As it became known to Kommersant, the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs completed the investigation of a criminal case against a major Krasnoyarsk businessman Alexander Nuss. One of the founders of the group of companies (GC) “Maltat”, which unites enterprises in the field of timber processing, fishing, film industry, financial leasing and others, is accused of particularly large-scale fraud and transfer of currency to non-residents of the Russian Federation using forged documents. According to investigators, LLC Sibles Project, which is part of the group, received loans in the amount of more than 4.2 billion rubles from the state development corporation VEB.RF. under a fictitious contract with the Swedish company Sun Timber AB for the supply of equipment for a wood processing plant. However, the foreign company, which was allegedly controlled by the participants in the scam, did not supply a single machine.
The investigation of this criminal case began in Krasnoyarsk in September 2021. Then the Siberian Linear Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Transport suspected the leadership of the Maltat Group of illegal foreign exchange transactions. However, initially the criminal case under paragraph “a” of Part 3 of Art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (currency transfer to non-residents of the Russian Federation using false documents) was initiated against unidentified persons. According to Kommersant, it was about several contracts between Sibles Project LLC and the Swedish company Sun Timber AB.
As law enforcement officers established, in 2015 Sibles Project LLC transferred €15 million abroad for equipment for a woodworking enterprise under construction near Krasnoyarsk. However, not a single machine was delivered.
As a result, the investigation concluded that the contract was fictitious, and the sole purpose of the transaction was to transfer money abroad. It follows from the materials of the case that the signatures of Andrey Danilov, General Director of Sibles Project LLC, on the contracts are fake. According to Kommersant’s information, the head of the company himself confirmed this during interrogation, saying that he had not given any instructions to transfer money to a foreign company.
In March last year, it turned out that the money received in the form of a loan from the state development corporation VEB.RF, which finances social and economic projects, went to the account of the Swedish company. The loan was not repaid, and the Metropolitan Police already opened a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Soon both cases were merged into one proceeding, and its investigation was continued by the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Alexander Nuss, who is listed in the case file as the technical director of LLC Sibles M, a member of the group of companies, was detained on July 7, 2022. On the same day, he was charged with taking three loans under a fictitious contract for the supply of equipment and illegally transferring the billions received abroad. At the request of the investigation, the Tagansky District Court of the capital sent the entrepreneur to a pre-trial detention center.
Attempts by the defense of Mr. Nuss to convince the court that between VEB.RF and Sibles Project LLC there were exclusively “civil law relations related to the conclusion and execution of loan agreements, which the investigation unreasonably transferred to the criminal law plane”, were unsuccessful.
At the moment, Alexander Nuss is charged with embezzling more than 4.2 billion rubles from VEB.RF.
The investigation of this case has already been completed, and the accused has begun to familiarize himself with the materials collected by the investigation. The defendant’s defense refrained from commenting.
We also note that Sibles Project LLC is currently in the process of bankruptcy. At the same time, the bankruptcy trustee requires that the transactions between LLC and Sun Timber AB be recognized as fictitious. They submitted documents to the Arbitration Court of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, from which it follows that from 2013 to 2020, Sibles Project LLC repeatedly and unmotivatedly prolonged the delivery of equipment, without even trying to recover a penalty from the Swedish company.
According to the applicant, the concluded contracts actually covered the transfer of the assets of Sibles Project LLC to the affiliated Sun Timber AB, which is allegedly controlled by the brothers of Alexander Nuss Vladimir and Vitaly, and its general director is a certain Mr. Sizov, who signed contracts on behalf of the Swedes.