Bribery arbitration and extremism

I wonder how people with good reputations and track records suddenly turn to corruption? What is it – “Everyone takes and gives, but I’m worse, or what?” Moreover, it is very interesting that this is also happening in the department that should fight this in the most strict way – the court. Recently in Voronezh, arbitration manager Vladimir Kolikov was detained for attempting to bribe an arbitration court judge. The amount in the case grows as the investigation progresses and could reach 15 million rubles.

According to investigators, these 15 million Vladimir Kolikov should have been handed over to the judge of the Voronezh Arbitration Court for, so to speak, a “commercial” service. For this money, the judge should (or should have) made the decision that the interested parties needed against the business assets of the Uzbek businessman Tokhirjon Zhalilova. We are talking about a corporate conflict around the Malika cafe on the outskirts of Voronezh and the Avtodom 36 company.

At the same time, the amounts of attempted bribery in the media are given differently. According to one version, she amounts to about 250 thousand rubles, but not less. By information another media outlet, the bribe amount is already over 1 million rubles. Now, as we see, the Voronezh media has information that the final amount could be 15 million.

Vladimir Kolikov is accused of giving a bribe under Part 4 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). The penalty is up to 12 years in prison. The investigation also states that there is reason to believe that Mr. Kolikov transferred the money to the very judge who was in charge of his arbitration cases. Which, in principle, is logical. But investigators do not disclose the name of the judge, because according to the law, judges have a certain immunity from claims by law enforcement agencies.

At the same time, Mr. Kolikov, as a person who is not at all stupid, tried observe conspiracy. I found “reliable” intermediaries who transferred the money, using cunning schemes to confuse their tracks. But, apparently, the conspiracy was not up to par – the operatives managed to record the fact of the bribe and catch the suspect red-handed. During the search, a large amount of cash and other material evidence was found on him. Now Vladimir Kolikov is actively cooperating with the investigation and giving detailed testimony. Apparently, the detainee decided to make a deal with the investigation in order to soften his fate.

And who is Tokhirjon Jalilov, against whom this arbitration deal was started? We'll tell you a little later.

In good standing

Vladimir Kolikov since 2014 is member of the prestigious association of arbitration managers “Center for Financial Recovery of Agro-Industrial Enterprises”. Judging by Fedresurs data, before his arrest he was leading bankruptcy proceedings for several companies and individuals in the Voronezh and Tula regions, as well as in Moscow and St. Petersburg. And these are hundreds of procedures with billions of debt claims.

If look page of the All-Russian Directory of Financial Managers about Kolikov, you can see that he brought all his affairs to completion. The graph shows that most of the cases have been completed successfully. Some clarification is needed here. The completion of the case with the debts written off from the defendant is considered successful. If the debts have not been written off, then perhaps the defendant in the process declaring himself bankrupt is simply a fraudster.

Autoking

Uzbek businessman Tokhirjon Jalilov was once called the auto king. And I must say – for good reason. He was General Director of the American-Uzbek concern GM-Uzbektan, the parent structure of Voronezh Uz-Daewoo. Plus, the “Uzbek car king” owned a network of KM/Ch car dealerships in Voronezh. In addition, he was the guarantor of LLC AvtoLider, LLC KrasKar, LLC LadaAvtoVoronezh. But such a solid set of car dealers did not save Jalilov from bankruptcy. Although it is worth assuming that the businessman went bankrupt himself.

In March 2019, Bank Vozrozhdenie submitted claim against Tokhirjon Jalilov. It has already been said above that the businessman was the guarantor of AvtoLider LLC, KrasKar LLC, and LadaAvtoVoronezh LLC. Apparently, this whole company had taken out loans and really didn’t want to give them back. The amount of the bank's claims is 503 million rubles. In August 2020, the Arbitration Court of the Voronezh Region, and then the Arbitration Court of the Central District, made a decision to restructure the entrepreneur’s debts; no appeals helped.

