The Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced the former head of the Energomash group of companies, Alexander Stepanov, to 4.5 years in prison for abuse of power, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs reports.
Stepanov was the general director of two companies that are part of the power engineering holding Energomash: OJSC GT-CHP Energo (Moscow) and OJSC Energomashcorporation (Belgorod).
“In 2006, OJSC GT-CHE Energo received loans in the amount of 17.5 billion rubles from Sberbank of Russia for the construction of low-power gas turbine stations. At the same time, the guarantor was another company affiliated with the accused, Energomashkorporatsiya. For some time, Stepanov regularly paid the interest And then he stopped servicing debts under loan agreements and filed a bankruptcy petition for both companies with the Arbitration Court. Thus, both the borrower and the guarantor suddenly became insolvent,” notes the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
However, according to the investigation, in order to maintain control over the bankrupt OJSC "GT-CHP Energo", Stepanov entered into an agreement for the provision of services with LLC "Management Company "GT-CHP Energo", which was created two weeks before the emergence of the designated contractual relationship , and was headed by a director personally controlled by Stepanov. The subject of the agreement was the transfer of all functions for the management, maintenance and operation of small gas turbine thermal power plants owned by OAO GT-CHP Energo to the above-mentioned management company for a fee “to newly opened accounts from the accounts of the GT-CHP company. Energo received 400 million rubles as an advance payment for upcoming services,” the department reports.
The bankrupt OJSC "GT-CHP Energo" continued to function as before and at the same time paid for services that it did not need. “So, Stepanov used his powers contrary to the interests of the company to withdraw its liquid assets. The damage from his actions amounted to more than 170 million rubles,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs clarified.
Sberbank of Russia, by decision of the Arbitration Court, was recognized as the largest creditor of the Energomashcorporation company. The amount of debt on the loan at that time was 12.7 billion rubles. The bank began to lay claim to half of her property.
“Stepanov made an attempt to illegally obtain the right to the property of Energomashcorporation, amounting to about 2 billion rubles, which was subject to alienation to creditors, including Sberbank. To do this, he organized the preparation of a package of forged documents about the company’s alleged debt to an offshore company in the amount of more than 16 billion rubles. But investigators and the security service of Sberbank found out that the offshore creditor company that suddenly appeared was liquidated almost a year before filing its claim against Energomashcorporation, reports the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Currently, the investigation suspects Stepanov of committing other crimes related to theft of loans and illegal actions during the bankruptcy of other enterprises of the Energomash group. A legal assessment of his actions will be given in the near future, the Ministry of Internal Affairs concluded, RIA Novosti reports.
investigative committee at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation detained Alexander Stepanov, the main owner of the group "", the largest manufacturer of energy equipment in Russia, a representative of the committee said. A businessman is suspected of credit fraud. Yesterday, a petition was sent to the Tverskoy Court of Moscow to impose a preventive measure against him in the form of detention.
Energomash has machine-building plants in seven cities of Russia, including St. Petersburg. Alexander Stepanov owns 90% of Energomash UK Ltd, which controls the parent company of the group - OJSC Energomashcorporation. In 2001, Energomash shareholders created OJSC GT-CHP Energo (gas turbine thermal power plants), which was supposed to implement the holding’s ambitious project - to build more than a hundred small thermal power plants. But the project did not take off.
Problems of Energomash began during the construction of the GT-CHP in Vsevolozhsk. In 2006, the not yet completed thermal power plant was put into operation, and its electricity was sold for 56 million rubles. In 2008, a criminal case was opened against the management of Energomash and GT-TPP Energo, but the results of the investigation were not publicly reported.
IN 2004–2006"GT-CHP Energo" took out loans worth 17.5 billion rubles from Sberbank for the construction of a mini-CHP. The holding's enterprises, as well as personally Alexander Stepanov and his deputy Alexey Pleshcheev, guaranteed the loan. Securities and some objects of the group were pledged as collateral. The holding still had 12 billion rubles to repay on the loan to Sberbank, and, according to investigators, there was misappropriation of funds.
But Energomash stopped repaying the Sberbank loan back in October 2008. Then the holding explained that the delay arose due to an unexpectedly changed financing scheme of Sberbank, which reduced the amount of funds issued for Energomash projects. As a result, bankruptcy procedures were introduced in four of the group's enterprises.
