Thin ice by Nikolai Bukhvalov

Former Chairman of the Government of the Perm Territory Nikolay Bukhvalov he is also the ex-head of Motovilikha Plants and several other companies that ended sadly, will build an ice arena on the site of the former plant of reinforced concrete structures (ZhBK-1). At one time he was a co-owner of the plant and its industrial site.

Who is Nikolai Bukhvalov and why is it too early for Perm residents to rejoice at the plans for the arena – in the material of The Moscow Post correspondent in the Perm Territory.

He became the owner of 100% in OOO “Ice Arena“, which announced its desire to implement a project – a multiplex of 15 thousand square meters, where, in addition to the arena, there will be a food hall, a children’s area, cinema halls. The amount of investment is 1.8 billion rubles.

To implement such a project without the approval and support of the authorities is a difficult task. Does that mean you got approval? But given the personality and scandalous activities of Mr. Bukhvalov of the past years, the project may turn out to be a gamble.

It was Mr. Bukhvalov, as they said, who was and remains the co-owner of ZhBK – formally. Back in 2019, he sold the business to the ex-general director of Er-Telecom Andrey Semeryakov, Kommersant wrote about this. Semeryakov has his own production site in the Ordzhonikidzevsky district, where he transferred his business and employees.

After all, Mr. Bukhvalov himself and his former partner Anatoly Mokrushin did not succeed in business without budgetary support – their ZhBS LLC was bankrupt back in 2015 with an asset value of minus 17 million rubles. Apparently, the remnants of that “luxury” were sold to Semeryakov.

A photo: Rusprofile.en

But Bukhvalov was to remain behind the industrial site and workshops on the street. Geroev Khasan, 42. It looks like they are planning to build a new multiplex there.

At the same time, he has another business very close by: Perm Termy LLC. Together with the aforementioned Mr. Semeryakov and a number of other entrepreneurs, a project for the construction of a large water and bath complex is being implemented there.

And it is also being built on a part of the former ZhBK-1 industrial site – that is, as planned, two large projects will be implemented there at once. But Semeryakov obviously has money. And where are they from Bukhvalov?

closer to power

Nikolai Bukhvalov is a well-known person in Perm and the Perm region. True, not with successes, but with scandals and the constant desire to be closer to the authorities. From 1997 to 2004, he was the head of AOOTI ZhBK-1, a reinforced concrete plant, which later became his property and was brought to a non-working state.

In 2004-2006, Nikolai Bukhvalov worked as the first deputy of the Perm Governor Oleg Chirkunov – and under him, in 2006-2008, he headed the government of the Perm Territory. At that time, a separate position of the head of the Cabinet was still provided for in the region.

Many believed that the very appearance of Bukhvalov in power was not motivated by the desire to make people’s lives better, but to lobby and protect the interests of his own industrial business.

As head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Bukhvalov was not noted for anything particularly positive. And soon after leaving, against the backdrop of managerial failures, he received the position of general director of the large defense company Motovilikhinskiye Zavody.

He led them from 2009 to 2014 – against the backdrop of a huge number of scandals. By the end of such management, the plant was drained of blood, including numerous objective reasons, which Bukhvalov could not eliminate. In 2018, after Bukhvalov, under a huge pile of debts, the enterprises were declared bankrupt.

Under Nikolai Bukhvalov, the Motovilikhinskiye Zavody was finally mired in debt and subsequently went bankrupt. Photo: arms-expo.ru

By the way, Bukhvalov himself, according to Ura.ru, had long since left the country to live abroad. And the reasons for this, apparently, are very prosaic.

Criminal cases and debts

The name of the former deputy chairman and head of the regional government, Nikolai Bukhvalov, is often heard in a variety of scandals with a taint of corruption. And so obvious that Bukhvalov constantly seems to be walking on thin ice – and each time he and his lawyers manage to go to the very edge and not get serious problems with the law.

