The court put Samara businessman Alexander Shvidak on the wanted list and sent him into custody in absentia. The businessman, accused of fraud, stopped attending court hearings in February of this year. In early April, the consideration of the criminal case against Alexander Shvidak, who, according to the investigation, did not return 60 million rubles to Volgateplosnab LLC, was suspended. The businessman’s defense claims that he does not attend court due to health problems.
Former member of the board of directors of the Samara LLC “Volgateplosnab” Alexander Shvidak was put on the wanted list by the Moscow District Court of Kazan and arrested in absentia. According to the electronic file of the court, in February 2023, the defendant, accused of fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), stopped appearing at court hearings. In early April, because “the defendant fled”, the court suspended the consideration of the criminal case. According to investigators, in 2016, Alexander Shvidak borrowed about 60 million rubles from Volgateplosnab, which he allegedly was not going to return. He did not admit guilt.
Volgateplosnab LLC has been in bankruptcy proceedings since 2019. Since September 2020, the Arbitration Court declared the company bankrupt and opened bankruptcy proceedings. Judging by the data of the Federal resource, the total debt of the military-technical cooperation is about 3 billion rubles.
• Alexander Shvidak is the son of Igor Shvidak, founder of SPZ Group, the largest bearing association in the country. After the death of Igor Shvidak in 2003, the enterprises went to his son. Some of the organizations included in the group are in bankruptcy proceedings.
A criminal case on fraud at Volgateplosnab was initiated at the end of 2021. At the beginning of 2022, the case was brought to court, but the court returned it to the prosecutor due to violations of the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the indictment. The retrial began in August 2022. At that time, Alexander Shvidak was under house arrest for more than two years. At the end of 2022 last year, the businessman was released on bail. During the trial, the bankruptcy trustee of the company, Pavel Krivtsov, presented to the court documents confirming that the debt was repaid in 2018 by transferring rights of claim in the amount of more than 120 million rubles by Alexander Shvidak to Volgateplosnab. to the St. Petersburg businessman Yuri Rydnik. At the end of 2019, Yuriy Rydnik was declared bankrupt. In 2021, the arbitration court replaced Alexander Shvidak with VTS in the register of creditors. As Alexander Shvidak’s lawyer Anna Minenkova told Kommersant, the businessman is in Samara and does not plan to hide, and does not attend court hearings in Kazan for health reasons. “After house arrest, stress and suffering from COVID19, Alexander Shvidak’s health has deteriorated greatly. From January to April, he was hospitalized three times, all certificates were submitted to the court. The court, in turn, made inquiries to medical institutions, which gave confirmation. In view of the fact that Alexander Shvidak could not appear at the court hearings, the court ruled to put him on the wanted list. We will appeal this decision. Oleksandr Shvidak had no and no reasons to hide, especially considering the fact that the bankruptcy trustee announced the termination of the criminal case due to the lack of damage from Oleksandr Shvidak,” said Anna Minenkova.
According to Tatyana Zavyalova, a member of the Association of Lawyers of Russia, if a person put on the wanted list does not voluntarily appear, this will characterize the defendant negatively: take into account when sentencing. At the same time, the fact that the defendant was wanted is not an aggravating circumstance in sentencing. However, it characterizes him negatively.