Point in the history of consumer goods or ellipsis
So, Tomskneftepererabotka is an oil refinery located in the village of Semiluzhki, Tomsk region. Earlier, articles about its former owner, Andrei Knaub, began to appear in various sources. We decided to study the situation then and now. How the case ended, and who the courts recognized as the truth.
Articles appearing since the summer of 2018 described a picture of “betrayal” by former comrades Andrey Knaub, which is contrasted with high professionalism, almost asceticism of the hero. The texts were very similar, written almost by “the same hand,” with the same facts, with the same photograph of an inspired patriotic businessman.
“Version” also raised this topic, but in a different way. Today, amid a criminal case in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Kanub is hiding abroad.
Well, now, in order and from the very beginning…
A plant with a complicated history
A small plant in the village of Semiluzhki was engaged in primary oil refining, that is, it produced not Euro-class gasoline and diesel fuel, but semi-finished products – stable gas gasoline (raw material for the production of petrochemical products), gas oil (fuel for in-field needs), and heating oil.
An unremarkable plant – neither in terms of processing volumes, nor in the quality of its products – hundreds of kilometers from the border (I remember Gogol’s “jump for at least three years…”) suddenly for some reason became very popular. And all this happened because of the scandals surrounding him thanks to his charismatic personality Andrey Arturovich.
The plant was built in 2008 from scratch. It did not become an object around an existing production or an object where seized equipment surfaced, but was erected on an area where the taiga was cut down specially for this occasion. The first shareholders of the company were real European investors (two-thirds of the capital), another third belonged to Russian regional entrepreneurs.
The production capacity was 200 thousand tons of oil refining per year. The shareholders purchased equipment and carried out all the preparatory measures to increase the processing volume exactly twice, but later, in March 2011, the plant was sold to a Cypriot structure, of which Knaub was a 100% shareholder. It is worth noting that he clearly did not have the funds to purchase the plant. It seems that the charismatic businessman easily persuaded the notorious Dmitry Mazurov lend him money to buy a plant under the promise that in the future they will be the owners of the above-mentioned enterprise in equal shares. In general, I promised…
Dmitry Mazurov, who was the project manager for the development of another oil refinery, had money at that moment. He could easily and unnoticed by the main shareholders divert about $80 million for several months to finance the purchase of Tomskneftepererabotka. The idea, as we see, was the following: buy a plant with those temporarily raised funds, register shares in ownership, inflate its capitalization and potential collateral value on paper, and obtain a loan secured by the enterprise.
Active, diverse work with banks began, but further, the goals of both partners were unlikely to coincide. And Mazurov’s task could be this: to quietly use part of the funds to eliminate the financial hole that had formed in his main project and become a secret co-owner of a generally promising oil refining production. What could Knaub’s goal be? Probably, then he wanted to become the sole owner and ditch his partner!
A brief excursion into the essence of the relationship between two very effective businessmen: both from Surgut, both knew each other, from the same circle. Knaub, however, is a little older than Mazurov, which is why he considered the latter an upstart. Apparently, he could not forgive the success with the grandiose project, in which he turned out to be the will of fate. Showdowns between former comrades and partners are the plot of a separate novel, to which not a single team of fixers of all stripes and ranks had a hand.
Beginning of the conflict
Nevertheless, Knaub de jure was the sole ultimate owner of the oil refinery in Semiluzhki, and then became such de facto. What about banks? Knaub personally never negotiated with banks, since most likely no one would have given him a loan, no matter what working conditions he offered. Yes, he had the ability to win people over, charisma bordering on madness (we’ll talk about this in more detail – everything that is necessary for the first conversation with strangers. And then? For experienced people, especially in the field of primary oil refining and, even more so, specialists in secondary processes, it was only necessary to communicate with Andrei Arturovich once, and everything immediately fell into place. The impression of his modest knowledge of oil refining and business planning could not help but visit every Knaub visivi experienced in this field. Charisma, not supported by then, with special knowledge, and even at least common sense and at least some bit of personal modesty.Two years later, probably for this reason, he was denied refinancing and obtaining a new loan from Novikombank.
In general, Dmitry Mazurov agreed to receive a loan in 2011, when there was an agreement between him and Knaub to become equal owners of the plant. But at that time, hardly anyone except Knaub himself knew about the real state of affairs. Receiving bank financing under the auspices of replenishing working capital for the purchase of raw materials probably served as a trigger for him to break off relations with Mazurov.