After all, earlier he was already a defendant in a criminal case under the second part of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Tax evasion with organizations by a group of persons by prior agreement”). The investigation into the facts of non-payment of income tax in the amount of 4.3 million rubles of ZhBK-1 OJSC, where Bukhvalov was the general director until 2004, began in July 2007 after the Prosecutor General’s Office checked the state of legality in the regional authorities.

Later it was merged with the VAT evasion case for three million rubles. According to investigators, in the period before 2004, ZhBK-1 entered into contracts for work with firms that existed only on paper, and taxes were not paid on the amounts received. Bukhvalov pleaded not guilty. In the course of the investigation, the total amount of the alleged underpayment was reduced to three million rubles.

As a result, the case was dismissed due to non-rehabilitating circumstances – due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. At the same time, at first, the defense of the ex-premier of the Kama region managed to achieve the removal of the qualifying sign of the second part of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the commission of a crime as part of a group of persons – which made it possible to calmly “move out” in time. Pravo.ru writes about the ups and downs of the case.

Then, when the case was being investigated – he was the prime minister, it was not possible to bring it to its logical conclusion. And then, as already mentioned, Bukhvalov left the country. But this is far from the end of the problems of the former head of Motovilikha plants with the law.

Nikolay Bukhvalov “Motovilikha period”. Photo: zampolit.com

And just about “Motovilikha”. Last summer, it became known that the Arbitration Court of the Perm Territory seized the property of five individuals, including the assets of Nikolai Bukhvalov, ex-general director of PJSC Motovilikha Plants.

Interim measures were taken at the request of the Federal Tax Service, which believes that in the past the defendants controlled Kamastal LLC, from which money and property were eventually withdrawn. Kommersant wrote about the situation.

In total, more than 380 million rubles are required from citizens.

LLC Metallurgical Plant Kamastal is a 100% subsidiary of PJSC Motovilikhinskiye Zavody. In 2018, bankruptcy proceedings began there with a debt of 5 billion rubles. Of these, 4.4 billion – to Motovilikha Plants PJSC.

It seems that a significant part of the debt was formed just when Mr. Bukhvalov was at the helm of Motovilikha Plants.

Worse still, the tax authority established facts of a decrease in income tax losses in the amount of more than 400 million rubles. in the period from 2013 to 2015. According to the Federal Tax Service, the persons who controlled the debtor took actions to withdraw funds from Kamastali, and also removed its property after the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings.

Mr. Bukhvalov himself insists that Kamstal did not directly manage the company, but managed the parent company. Note that nothing bad for Bukhvalov so far those proceedings have not ended. Maybe only for now – after all, the businessman has not been seen in Perm lately …

Under Bukhvalov, assets could be withdrawn from Kamastal, but he was not in the know? Photo: Andrey Korshunov / Kommersant

Moreover, the former head of the regional government almost regularly becomes a defendant in a scandal with debts. For example, the HOA “Sails over Kama” filed a lawsuit against him, where Bukhvalov, apparently, has housing. The HOA claims that Bukhvalov owed almost 180 thousand rubles for the maintenance of the apartment and a place in the underground parking lot. This writes “Vkurse.ru”.

Apparently, Bukhvalov has so much property and real estate that he simply does not remember the need to pay for utilities for everyone. In addition, it seems that for him, debts both at enterprises and in private households are a system.

After all, he sued the HOA 12 years ago – then he was sued for almost 70 thousand rubles. And even earlier, there were claims from the Federal Tax Service on personal income tax – in 2009, Nikolai Bukhvalov did not pay it on time, for which he received a claim for 251 thousand rubles. As a result, production was stopped after the repayment of the arrears. RBC wrote about this.

After all these stories, after the faded premiership and the drowned Motovilikhinsky factories and ZhBK, courts and debts, it is very strange to see that Mr. Bukhvalov is again deploying in the Perm Territory. Doesn’t he walk wide, and don’t the authorities and Bukhvalov’s current partners think that he will leave this project – the Ice Arena with a bunch of debts, and he will disappear in the morning haze?