No waste – only income…
A scandal is brewing in Novosibirsk around the “garbage reform”. The former head of the regional operator is accused of embezzling more than 1 billion rubles. Moreover, the former head of the local Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities is now involved in the case. At the same time, the main beneficiary of all the “garbage schemes” may be the person involved in the “Panama Papers”, oligarch Igor Snegurov.
Recently, the case of the former CEO of the company “Ekologiya-Novosibirsk” Larisa Anisimova was sent to court. According to the investigation, from October 2018 to December 2021, the regional operator entered into contracts with contractors for the transportation of municipal solid waste (MSW), which, apparently, it did not intend to fulfill, thus embezzling about 1.1 billion rubles.
Ecology-Novosibirsk ended up owing tens, if not hundreds, of millions of rubles to many local companies.
The company OOO Operator Eco-Sfera, which manages a network of solid municipal waste carriers in Novosibirsk, also confirmed that Ecology-Novosibirsk’s debts to contractors already exceeded 1/12 of the company’s gross revenue in 2019. This fact alone gave the local authorities the right to terminate the contract with the regional operator, but they were in no hurry to do anything.
It is paradoxical, but true: Ecology-Novosibirsk filed for self-bankruptcy with the arbitration court only in December 2021. But even after that, it continued to operate for some time as a regional operator, which it lost only in February 2023.
Contract-divorce
The first arrival of Ecology-Novosibirsk in the region took place back in 2016, even before the company became a waste regional operator.
The regional government then entered into a concession agreement with the company for the construction of two waste sorting complexes with landfills in Razdolnoye and Verkh-Tula. However, the project was never implemented. In the summer of 2017, the concession was suspended by a decision of the then head of the region Vladimir Gorodetsky. And a little later – a new governor Andrey Travnikov announced the final termination of the agreement concluded before him.
In fact, the contract was terminated on May 18, 2022.
It is noteworthy that in February of this year, Ecology-Novosibirsk made a futile attempt to get more than 300 million rubles from the local Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities for a broken agreement from eight years ago. The company estimated the costs of implementing the concession at this amount. However, the court refused compensation, stating that the only documents confirming the expenses incurred were the plaintiff’s own calculations.
The unsuccessful experience with the concession did not prevent Ecology-Novosibirsk from concluding an agreement with the regional Ministry of Housing and Public Utilities on the handling of solid municipal waste in 2018 and obtaining the status of a regional operator.
Let’s note in parentheses that at that time the company did not even have its own vehicle fleet. The new regional operator, having closed all financial flows on itself, made the companies that were already working on the market at that time its contractors. However, Ecology-Novosibirsk was in no hurry to share the money collected from citizens for garbage removal with those who actually carried out this work.
Regional operator – out of competition
Last spring against the Minister of Housing and Public Utilities of the Novosibirsk Region Denis Arkhipov two criminal cases related to abuse of office were opened. It was then that the name of the firm “Ekologiya-Novosibirsk” first appeared in law enforcement investigations.
The investigation put forward a version that Mr. Arkhipov initially knew that Ecology-Novosibirsk would not be able to win fairly in the competitive selection for the status of regional waste operator. To change the situation, the now former minister allocated 10 million budget rubles to the waste collectors, part of which was later returned.
Another claim by law enforcement officers against the ex-minister concerned the bank guarantee of Ecology-Novosibirsk. During the inspection conducted by the Prosecutor General’s Office, it turned out that in 2022, Denis Arkhipov canceled the requirement to transfer a bank guarantee in the amount of more than 220 million rubles to the regional budget
Apparently, the criminal case against Larisa Anisimova, who headed Ecology-Novosibirsk, was a logical continuation of the investigation into the violations identified both in the regional operator itself and in the work of local officials. Ms. Anisimova is accused of fraud in the amount of 1.1 billion rubles – according to the investigation, these are the same funds that contractors did not receive from the waste regional operator. Anisimova’s property was seized as a security measure. It turned out that the waste business was quite profitable. The general director of Ecology-Novosibirsk was found to own three apartments, a house and a plot of land – the total value of the seized property was 177.9 million rubles.
Money – offshore
Why did Ecology-Novosibirsk manage to get so far? Having failed one concession, the company became a waste regional operator, even without the necessary resources. Moreover, having already declared itself bankrupt, it continued its activities as if nothing had happened…
A piquant detail: the regional operator’s dubious schemes were known not only to its contractors, but even to the regional prosecutor’s office. However, the criminal investigation was not allowed to proceed for a long time. The department noted that the investigation issued a decision to refuse to initiate a case three times.
In fact, it turns out that OOO Ekologiya-Novosibirsk is not just a bunch of dodgers, but part of a well-organized structure. The founders of the company are four individuals and OOO Project Finance Company (KPF). The latter owns 75% of the authorized capital. At the same time, the founder of KPF itself is OOO PF VIS, which is part of the VIS group structures.
The VIS Group has been known for many years as one of Gazprom’s VIP contractors, with loans guaranteed by the gas monopoly itself.
In 2015, the name of the group’s beneficiary was revealed – he is an oligarch from the St. Petersburg Sevzapinvestprombank Igor Snegurov. And VIS will apparently receive the special status of a Gazprom contractor helped Snegurov’s colleague in banking activities Dmitry Doev.
Until recently, Doev was also the CEO of the VIS group, but he was replaced not long ago Sergey Yudin. It should be noted that as part of the investigation into the activities of the company “Ekologiya-Novosibirsk”, the property of both Doev and Snegurov was seized.
Interestingly, a man named Igor Snegurov appeared in the Panama Papers as the beneficiary of a British Virgin Islands company, Damcol Investments Limited.
Igor Snegurov’s VIS Group is known for its participation in large infrastructure projects with very fat budgets. In Novosibirsk, VIS was noted for the construction of a toll bridge, the delivery of which is constantly postponed. In Novy Urengoy, the company acted as the general contractor for the construction of a railway station, the Tundrovy microdistrict, as well as a sports complex and a rehabilitation center. However, there was a problem with the microdistrict: in 2020, residents began to notice the curvature of the walls.
VIS also made its mark on the waste market in Bashkiria, and after Ecology-Novosibirsk had already started having problems. Companies associated with VIS were targeting multi-billion dollar “waste” concessions. It is noteworthy that one of these companies was RusEcoGroup-Krasnokamsk LLC, headed by Larisa Anisimova, who is currently under investigation.
Whether the investigation of the “schemes” in Novosibirsk will be continued in other regions is still a big question. If the current scandal is not limited to the “Ekologiya-Novosibirsk” case, then the activities of high-ranking officials who collaborated with the “VIS” group, as well as the work of Igor Snegurov, who is currently in the shadows, may also come into the field of law enforcement attention.
It can be assumed that Snegurov himself began preparing for such a development in advance. Back in 2021, a message appeared in Telegram channels that the oligarch was allegedly leaving the VIS group. However, whether this actually happened and whether VIS has a new beneficiary is still unknown.