Besides, In the spring of 2010, a London court issued a decision to arrest Alexander Stepanov for a period of 2 years for contempt of court (as part of the proceedings on the claim of BTA Bank for non-repayment of a $365 million loan).
Holding "Energomash" and its owner's demise was led to ineffective investments and intractability, experts believe. During the crisis, the financial situation of most companies with investment projects and debts deteriorated sharply, and there were not enough resources for projects, says Dmitro Konovalov, an analyst at UniCredit Securities.
According to Baker & McKenzie partner Ivan Smirnov, the detention of Alexander Stepanov is clearly pressure from his creditors; practice shows that such methods force intractable business owners to quickly find assets to pay off their debts.
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Details 06/04/2013 12:55
The Kirov District Court of Yekaterinburg has received a new criminal case against the head of the Energomash group of companies, Alexander Stepanov, who was previously sentenced to four and a half years in prison for fraud with Sberbank loans. Now, according to investigators, he deliberately bankrupted the group’s main asset, OJSC Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash, in order not to pay a debt of 1.8 billion rubles. The businessman’s defense has not yet made public its position on the case.
The press secretary of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region, Tatyana Vasilyeva, announced yesterday that a criminal case was sent to court against the head of one of the largest power engineering holdings, Energomash, Alexandra Stepanova. “He is accused of “deliberate bankruptcy” (Article 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the period from 2009 to 2010 of one of the largest Russian enterprises, OJSC Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash,” the department explained. At the moment, the indictment has been approved, and the case has been transferred to the Kirovsky District Court of Yekaterinburg. As explained in court, it was distributed and... O. Deputy Chairman of the Criminal Court Anton Telminov; No date has been set for the preliminary hearing.
The Energomash group of companies was founded in 1998. The company is the largest manufacturer in the power engineering industry in Russia. The company structure is a production and engineering group with assets in Belgorod, Volgodonsk, Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg, Sysert and Chekhov. The main activities are the manufacture and supply of equipment for the oil and gas complex, metallurgy, heavy engineering and transport, the production of boiler equipment, equipment for thermal power plants and nuclear power plants, as well as the generation of electrical and thermal energy.
As follows from the materials of the criminal case, Alexander Stepanov was the owner of the Energomash group and the chairman of the board of the main asset of the holding - OJSC Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash. According to investigators, in 2007-2008, on behalf of the plant, he took out a number of loans totaling 1.5 billion rubles. at OJSC Sberbank of Russia. However, the company was unable to repay the loan and interest on it in a timely manner (the final amount reached 1.8 billion rubles). According to the investigation, at the beginning of 2009, the head of the holding created two new legal entities at the addresses of the production sites of OJSC Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash - CJSC Energomash (Ekaterinburg)-Uralelectrotyazhmash and CJSC Energomash (Sysert)-Uralgidromash, to which he transferred all working personnel and production assets of OJSC "Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash". As a result, Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash ceased to engage in production and to be responsible for its financial obligations. In 2010, bankruptcy proceedings were introduced at the enterprise, and production activities continued under other legal entities. Having failed to collect the debts, Sberbank initiated criminal prosecution of the holding's top management.
Yesterday, Mr. Stepanov’s defenders refused to comment on the end of the investigation into the case. “We can only confirm that the case has been transferred to court. However, for now we will not have any comments on this case,” Alexander Stepanov’s lawyer Evgeny Martynov explained to Kommersant. Meanwhile, the holding previously noted that this case was “forceful pressure” on the management of the group of companies. “The facts appearing in the materials of the criminal case were previously examined in the arbitration courts of the Sverdlovsk region and Perm, and legal decisions were made on them in favor of Energomash,” the group explained.
It is worth noting that in November 2012, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow already sentenced Mr. Stepanov to four and a half years in prison. He was accused of fraud with a Sberbank loan, which resulted in damage of 12 billion rubles. The businessman's defense appealed the verdict, but the cassation court upheld the decision. Now the lawyers are appealing the court decision to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. For deliberate bankruptcy, Alexander Stepanov faces up to six years in prison.
