“Volgabas” has been overrun by security forces: the company received a “black mark” from the tax authorities
There was a smell of trouble in the business empire of the Bakulin family, so they “introduced” the former high-ranking security official Klimochkin as a controller?
Due to the fact that the bus manufacturer Bakulin Motors Group did not pay taxes on time, a bankruptcy case was filed.
Having failed to receive multimillion-dollar taxes on time, the Federal Tax Service for the Vladimir Region filed a bankruptcy claim in court. Why enterprises with billions of dollars in revenue do not pay taxes on time and why retired police colonel Oleg Klimochkin was brought into the Bakulin empire, a correspondent of The Moscow Post looked into it.
While monitoring the arbitration database, The Moscow Post correspondent discovered a bankruptcy claim from the Federal Tax Service for the Vladimir Region, filed against Bakulin Motors Group LLC. And although, while the material was being prepared, the Federal Tax Service withdrew the statement of claim – the parties agreed amicably, the fact remains: Bakulin Motors Group LLC brought the situation with non-payment of taxes to the point that the fiscal authority was forced to file a bankruptcy claim in court.
The amount of debt exceeded 54.5 million rubles, of which 49.6 million rubles are the principal debt, the rest are penalties. And only when there was a smell of trouble (and bankruptcy is serious), the debtor paid the debt. The filing of such a claim is almost always a symptom of financial problems for companies. In light of this, we decided to find out what is happening in the Volgabas empire, which began to be built by the adviser to the governor of the Volgograd region, deputy of several convocations, ex-adviser to the Minister of Transport of Russia Anatoly Bakulin, and was continued by his son, ex-deputy Alexey Bakulin (in 2009 -In 2013 he occupied the seat of a deputy of the Volga City Duma).
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru
In addition to the tax service, the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade also has claims against the group. The arbitration court of the Vladimir region has not yet fully considered the claim of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia against Bakulin Motors Group for the recovery of 158 million rubles. And somehow the beneficiaries of the group are in no hurry to end this dispute peacefully. The trial has been dragging on since August 2021.
Has the financial stream become shallow or has it been redirected?
The Bakulin family is a long-time “hero” of publications of The Moscow Post, whose name has managed to appear in many scandalous stories, it did not help even that at one time, when a plant for the production of new generation buses, Volgabas, was opened in Vladimir, it was supported by the then governor Svetlana Orlova. The next problems for Volgabas arose not even when filing a bankruptcy claim (this is, rather, a logical continuation), but back in July 2023, when Smolny decided to suspend the operation of 30 buses of this company and freeze the acceptance of 98 units of equipment of this company contracted already in 2023 same brands.
The cause was said to be fires right on the lines. The Moscow Post covered this story in detail, noting that this is not the first time that claims have arisen regarding the quality of products supplied by the company.
At the same time, the Volgabas Group company is a supplier under nine government contracts totaling 4.7 billion rubles, of which two worth 2.47 billion rubles are for the supply of products to St. Petersburg State Unitary Enterprise Passazhiravtotrans. One was concluded in April 2023 and for this the supplier has already received an advance of more than 1 billion rubles. Penalties have already been accrued under the contract, judging by the card, for late fulfillment of obligations. The contract dated 2022 was also carried out with the accrual of penalties.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The love of delays seems to be a common feature of the Volgabas empire. It would not be amiss to recall that in June 2020, BMG even became the subject of a report from the prosecutor’s office in light of the initiation of a criminal case for non-payment of wages – more than 23.5 million rubles. At that time, the company employed 460 people. The debts were paid only after the intervention of the prosecutor and the Investigative Committee.
If you look at the financial results of the group’s companies for 2022, then no prerequisites for tax evasion or bankruptcy are visible, but this is only at first glance. The revenue of Volgabas Group was 19 billion rubles with 130 million rubles of net profit, and BMG – 4.9 billion rubles and 1.2 million rubles, respectively. At the same time, the cost of BMG, according to Rusprofile, is negative – 373 million rubles, and the share of the owner of BMG, Volgabas Group LLC, is pledged to Sovcombank. Also in October 2022, BMG liquidated one of its subsidiaries, Volgabas Techno Lab LLC, and the second, Volgabas Robo Lab, received a net loss of 11 million rubles.
