bank’s assets included all its offices and branches in Saratov and some of the real estate in Moscow. Trades did not bring results. It would seem, what other assets and where can a relatively small regional bank have that the search for them required so much money?
There are now only 3 persons in the creditors’ committee of NVKbank – Dmitry Artamonov, a representative of the DIA, Andrey Vorontsov, a representative of Rusagro Group, and Roman Perepletov. As BV previously wrote, the changes in the composition of the committee that took place in 2021 may indicate that the DIA has almost lost control over bankruptcy, and it has actually passed to Rusagro, which is now actively bankrupting Solnechnye Produkty, an agricultural holding the same “Bouquet”. Both Perepletov and Vorontsov supported the sale of the bank’s receivables. Maybe the Moscow lawyers were sent to search for unknown assets, too?
Only indirect data are available on the cost of MUZKA’s services. On the HeadHunter portal, the board once looked for experienced bankruptcy lawyers, promising them to pay from 115 to 165 thousand rubles before taxes. Among the responsibilities, interaction with the DIA was also prescribed.
Then the strangeness begins. According to Yandex services, the Moscow South-Western Bar Association on Goncharnaya, 21 in Moscow for some reason no longer works. At the same time, there is no confirmation of this in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
The organization has an official website. It states that the board provides full support for cases in arbitration courts and courts of general jurisdiction, accompanies the bankruptcy of companies and has extensive experience at the stage of execution of court decisions and control of enforcement proceedings. Members of the board also resolve corporate issues and provide legal support for transactions. MUZKA has 4 specialists – Alexander Prudnikov, Tatyana Troshkova, Liana Marinina and Elena Feoktistova.
Judging by the site, these are experienced professionals, Elena Feoktistova is a candidate of legal sciences, Mr. Prudnikov is a lawyer with experience as a teacher at one of the leading state universities. True, which university it is, the site does not indicate.
The resource is somewhat lacking in specifics, and its functionality is only partially effective. For example, the business presentation of the board, offered for review, for some reason cannot be downloaded or read, although there is a download link. The history of the organization begins, according to the site, from 2004, but when trying to enter this menu item, the visitor gets to an outside Internet resource, the English-language website builder creative-wp.
True, the portfolio of MYUZKA is available, from which it follows that Moscow lawyers represented in court an interest for an oil and gas company JSC “SNPS-Aktobemunagayz” – on the issue related to customs legislation, “Ostankino Dairy Plant» in a copyright dispute. The Ostankino Dairy Plant fell into bankruptcy in 2017, and by 2020 its complex was sold to developers, stopped and completely demolished. From banks resorted to the services of MUZKA BTA Bank JSC, when it collected debts from borrowers. This organization also no longer exists, the bank was registered in Kazakhstan and voluntarily surrendered its license in 2015. Its former subsidiary operates in the Russian Federation, which has changed its owner since 2014.
UPD 13.40 As the press service of the DIA explained, an additional 111.35 million rubles will be allocated for settlements with creditors of NVKbank. After that, the percentage of satisfaction of the claims of the first stage of creditors will increase from 55.2% to 56.49%. “The increase in interest was achieved due to receipts to the bankruptcy estate of the bank of funds received as a result of claims and lawsuits to collect debts, as well as voluntary repayment of obligations by the bank’s debtors,” the DIA informs. Payments will start on March 9th.