Igor Lesovskikh, Ekaterinburg
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It is expected that a significant number of prisoners convicted, in particular, of economic crimes, may be granted amnesty in our country. According to proposals from a number of deputies, the total number of amnestied persons could reach 14,500 people. The draft resolution “On declaring an amnesty in connection with the 20th anniversary of Russia’s independence” has already been submitted to the State Duma.
According to the authors of the initiative, amnesty for this category of convicts is a very serious step in terms of strengthening mutual trust between business and the state. Its consequences will have a positive impact on the investment climate in Russia and many other important aspects of the country’s economic life.
There is, however, a less enthusiastic and even negative point of view regarding the draft amnesty resolution. Electronic media, in particular, cite the statement of the head of the State Duma Committee on Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov. “Judicial errors should be corrected on an individual basis, and not through the adoption of large-scale amnesties,” he said. “The discussion and adoption of an amnesty by the State Duma is a very delicate process. Too many people - both convicts and their relatives - pin their hopes on amnesty. Therefore, the ill-considered, properly miscalculated introduction of the amnesty project, based on opportunistic, pre-election considerations, seems to me to be an immoral matter.”
What caused such a sharp and even harsh point of view of an authoritative and respected lawyer and legislator can be understood if we look at a very recent case that attracted a lot of press and was associated with the situation surrounding the head of the Energomash power engineering holding, Alexander Stepanov. The case is not just curious, but to a certain extent indicative in a number of ways.
The story is like this. The once prosperous businessman Alexander Stepanov “accumulated” debts, according to some estimates, as much as 29.5 billion rubles. According to experts, he has nothing to give them back; the creditors don’t want to wait, and they don’t believe in the revival of Stepanov’s Energomash from the ashes. And today it presents a more than sad picture: old equipment, no orders and a lot of small debts that turn into large ones, including to the pension fund. The leader himself is behind bars.
By the way, Stepanov has nowhere to go: as the central press writes, he is facing two years in prison on behalf of the British court for contempt of this court. These two years are given in absentia. During a full-time examination of Stepanov’s case, a document agreement between Mr. Stepanov and the Kazakh BTA Bank may emerge, which was found to be false. But all this is there, in “Foggy Albion”. But our articles are completely different.
In a letter from the ex-chief of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate Vladimir Pronin addressed to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, article N 159, its 4th part, appears. The same one that is on the list of articles of the Criminal Code that fall under the Duma amnesty project. It reads like this: “Fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to ten years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.”
A strict and very specific article. However, many experts believe that next to it, if not always, then as a rule, there are others, for example, the 199th - tax evasion. In world legal practice, the attitude towards this type of crime is not just negative, but universally intolerant.
Let's return to Energomash. The actions of its leader were immediately dubbed “Stepanov’s five-year plan” by jokers. It turns out that he set himself a not entirely modest goal: by 2010, his holding was supposed to build almost hundreds of gas turbine thermal power plants, which were supposed to pay for themselves in about 5 years. The cost of the project, as the media wrote, seemed almost fantastic - almost 6 billion dollars.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to beg for such an amount. But why not try it in parts? Happened. Sberbank allocated a loan of 17.5 billion rubles for the construction of the first 120 stations. This happened approximately between 2004 and 2006. Somewhat later, in 2008, Stepanov managed, as journalists found out, to agree with BTA Bank on a loan of $500 million - that’s about another 15 billion rubles. Stepanov did not receive the entire tranche, but almost 3/4 of the amount appeared in the accounts of Rolls Finance Limited. The money is big. What can we say about the “unfortunate” 120 million rubles that Stepanov’s subsidiaries Energomash (UK) Limited and Energomash (Volgodonsk) Atommash LLC owe to the Rostov pension fund!
Of course, no one considers credit a crime; it is a financial activity. Not repaying the loan is the problem. And problems, according to observers, began for Stepanov with the beginning of the crisis. The idea of building 120 gas turbine thermal power plants may have looked attractive. However, the enterprises implementing this project and being part of the Energomash corporation
were simply unable to service Stepanov’s loan obligations. Therefore, by 2010, a money lump of 63 billion rubles had grown. The press wrote that it was for this amount that claims were filed against the companies of the Energomash group in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The largest creditors were Sberbank and BTA Bank, which were owed 14.4 and 12.5 billion rubles, respectively, by the court.
