The bankruptcy trustee of Paolo Conte retail LLC (a structure of the Paolo Conte shoe retailer) Tatyana Dokukina filed a claim with the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region for the recovery of damages in the amount of 331 million rubles. from Oksana Rotar and Anatoly Loginov. This follows from the materials published on the website of the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information. Rotar is the wife of Andrey Rotar, the founder of Paolo Conte, he died in October 2021. She also owns a 50% stake in the company’s structures. Loginov is the CEO of the retailer. It was not possible to contact them. Dokukina did not provide prompt comment.
Paolo Conte was one of the top 10 largest shoe retailers in Russia in the mainstream segment, according to OR Group. By 2019, the network included 81 stores. At that time, the revenue of one of the main structures of the group – Paolo Conte LLC – amounted to 1.8 billion rubles, and net profit – 27.5 million rubles. After the death of Andrei Rotar, creditors began to massively file lawsuits against the company’s structures. The largest of them – for 1 billion rubles. – filed Sberbank, which credited the network in 2019-2020. Last year, Paolo Conte’s member firms were declared bankrupt.
In connection with what actions Paolo Conte retail suffered losses of 331 million rubles, is still unknown. Earlier, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region established that in 2018 the company transferred 2.8 million rubles. LLC “Glam Taylor”, the sole owner and head of which is the widow of the founder of the retailer. It follows from the materials of the case that these transfers were issued as remuneration under an agency agreement, the transaction itself was recognized by the court as fictitious (“Glam Taylor” is now challenging such a decision). It is likely that the bankruptcy trustee has found new losses, says Pavel Kirsanov, head of the Restructuring and Bankruptcy practice of the Regionservis Bar Association. According to him, if she proves them, then this amount can be recovered from Rotar and Loginov. Since Rotar, together with her husband, is a co-founder of the company, then responsibility for her can come both for her actions (inaction) and for her deceased spouse, says Artem Komsyukov, head of the office of the Arbitrazh.ru law firm.
But as for the actual collection of debts, it will be problematic, lawyers say. As follows from the file of arbitration cases, in relation to Oksana Rotar (as well as her late spouse) in April 2022, a bankruptcy procedure was introduced – the sale of property, recalls Kirsanov.