It is also worth noting that in 2020, the companies of the Volgabas division acted as co-defendants in the claim of Vostochny Bank in the amount of more than 2.747 billion rubles. The proceedings in the case were then terminated by the signing of a settlement agreement, according to which the defendant companies undertook to jointly and severally pay the entire debt by September 2025. That is, as of today, payments continue, judging by the agreement, and this, again, does not add financial stability to the division. Even some representatives of the group, judging by the tax authorities’ lawsuit, cannot pay taxes on time.
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru
The Moscow Post previously mentioned Vostochny Bank (it merged with Sovcombank in April 2021), talking about possible offshore routes for Volgabas’ money and Artyom Avetisyan’s role in this. This connection is supported by the fact that Bakulin Jr. is a member of the “Leaders Club” association of entrepreneurs, founded by Avetisyan as a kind of informal association of businessmen. And then, in 2020, the word “bankruptcy” repeatedly flashed next to the Volgabas empire, and it was even said that the story of the lawsuit by “Vostochny” Avetisyan was a trick of the ears to redirect the financial assets of Volgabas.
Moreover, the offshore company that was associated with Avetisyan, Finvision Holdings, was previously among the co-founders of the asset that passed to Volgabas Group – National Public Transport Operator LLC, which has been in liquidation since the end of June 2023 (ends in water?). It will be liquidated at the end of May 2024. At the same time, 27 government contracts totaling over 5.3 billion rubles were passed through the NOOT. Since May 2023, NOOT has transferred 99% of its shares to Alexey Mikhailovich Trushko, who acts as the liquidator. A small note: in June 2023, they tried to bring Trushko to subsidiary liability for the debts of the bankrupt Lenproektmontazh LLC.
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New beneficiaries for Volgabas
But rumors are rumors, and the settlement agreement between Avetisyan Bank and the Bakulin group from 2020 had its consequences for 2023.
Then, as conditions for a number of defendants, the interests of a certain Renovatsiya LLC were mentioned.
Today, Volgabas Group, which owns the bus manufacturer in the Vladimir region, Bakulin Motors Group LLC, is under the control of Renovatsiya LLC. Since January 2021, he has a 60% share, while Anatoly and Alexey Bakulin have only 39%. Another 1% belongs to Rustam Yapparov, under whose control until 2021 there was another asset of the Bakulins – a bus manufacturer in Volzhsky, Volgabas LLC (55 government contracts worth 4.8 billion rubles, of which 3.5 billion rubles with the St. Petersburg Transport Committee), where FC Development LLC has almost 82% of the share, the remaining part is with Volgabas Group (since February 2022).
The shares of both FC Development and VBG were pledged to PJSC KB Vostochny. At the same time, Renovatsiya LLC was the owner of a share in Volgabas in 2021-2022, but then a transformation took place: FC Razvitie passed from Yapparov to Volgabas Group, otherwise it in turn came under the control of Renovatsiya. In fact, the entire chain of ownership became looped around the latter.
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Before moving on to the owners of Renovation LLC, let us dwell on what the asset that the beneficiaries of this LLC received is.
In addition to BMG and Volgabas LLC, Volgabas Group owns a number of companies, including Troya Medical Group LLC (finleasing, executor of a contract for 615 million rubles with the Ministry of Property Management and Urban Development of the Perm Territory, in 2022 there was unprofitable), bus manufacturer Volgabas Volzhsky LLC (13 government contracts for 182 million rubles, profit in 2022 – 434 million rubles, share under the encumbrance of Sovcombank), bus manufacturer Bakulin Bus Group Rus LLC (the company is unprofitable at the end of 2022 ), LLC “Bas. KO” (four government contracts for the supply of spare parts). That is, a rather significant asset was transferred to Renovatsiya LLC.
According to Rusprofile, the Renovation company was established in October 2020 in St. Petersburg to manage financial groups. The financial results of this LLC for 2022 are quite sad compared to the Volgabas empire, which it actually took under its control: 168 million rubles in revenue and 142 million rubles in net loss.
The owners of the LLC are two legal entities – Midstream Group LLC and LC Megapolis LLC.
