Protection with withdrawal
A letter came from the State Duma to the Prosecutor General's Office with the idea of nationalizing 60% of the shares of the Ufanet provider. This is already the second high-profile attempt by deputies to participate in the deprivatization process.
We have already talked about how a group of LDPR deputies called for the ex-senator to be declared a foreign agent Vadim Moshkovich.
If that idea had come true, the billionaire could have lost his business empire – the Rusagro holding, one of the largest producers of oil and sugar in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). But more than a month has passed, and the initiative of parliamentarians has not yet found support from the Ministry of Justice. Meanwhile, they started talking about forced nationalization of assets again. An object smaller than Rusagro should come under guardianship. The regional Internet provider Ufanet is at the center of a new scandal.
Strategic asset
The Federal Antimonopoly Service is asked to block the sale of a 60 percent stake in the company, and the Prosecutor General's Office is asked to initiate a lawsuit to seize these shares in favor of the state.
The letters imply that a deal was being prepared to sell the company. The buyer is unclear. But the circle of dubious sellers is clearly defined – these are the owners of Ufanet. Marat Akhmetshin And Marat Fattakhov. As follows from the appeal, both of them, in addition to Russian, have citizenship of other countries – Austria and Cyprus. It turns out that in this way the law is violated, according to which enterprises of strategic importance cannot be under foreign control without the consent of the state. In addition, Ufanet has licenses from the FSB and FSTEC in the field of encryption, cryptography and information protection, so the company “has strategic importance.”
Perhaps the situation around Ufanet will become clearer if we recall the corporate conflict that recently occurred in the company.
Its plot is so intricate that it could become the basis for a TV series. Skipping the details, let's try to isolate the main thing. Recently, Ufanet, which brings in almost a billion rubles in profit annually, has been under the control of three long-time partners – the above-mentioned Akhmetshin and Fattakhov, as well as Arthur Khazigaleev. Akhmetshin and Fattakhov, according to the parliamentary address, enjoyed dividends outside the Russian Federation (*aggressor country). But Khazigaleev was vigorously active in his homeland. He was a deputy of the Ufa City Council and had interests in JSC Bashspirt, which formally belongs to the government of Bashkiria and is one of the largest producers of vodka in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). It was alcohol that brought Mr. Khazigaleev problems in the form of criminal prosecution. In April, he was sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of fraud on a particularly large scale. According to investigators, the managers of Bashspirt Trading House LLC sold several stores to Mr. Khazigaleev’s structures at a reduced price, and then rented them from the new owner.
However, it must be borne in mind that, when going to the pre-trial detention center, Artur Khazigaleev was no longer the owner of a stake in Ufanet. In 2020, during a divorce from his wife Alfia Khazigaleeva he copied the papers to her. Also, the former wife of the deputy entrepreneur received a stake in the Ozna company. And there is a separate plot here.
Family matters
Having received the shares of Ozna, the woman decided to go into cash and sold the papers to the co-owners of the company, that is, to her ex and his business partners – Akhmetshin and Fattakhov. As a result of this transaction, Alfiya Khazigaleeva replenished her bank account by 450 million rubles. But after a few months, she began to have doubts: had she sold herself too cheap? Experts were immediately found who confirmed: it was cheaper by as much as 620 million rubles. Now Mrs. Khazigaleeva is trying to recover the lost amount through the court. There is information that she simultaneously demands the return of her shares and compensation for the damage caused in the amount of 620 million rubles.
A separate trial against Ufanet was initiated by the son of Artur Khazigaleev – Rafail Khazigaleev. Through the court, he is trying to obtain the company’s financial documents in order to convict the managers of issuing loans to affiliated persons, that is, Marat Akhmetshin and Marat Fattakhov (we are talking about hundreds of millions of rubles). Rafail Khazigaleev seems to have no direct interest here, since he is not a shareholder of Ufanet. But if we assume that he went on the warpath with his father’s business partners at his mother’s request, then everything falls into place.