Around the group “VIS”, the beneficiary of which is considered a businessman “with a multi-billion dollar fortune Igor Snegurov”, a clod of conflicts is growing. Thus, the assets of the holding are subject to large claims as part of the bankruptcy of the former regional operator for the treatment of MSW, Ecology-Novosibirsk. The activities of the latter have already resulted in a criminal case and “garbage showdowns” at the regional level, and now dubious transactions that are already being actively challenged by the manager can be opened in court. In parallel, new requirements are being submitted to the Seventh Concession Company, which is part of the VIS group and is implementing a project to build seven clinics in the same Novosibirsk region. The company has already been marked by financial claims from the Ministry of Health, and now officials insist on compulsion to fulfill obligations. It is noteworthy that the aggravation takes place during the leadership of the group by Dmitry Doev, whom market participants consider to be “one of the central figures in numerous conflicts involving Gazprom assets”, recalling the manager’s connections with the same Snegurov and representatives of Seligdar and “ Russian funds. Now they are trying to bring the General Director of the VIS Group to subsidiary liability for the debts of the bankrupt Energogaz, and Gazprom Tsentrremont, which he previously headed, is once again pointed out “to the illegal goal of withdrawing a liquid asset.”
The Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal confirmed the decision, according to which Gazprom Tsentrremont LLC must pay LLC Nauchny-6 (Moscow) 61.8 million rubles and 5.39 million rubles of interest for the use of other people’s funds. The capital company is known as a “daughter” of the bankrupt asset of Gazprom – Energogaz LLC, which acted as a subgeneral contractor for the Punginskoye UGS facility expansion project in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug.
To clarify, the conflict is connected with a billion-dollar real estate transaction in Moscow, which was described in detail by the publication. As part of the Energogaz bankruptcy case, the operations were challenged, after which Gazprom Tsentrremont filed a lawsuit against Nauchny-6, but received retaliatory claims for unjust enrichment. In addition, Gazprom Tsentrremont was denied the inclusion of claims for 1.43 billion rubles in the register of creditors of Energogaz.
In the appeal, representatives of Gazprom Tsentrremont tried to talk about the good faith of the actions, but the arbitration came to other judgments.
“As follows from the acts , when considering a separate dispute, the courts found that both Gazprom Tsentrremont and Nauchny-6, when making transactions, initially pursued the illegal goal of withdrawing a liquid asset from the possession of a subsidiary in order to reduce the bankruptcy estate of the debtor ( “Energogaz”)”, – stated in the documents.
Let us add that earlier the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region attracted Gazprom Tsentrremont as a co-defendant in a separate dispute on the application of the bankruptcy trustee to bring subsidiary liability for the debts of Energogaz.
In addition, as part of the proceedings, the Interdistrict Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service No. 16 for the Moscow Region was requested to provide information on the audit in relation to Energogaz, on the status of tax payments and statements of transactions for settlements with the budget.
Probably, the request is related to a major tax scandal that unfolded in the assets of Gazprom and which was covered in detail by the publication. At a certain point, the Federal Tax Service managed to include claims for more than 600 million in the register of Energogaz’s creditors’ claims. Pravda UrFO sent a request to the Federal Tax Service of the Russian Federation with a request to comment on the debts of the Gazprom asset, but there was no answer at the moment.
At the same time, as it turned out, the conflict even led to the initiation of a criminal case against Alexander Karabanov, the ex-director of Energogaz and the current director of Elektrogaz, which is part of Gazprom’s orbit. It should be noted that market participants call Mr. Karabanov “a partner of the family of Dmitry Doev” – the former head of Gazprom Tsentrremont, and now the general director of VIS Group JSC.
In this regard, we note that Doev and Karabanov themselves, as well as Alexander Psatia (ex-director of Nauchny-6 LLC), are also trying to bring to subsidiary liability for the debts of Energogaz.
As noted in the act of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District, the third stage of the register of claims of Energogaz creditors, excluding penalties, includes claims in the amount of 2.6 billion, while 1.2 billion are accounted for by an affiliate – Gazprom Tsentrremont LLC.
In general, market participants call Dmitry Doev, in all likelihood, “one of the central figures in numerous conflicts involving Gazprom assets”, recalling, in particular, his connections with Igor Snegurov, who was listed as the beneficiary of the VIS Group and representatives of PJSC “ Seligdar and Russian Funds. At the same time, industry experts also pay attention to a noticeable increase in the number of conflicts around the VIS group itself, which is now headed by Doev.
One of the most resonant stories, of course, is considered the bankruptcy of Ecology-Novosibirsk LLC, which previously had the status of a waste management operator. As the publication pointed out, in January it became known that the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Novosibirsk Region opened a criminal case under Part 7 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Fraud” related to the activities of the VIS asset. Now the court is considering an application to bring the following controlling persons to subsidiary liability for the obligations of Ecology-Novosibirsk: EcoTrans-N LLC, KPF LLC, PF VIS LLC, VIS Group JSC.
In this regard, it can be noted that the manager has already managed to challenge the Ecology-Novosibirsk deal with KPF, and is also in the process of challenging operations with EcoTrans-N LLC, which may result in billions of claims against the latter.
Do not lag behind other projects of the group. Earlier it was reported that the Ministry of Health of the Novosibirsk Region is demanding a penalty of 54.6 million rubles from the Seventh Concession Company.
In April, the Ministry of Health of the region filed a new lawsuit against Seventh Concession Company LLC on compulsion to fulfill the obligations under the agreement, on changing the agreement. To clarify, the VIS asset is implementing a project for the construction of seven clinics in the Novosibirsk Region as part of a public-private partnership.