And then the spiral began to unwind even faster. In April 2021, Zhalilov by decision of the Voronezh Arbitration recognized bankrupt. Then 7 companies immediately filed claims against the “auto king”. The largest claims were made by PJSC JSCB Peresvet – 2.8 billion rubles, LLC Audit and Consulting Law Firm United Legal Collegium – 299.2 million rubles, LLC Financial Consultant No. 1 – 189.8 million rubles, PJSC JSCB Investtorgbank – 497.9 million rubles and PJSC Bank Vozrozhdenie – 712.3 million rubles. The total amount included in the register of creditors' claims amounted to 4.5 billion rubles.

But this is not the entire amount of debts. Problems in Jalilov's auto empire began much earlier. Since 2015, new cars have stopped arriving at the Uz-Daewoo dealer network and car dealerships of other controlled networks. Although, we have already assumed that KM/Ch, Voronezh Uz-Daewoo LLC AvtoLider, LLC KrasKar, LLC LadaAvtoVoronezh received bank loans through mutual guarantees. This was actually the case back in 2014. And How reports one of the Voronezh media, their total debt may exceed 20 billion rubles. Then the immediate question is “for filling”: there was money, and a lot of it, then why didn’t new cars reach car dealerships? Or were they not going to be delivered?

Apparently they didn't intend to. But these are far from the worst “misconducts” of the auto king.

Bank buster and extremist sympathizer

If you don’t go into details, Tokhirjon Jalilov simply ruined the bank of the Russian Orthodox Church “Peresvet” with his unrepaid loans. But this does not mean that the bank conducted only church affairs. For example, investors were the largest Russian corporations: Transneft, RusHydro, Mosenergosbyt (the latter corporation is part of Inter RAO, RN-Energo, which supplies energy to Rosneft enterprises, and others. Total, according to reporting “Peresvet” for 2015, 18.6% of the funds stored in the bank belonged to Russian energy companies. The damage amounted to $500 million, or 37 billion rubles.

There is one very interesting point here. Mr. Jalilov worked closely on business with his fellow countryman Lenur Islamov, well known among the Crimean Tatars. The latter character even worked for some time in the position of, no less, deputy chairman (vice prime minister) of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea. He was fired because he tried to simultaneously be in the Russian civil service and participate in anti-Russian actions Mustafa Dzhemilev (leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people**, who in March 2014 called for the introduction of “NATO peacekeeping troops” into Crimea)
And then there was complete shock. In December 2015, Islyamov announced the formation of volunteer battalions, including the Asker battalion.

These fighters “call themselves suicide bombers,” Dzhamilyov proudly emphasized. As stated Ruslan Balbekwho in 2014-2016 worked as Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Crimea, “Asker” was replenished with former militants of the “Islamic State” * (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation (*aggressor country)).

There is an assumption that the loans from Zhalilov and Islamov were used to finance extremists. But we can’t say for sure.
And this man, Zhalilov, now unwittingly, without knowing it, destroyed the career of the Voronezh arbitration manager Vladimir Kolikov. Although no one forced the latter to get involved in a criminal matter.

Who are the judges?

As for the detention of Vladimir Kolikov, he was sent to a pre-trial detention center for 2 months. But, as was said above, so far only the mysterious “representative of the arbitration court” appears in the case, whose name is carefully hide. There are persistent rumors on the sidelines of the judicial community that this could be a current servant of Themis, perhaps even from among the presiding corps. If the suspicions are confirmed, the judge faces not only the loss of his robe, but also a real prison sentence.

So what was it? Successful arbitration manager Vladimir Kolikov, who had not previously been involved in criminal matters, suddenly decided to “stick his head in the noose”? Or not suddenly, I just didn’t come across it before?

Or did one of Kolikov’s offended “clients” decide to take revenge and frame both him and the judge in one fell swoop, having previously leaked information to the security officers? From the realm of science fiction, of course, but still.

In a word, I wanted to get a little rich, but it didn’t work out. The case may become resonant (if it hasn’t already), after which, perhaps, they will begin to purge the judiciary. Let's see…