The real head and founder of Skillbox, Dmitry Krutov, learned about the change in CEO from lawyers, the Baza telegram channel reports. According to an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, a certain Islam Kuchaev became the new head of the company. As it turned out, this person in September last year signed a contract for training in a cybersecurity program. Then he decided to quit his studies and wanted to return the money. He paid 95 thousand rubles for the course, and received back 60 thousand rubles. Kuchaev was indignant and promised that the company would regret it.
At the end of February, a decision of the board of directors of OOO Skillbox was brought to one of the Moscow notaries. Obviously fake. It said that Islam Kuchaev became the new CEO of the company. The notary certified the documents and sent them to the tax office, where they registered the changes. This is a well-known scheme, Timur Tazhirov, Forward Legal’s lawyer, notes:
— There is a charter of the organization. If, according to the charter, the decision to change the general director is made by the board of directors, it is usually written that the decision of the board of directors is certified by the signing of all its participants. It turns out that anyone, if he knows the names of the members of the board of directors, can draw up a decision to change the general director and bring it to a notary. He brings an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, brings the charter and a fake decision of the board of directors.
– The notary, in theory, also needs the charter of the company, and the original. Let’s say how much a copy can ride?
– Firstly, in the tax territorially you can legally get a copy. Anyone can do this. That is, it was possible to get this copy, then make an “original” under the copy and bring it to a notary. If he forged signatures on the board’s decision, it’s possible that he was prepared to forge other signatures as well. Or, for example, come to a notary and say that the original burned down in a fire, but here is a copy. What happened could easily have been done without accomplices. The notary has no authority to verify the authenticity of this decision. The tax service does not have the same powers, which then registers changes in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities on the basis of this fake decision.
Islam Kuchaev was the general director for only three days – from March 7 to 9. But he managed, probably out of a sense of revenge, to change the name of the organization: Skillbox briefly became the “Sphere”. When the forgery was revealed, the lawyers canceled all the changes. If this is all the damage, then the company, one might say, got off lightly.
There was a lot to do in three days. For example, withdraw money from a bank account. As happened a few years earlier, when exactly the same scheme was used in relation to the National Space Center, which is being built in Moscow on the territory of the Khrunichev Plant. As Izvestia reported, in November 2019, a certain Berik Mukhtubaev came to the notary with a fake protocol of the founders’ meeting, which resulted in his appointment as the general director of the center. In the same place, he issued a power of attorney, with which Mukhtubaev’s accomplices went to the bank and withdrew 2 million rubles from the account of the National Space Center. The Federal Notarial Chamber also reported on this story, noting that changes in legislation are needed.
But nothing has changed in over three years. The scheme still works. But there are a few things you can do to minimize the risks. Anton Demchenko, partner of the Moscow City Bar Association Delcredere, continues:
“Two main preventive methods of protection can be distinguished. The first one is to make amendments to the charter, which require mandatory notarization of the minutes of the meetings of participants on the sole change of the executive body. This is currently acceptable and will be an additional guarantee that an additional check is carried out with the observation of the procedure for making such a decision by notaries, respectively, when making subsequent changes to change the director. And the second component is constant control over the information of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, including a system that allows you to subscribe to the registration of changes in the company in order to learn about these changes or even about filing an application for the company at the moment.
According to lawyers, Islam Kuchaev, who appointed himself CEO of Skillbox, may be prosecuted for falsifying the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. The punishment, however, is not very severe: a fine of up to 300 thousand rubles, or forced labor for up to two years, or imprisonment for the same period.
Business FM has requested comment from Skillbox. They did not confirm or deny the message about the change of the general director based on fictitious documents.