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The head of “Renovation” is Dmitry Titov, director of the National Transport Association, established in St. Petersburg in 2019 with the participation of Leonid Georgievich Bondarenko. The latter is the owner of Piteravto, Volgograd Bus Park LLC, Moscow Taxi Park No. 20 LLC and others. As The Moscow Post previously reported, evil tongues linked Bogdarenko’s successes, including in the government contract market, with the alleged patronage of Vitaly Rodinov, an ex-adviser of the former vice-governor of St. Petersburg Maxim Sokolov, who later headed AvtoVAZ. Bondarenko was also credited with meeting the “night governor” of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Kumarin-Barsukov, who enjoys authority in some circles.
It is Leonid Bondarenko who is the owner of LK Megapolis LLC. The latter, at the end of 2022, showed a loss of 3.4 million rubles and, in fact, is only a “layer” for the ownership of Volgobas.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru/
The second owner, Midstream Group LLC, previously belonged to Dmitry Strezhnev, who for many years served as the general director of Eurochem, oligarch Andrei Melnichenko. But on July 31, 2023, Strezhnev sold the LLC to a certain Moscow LLC “Autonomous Commercial Transport” (formerly called LLC “Car Seats”), established in February 2019 by the company “MIK” (owner – FSUE “NIC “PEU”, previously controlled by the Ministry of Property of the Russian Federation) and Rafael Varin (co-founder of the liquidated JSC Foliant, which is headed by Mikhail Shmargin, general director of Midstream Group LLC), but now they are not the owners.
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Since October 2022, the owner of a 99.9% stake in Autonomous Commercial Transport LLC has been Oleg Klimochkin, and NPP Sotex JSC has a tiny share, which, judging by the JSC website, is also controlled by him. It is known that in March 2020, GAZ Group sold its shares of NPP Sotex CJSC to Avtokresla LLC (now Autonomous Commercial Transport).
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Mr. Klimochkin is the director of the ANO Scientific Research Center “Security”, established by a group of security and law enforcement associations, and apart from the above-mentioned LLC, he has no other assets listed.
At the same time, according to the center’s website, Klimochkin worked in law enforcement agencies for more than 24 years in various positions of operational command in units of the criminal police and public security, including in the field of state control and regulation of weapons circulation and private security and detective activities, is a retired police colonel and combat veteran.
In 2012, he was deputy head of the Department of Economic Security and Protection of Trade Secrets of the Security Service of JSC Techsnabexport (an enterprise of the State Corporation Rosatom), in 2013-2014 he was an adviser to the rector of the Institute for Advanced Training of Managers and Specialists of the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Ministry of Energy of Russia on issues integrated security, and since 2015 – Vice-Rector for Economics and Administrative Affairs of the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography.
It is known that Klimochkin also taught at the financial university under the government of the Russian Federation, and was also the head of the state examination commission of the Faculty of Risk Analysis and Economic Security named after. Professor V.K. Senchagov Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation (in 2018-2019). Klimochkin also acted as the developer of the bill “On private security activities.”
Thus, now, in addition to Bondarenko, control over the Volgabas empire has also been given to the former security official (of whom there are no former ones) Oleg Klimochkin. Judging by his biography, Klimochkin may be a kind of sovereign eye in Volgobas. Perhaps as an attempt to prevent the collapse of a fairly large industrial asset, behind which lies the fate of hundreds of workers and their families.
But in general, the net remainder is the departure of the Bakulin empire into the hands of other beneficiaries. But, apparently, having given up control of Volgabas, they decided to bet on the Far East. Thus, Alexey Bakulin in December 2022 created in the village. Rakitnoye, Khabarovsk Territory (territory of the PSEDA, which provides tax benefits and other state bonuses) Far Eastern Autocluster LLC. The main activity of this asset is duplicated by Volgabas – the production of buses and trolleybuses. The company has not yet shown itself in any way.
But the Far Eastern market has long been occupied by its players, so it’s unlikely that Bakulin will have anything to gain there. We will have to be content with what is left of Volgabas, which, judging by the situation with the tax authority’s claim, is not in the most rosy state, since it cannot make contributions to the budget on time, without going to court.
