The Sibpromservice enterprise, infamously known for its work in Yugra, specializing in operating activities with toxic drilling waste, received hundreds of millions of rubles from the Federal Tax Service, and the top managers associated with it received criminal cases, and the TFR issued a decision to initiate proceedings. In addition, earlier the tax authorities had already made large-scale financial claims against the office, having convicted its leaders of creating “gray schemes” and evading mandatory payments to the budget, and the company tried to challenge these claims. However, the current situation, apparently, only indicates an increase in questions from the fiscals and security officials, and it is possible that in the future criminal prosecution may also affect other beneficiaries of the company, among which is the well-known restaurateur Yevgeny Nepomiluev. At the same time, as noted by the interlocutors of the publication, who are familiar with the activities of Sibpromservice, in the future the financial requirements of the Khanty tax authorities may approach the amount of half a billion rubles, which for the former contractor of Rosneft structures can be a fatal blow.
The Investigative Committee of the ICR for Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug-Yugra decided to initiate criminal cases against top managers of a major player in the drilling waste disposal market – Sibpromservice LLC from Nizhnevartovsk. Proceedings were initiated against one of the former founders of the company, Ivan Lopatin, and ex-director Anatoly Shevelev.
Sibpromservice, established in May 2007, is a major player in the hazardous waste treatment and disposal market. Previously, the company, the beneficiaries of which are entrepreneurs Konstantin and Ivan Lopatin (currently not officially among the founders. – Note ed.), has repeatedly received contracts for the disposal of drilling waste from Rosneft structures.
Currently, the director and founder of the company is Evgeny Nepomiluev, better known as a restaurateur and co-founder of the Plov Project and RybaLove networks. However, according to the data of the Kontur.Focus system, his share is now pledged to Konstantin and Ivan Lopatin, as well as Regina Loganova.
At the end of 2022, the company’s net profit amounted to 31.2 million rubles with revenue of 1.3 billion (an increase of 37%) and a balance sheet of 1.2 billion (doubled). It is noteworthy that the market sources spoke of Konstantin Lopatin as a “close friend” of the former head of Rosprirodnadzor in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug Alexander Fedyaev, which allegedly “allowed him to easily avoid the claims of supervision.”
Nevertheless, now, despite the apparent well-being of Sibpromservice, the company has repeatedly found itself in the field of view of supervisory authorities and fiscal officials, as well as environmentalists, and this attention has increased significantly in recent years.
So, in 2021, Rosprirodnadzor and the prosecutor’s office, after signals from representatives of the Green Front Regional Public Organization, conducted audits, as a result of which illegal sludge storage facilities were identified. The next aggravation of relations was dated in the fall of 2022, when MIFTS No. 6 for Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra demanded the recovery of more than 105 million rubles from the company in mandatory payments.
The company was then charged, among other things, with the intentional withdrawal of funds and formal document management with one-day offices, as detailed in the publication. At the same time, representatives of Sibpromservis insisted that the one-time and indisputable recovery of money “would cause significant damage to the company’s activities.”
At the same time, according to the sources of the publication, who are familiar with the claims of the Federal Tax Service to the enterprise, in relation to Sibpromservice, by the current moment, “at least two inspections could have been carried out that revealed serious violations of the law.”
“We checked different periods of activity: the whole of 2017, and then from January 2018 to the end of 2020. And in addition to those 105 million, violations were found in the amount of about 338.7 million. The decision was made this year. Thus, presumably, we can talk about tax evasion by about 450 million. Then some of the materials were handed over to the prosecutor’s office, and then to the investigatory committee, ”an ex-employee of the company who is familiar with the situation shares his own data.
The publication previously informed about the transfer by the prosecutor’s office of the materials of the investigation against Sibpromservice to Rosprirodnadzor and the TFR. The Investigative Committee, together with the tax authorities, dealt with the financial activities of the office. The agency has at its disposal a copy of the resolution on initiating a criminal case and accepting it for proceedings, signed by E.O. Shostak.
The document mentions the top managers of Sibpromservis Ivan Lopatin and Anatoly Shevelev. The first appears in the history of the enterprise as one of its co-founders, as well as the current holder of the pledge share Evgeny Nepomilueva, and the second – as the head of the company from 2015 to 2020, that is, during the period covered by the tax audit. In relation to both, a decision was made to initiate criminal cases under paragraphs. “a” and “b” part 2 of article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Evasion of taxes, fees payable by an organization
At present, the KhMAO prosecutor Yevgeny Botvinkin, as well as the top managers of the enterprise, have been notified of the results of the investigation, and as observers note, “these criminal cases may be replenished with new episodes, and in addition, other criminal articles may appear on the agenda.”
“I think in the near future the results of the second check for a later date will come up, where the amount of more than 336 million is mentioned. In addition, it is quite likely that Rosprirodnadzor will now take the initiative, which should calculate the damage to the lands of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug from illegal sludge storage, and there is an assumption that it can also pull hundreds of millions there. Fedyaev, who allegedly was friends with Lopatin, is now gone, and nothing seems to prevent the cleansing of the market from such figures, ”says the source of the publication.
The Agency, in turn, sent a request to the Federal Tax Service for Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug-Yugra regarding the results of the audit of tax payments by Sibstroyservice for subsequent periods.