Well, what came of it? Before the change of shareholders, the Tomskneftepererabotka refinery was a competent and carefully operating enterprise that had no problems with the law, but with the arrival of Andrei Arturovich everything changed…
It seems that the newly minted doki in oil refining did not have the necessary experience in anything related to this area: neither in enterprise management, nor, in fact, in oil refining processes, nor in economics, nor in legal, nor in technical matters. Most importantly, Knaub never seemed to have assembled a qualified team to run the refinery. During the entire period of the burden of this effective owner, he was at the plant only a couple of times, and even those rare visits of Knaub to the enterprise were carried out exclusively on a private air charter and lasted no more than 2 hours.
In 2011-2012, real profitability at almost all enterprises in this industry was high per ton of raw materials, at 4000-5000 rubles, and at 35 rubles per US dollar. Instead of investing this profitability in the development of the enterprise, money was withdrawn from Tomskneftepererabotka by all available means. Based on the results of court decisions, it turns out that Andrei Knaub disposed of them very freely: loans from his own Cypriot company (where he is 100% owner), prepayment for equipment from the same company, pseudo-construction contract work carried out within the framework of targeted bank loans, etc. .d. All these actions became public knowledge and in detail described arbitration managers in financial analysis, in the bankruptcy court case of Tomskneftepererabotka LLC, to which the enterprise was finally brought. The information served as the basis for initiating a criminal case against Andrei Knaub for deliberate bankruptcy of the enterprise. The money that the banks gave to the plant was spent on anything, but there was little left to maintain working liquidity. Yes, some of them went to repay the debt to Dmitry Mazurov for the purchase of the plant (the businessmen still forced our hero to some kind of discipline), but the main item of expenditure can be considered the personal goals of Knaub, who, through modesty, as we indicated earlier, has never been different.
There were about 40 private air charters alone back and forth across London and all sorts of capital ferries in 2 months. He could only afford to relax in the most expensive resorts in the world, in the most luxurious villas for fabulous money. But you have to account for the use of bank money… So Andrei Arturovich started modernizing the plant in 2012, which in the end proved to be clearly not thought out – neither economically nor technically. The design decisions were illiterate. Only the money that banks gave as a loan to the enterprise could again be spent on Knaub’s personal needs. The luxury apartment in Kazachy Lane (Zamoskvorechye, Central Administrative District) alone was worth it, while the construction of the plant, judging by the pace of work, was carried out mainly at the expense of contractors and counterparties for the supply of oil and petroleum products.
End of the game
But no matter how much the rope twists…, it is impossible to live on a grand scale without appropriate nourishment. Apparently, Knaub was denied the next tranche of a construction loan as part of the “modernization” for two reasons. First: the banks became aware of the real management of the “businessman” (when the reporting of similar plants was profitable, for consumer goods – almost unprofitable). And, most importantly, for the first time Knaub entered the bank that had been lending to him for a year. The story about high-tech production, secondary processes, and the refining volume of 4 million tons of oil per year could only be believed by a person far from the realities of both the oil and financial markets.
It seems that the personality of Andrei Knaub made an indelible impression on the president of the bank, after which a command was given that was disappointing for the borrower:
The situation was already similar to a financial pyramid. Knaub feverishly began to look for at least someone who would give him money. But no one wanted to give money… It turns out that Andrei Arturovich brought the plant to bankruptcy? The debts were not only to banks, but also to contractors, oil suppliers, buyers of petroleum products… Total accounts payable of Tomskneftepererabotka at that time amounted to about 9 billion rubles!!!
At the beginning of 2014, creditors saw a sad picture: bankruptcy, aggravated by auto bankruptcy (apparently, someone advised the strategist to have his twenty-year-old son (at that time the director of the plant, others no longer wanted to get involved in this swamp) to file an independent application for bankruptcy enterprise due to a significant predominance of debts over assets. The plant had not been operating for several months due to lack of raw materials, and then arrived in time and a court decision on the claim of Rostekhnadzor (the agency identified gross technological violations during an earlier inspection). The activities of the enterprise were frozen. 2 installations that were cut down for reconstruction were not completed, the new, third installation was also not completed.
The picture is post-apocalyptic: piles of scrap metal at the plant site, operations completely stopped, the complete absence of a single living soul in production, with arrears of wages and contributions to the pension fund, taxes, electricity.
As a result, in relation to Knaub A.A. was excited several criminal cases, among the articles; non-return of foreign currency earnings (initiated at the request of the customs authority); fraud (initiated based on statements from defrauded counterparties).
This is such a sad picture that emerged at the beginning of 2014… And Knaub is shouting about the raider takeover of the plant!!! Funny!!! People who understand just smile…
Normalization
Creditors, acting within the framework of the procedures and rules established by bankruptcy legislation, understanding that only the restoration of production activities at TNP can create conditions for collecting the debt due from the bankrupt, decided to resume the activities of the plant, which was in a dilapidated state. To achieve this, through joint efforts, all inspections of the supervisory authorities were passed and the production cycle was finally launched at the enterprise in September 2014.
