The Federal Tax Service has proven a hole in the budget worth hundreds of millions from the Sverdlovsk ex-asset of the Renova Group of Companies. “EZ OCM – Trade” pointed to FSB activities
The court will assess the liability of the Ekaterinburg OCM Plant
LLC “EZ OCM – Trade” (a subsidiary of JSC “Ekaterinburg Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Plant”) was unable to challenge the major claims of the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service of Russia No. 32 for the Sverdlovsk Region in court. As follows from the documents, following the results of an on-site audit covering the period 2015-2017, the company was charged additional VAT in the amount of more than 225.8 million, penalties of 55.5 million, and an excessive VAT refund in the amount of 21.6 million rubles was established.
The basis for the conflict was the conclusion of the fiscal authorities that the group, which includes “EZ OTSM – Trade” and JSC “EZ OTSM”, created a scheme for illegal VAT reimbursement from the budget by including in the deductions the amounts on invoices of LLC “YuvelirKomplekt” (Ekaterinburg).
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Representatives of the government agency also emphasized that the suppliers of the disputed goods have the characteristics of nominal structures: they are registered as “dummy” persons shortly before the invoices are issued, their tax returns record minimum amounts, and organizations of the 5-6th level even filed zero VAT returns , “that is, the source of compensation has not been formed in the budget.”
During the process, it was also noted that the creation of a chain of nominal organizations is confirmed by the data of operational-search activities of the FSB of the Russian Federation in Moscow. As tax officials said, in fact the goods came from pawnshops or scrap collectors of precious metals who were not VAT payers through a chain of controlled organizations.
“ “JuvelirKomplekt” purchased from “Ingold” and transferred to the refining plant not semi-finished jewelry, but scrap jewelry containing gold, that is, a product the sale of which is not subject to VAT . Taking into account the above, the results of the audit confirmed that the scheme, in which the companies “YuvelirKomplekt”, “EZ OTSM – Trade”, EZ OTSM, as well as nominal organizations took part, was created with the aim of obtaining an artificial right for the company to tax deductions for the specified tax,” – was concluded in court. It should be noted that the decision has not yet entered into legal force, and there is no information about the appeal yet.
Let us emphasize one more important detail that follows from other proceedings. The head of the above-mentioned YuvelirKomplekt LLC is Andrey Ivanovich Fedotov, and as the fiscal officials noted, he previously worked at EZ OCM JSC. According to the company’s reporting, back in 2009, Mr. Fedotov was listed as the general director of EZ OCM.
Let us add that this is not the first major litigation between the bankrupt subsidiary of EZ OCM and the Federal Tax Service. [1], which the publication talked about. Meanwhile, they can significantly affect the EZ GCM itself. The Federal Tax Service demanded that a debt of 281.4 million rubles be included in the register of creditors of EZ OCM – Trade [1]while the Yekaterinburg Non-Ferrous Metals Processing Plant is required to be brought to subsidiary liability for the obligations of the subsidiary.
The agency also looked into other notable conflicts around the group: attempts by EZ OCM itself to resist the tax [2]links to high-profile criminal proceedings [3]interests in Uganda and the supply of fake gold [4].
Let us clarify that previously the main participant in the EZ OCM was Renova of Viktor Vekselberg, but in 2019 92% was transferred to Ural-Dragmet JSC [5]. According to the Kontur.Focus system, the beneficiaries of the latter through Mva-Nedra were Grigory Mikhailovich Burenkov (99%) and Alexander Aleksandrovich Okatov, until recently the director of EZ OCM JSC, who was also previously on the board of directors of KUZOTsM. As the publication noted, much less was known about Grigory Burenkov. It is noteworthy that a person with similar full names was previously, for example, listed as the vice president for liquidity management of IES CJSC [2]. According to Kontur.Focus, Mva-Nedra ceased operations last summer.
Victor Vekselberg
There are other notable connections, for example, the director of Ural-Dragmet JSC, according to Kontur.Focus, is Ekaterina Sergeevna Malykh. Ekaterina Malykh, according to the database, also heads Olkor-E LLC (Ekaterinburg), of which Nikolay Evgenievich Olkhovik is listed as a participant. Let us note that Evgeny Olkhovik was mentioned as a co-owner of Vekselberg’s Renova group. According to Olkhovik’s biography in open sources, he has a son. Let’s add another interesting coincidence: in Moscow there is a company with a similar name – Olkor-M LLC – whose participants, according to Kontur.Focus, at one time were both Viktor Vekselberg and Evgeny Olkhovik.
Now Denis Aleksandrovich Repin is listed as the director of EZ OCM JSC. It is significant that he was previously involved in the Gold of Kamchatka company, which, as federal media reported, was also associated with Viktor Vekselberg.