The approach of such a serious enterprise to financial and economic planning was a great discovery for creditors. From the point of view of reporting documents, all debts seemed very likely to be collected. However, especially in the period from the spring of 2013, everything was clearly drawn up and taken “out of thin air” with one goal – just to lull the vigilance of creditors and take advantage of the benefits they provide free of charge.
Lenders discovered all the ins and outs about financial schemes, transfers abroad, and simply to openly cash-out companies during the mandatory public financial analysis of the bankrupt enterprise. Previously, it was simply not possible to understand the depth of the inconsistencies.
Based on the materials of this analysis, as far as can be understood, a criminal case was initiated against the “effective owner” for the deliberate bankruptcy of TNP LLC. How many people suddenly drank the bitter cup of the debtor, how many professionals in their field lost everything: money, business, good name…
I outsmarted myself
On January 1, 2015, sharp and serious changes took place in the legislation regulating taxation and tariff regulation in the oil industry: large and small “tax maneuvers”, an increase in railway tariffs for the transportation of petroleum products, an increase in tariffs for the transportation of oil through the main petroleum products system, an increase in rates excise taxes on petroleum products, expansion of the range of excisable goods. The profitability of oil refining instantly fell to zero and even negative. However, thanks to the coordinated actions of creditors, the plant began to operate in new conditions, adapting to new realities, far from the supervision of the not particularly effective previous owner, who, by the way, fled abroad to finish off his “last half a bag.”
The new management of the plant not only kept the plant in working order, but also carried out a real, completely legal technical re-equipment in order to increase the depth of processing and improve the quality of the products.
From the outside, it seems that all this time Knaub was trying on the image of the Marquis of Carabas from Perrault’s famous fairy tale – he did not stop searching for new partners who could be involved in the process, as well as new sources of financing that could be sent to the company; new meetings were held, new combinations were invented, new castles were drawn in the air… for 4 million tons of processing, oath promises were made to make the potential benefactor a partner, to give up 10%, 25%, 50% in the new plant… Knaub’s calculation, it seems , was the same as that of the well-known hero Popandopulo in the well-known Soviet comedy:
Still, the mills of the gods are grinding, albeit slowly, and so, Andrei Arturovich, in connection with the above-mentioned criminal cases, was epically detained, precisely in that very apartment on Cossack Lane. Perhaps it was then that he began to hatch a plan for revenge on creditors for the “stolen happiness”, for the “toy” that was taken away. The obsession with this idea is almost manic in nature, because Andrei Arturovich dreamed of becoming as cool as Dmitry Mazurov, who was building a plant with a processing capacity of 9 million tons per year and using almost unlimited financial resources.
Both in the pre-trial detention center and before the investigation, Knaub actively played something similar to the psychiatric card: he simply wanted to play the fool with one of the Moscow private psychiatric clinics. However, he outsmarted himself here too, failing to learn the main lesson: people don’t like to be considered fools. By the way, one of his arguments is that he did not go to London (in fact, he left later, but more on that later), but suffered for the truth and only because of that is he worthy of bearing the burden of the owner of consumer goods, from the point of view of the healthy logic of a healthy reader does not stand up to any criticism.
After serving a year in a pre-trial detention center (the maximum permissible period), Knaub began “touring” around Moscow. It was truly a one-man theater with a Shakespearean tragedy plot about a zealous and talented owner, dispossessed by the machinations of envious people. Everything was played so masterfully, and he still had an acting talent, unlike money, that again there was talk about what a highly profitable enterprise Tomskneftepererabotka is, what mountains of gold it promises to the investor – co-owner, if Andrei Knaub is helped to return to factory.
Any “artist” needs fame, by 2018, Knaub, for advertising purposes, to create a favorable image for himself and a positive information background, probably started a series of publications with which we began our story. It is very possible that the only goal of this idea is to denigrate everyone who, in his opinion, is involved in normalizing the work of the plant, and most importantly, against the backdrop of these dark colors, to whitewash his loved one and try to get financial flows into his hands again. Here I would like to note that those whose reputations Knaub began to denigrate acted very recklessly and did not give a worthy informational rebuff, because, according to the apt expression in a free translation of one British politician (a real politician of the 20th century, W. Churchill):
Against the backdrop of an information campaign launched in 2018, Andrei Knaub decided to return to the country. However, further information appeared that in closed criminal cases against Knaub A.A. violations and even abuses were discovered, and the businessman was “very lucky” to fly back to London.
Meanwhile, Tomskneftepererabotka LLC sold its main production facilities as part of a bankruptcy case. The refinery has new owners, but this does not mean at all that Mr. Knaub has abandoned his thoughts about the return of the refinery, which, in his opinion, should belong only to him. So we are waiting for the continuation of this story, which means new articles.