Then, as they say, it’s a matter of technique. Law enforcement. First, that is, in February 2011, Alexander Stepanov was detained, then a decision was made to arrest him. Not spontaneously, by the way, and not by chance, as some people are trying to claim today. Back in 2008, one serious document appeared in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate - the result of “carrying out special operational and preventive measures to decriminalize the country’s fuel and energy complex.” It states, in particular, that Energomashkorporatsiya OJSC, which positions itself as the largest organization in the field of small-scale energy development, in reality exists only through newly raised borrowed funds, which may be a sign of a financial pyramid. And then - a quote about the notorious 120 gas turbine thermal power plants. “So, in 2004-2006,” the document says, “Energomashkorporatsiya OJSC received more than 16 billion rubles for the GT TPP Energo OJSC under loan agreements for the construction project of 120 low-power gas power plants. In reality, only 14- 18 stations, of which only six are functioning... In total, more than 30 billion rubles were received as loans, most of which were transferred to the accounts of foreign offshore companies... The defendants legalize part of the illegally obtained income through speculative transactions with unsecured bills and shares , partly on behalf of third parties is invested in the construction of luxury real estate in Moscow..."
Here's an example. He, of course, is not the only one and was taken by us simply because he has been popular lately. And it confirms the thesis that if we are talking not only about an economic crime, but also about fraud and other actions that fall outside the scope of the law, then can we even talk about leniency towards the accused? As a result of such “projects”, such as the Energomash gas turbine thermal power plants, enterprises go bankrupt, people lose their jobs, pensioners are left without money, and entire industries collapse, literally and figuratively. And whoever is responsible according to the law and conscience receives forgiveness from the state? Amnesty? What about moral damage? What about material? What about the honor and dignity of the affected citizens?
By the middle of last year, the total external debt of the Russian Federation was $450 billion, and the state’s share in its structure did not exceed 7%. The rest of the debt was accounted for by banks (32%) and the corporate non-banking sector – 61%.
After the crisis subsided, the situation seemed to change. But entrepreneurs today continue to look for ways to not repay loans. One of them is the abuse of the bankruptcy institution with the subsequent transfer of the assets of the borrower company to a “clean” structure...
Now the media are actively discussing the work methods of the owner of the Energomash group of enterprises, Alexander Stepanov, who two years ago, according to Finance magazine, occupied 151st place in the ranking of billionaires with a fortune of 15.2 billion rubles. Using legally dubious schemes, the businessman preserved his assets, leaving creditors high and dry.
The entrepreneur has long dreamed of consolidating domestic assets in the field of power engineering, which were previously under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Energy of the S.S.S.R. For this purpose, in 1993, the Energy Machinery Corporation (EMC) was created, which by 1998 “united” several dozen enterprises in the industry. As the online newspaper “VEK.ru” writes, such a merger usually took place in the following way: first, persons affiliated with Stepanov became top managers of a state-owned enterprise, then its debts began to grow exponentially, and then inevitable bankruptcy and buying up for next to nothing occurred.
In this simple way, Alexander Stepanov took over a number of strategic enterprises in the industry - Elektrosila, Leningrad Metal Plant, Podolsk Machine-Building Plant, Belgorod Power Engineering Plant, Barnaul Boiler Plant, Uralelectrotyazhmash, Uralgidromash, Turbine Blade Plant, Chekhovenergomash, JSC "Strength", "Atommashem". This association turned out to be truly golden for Stepanov: his EMC’s commission for each contract concluded at the corporation’s enterprises reached 30% of the transaction amount. One can only guess where the funds went, but obviously not for business development (for example, salaries in the holding were paid very late, so most qualified employees left the EMC) and not for the modernization of equipment inherited from Soviet times.
Bankrupt borrower
At the same time, huge loans were issued to the Energy Machinery Corporation. And when the corporation’s position began to shake in the crisis year of 1998, the management of EMC initiated deliberate bankruptcy “by artificially creating insolvency,” as the then 1st Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Biryukov would later write based on the materials of the criminal case. In order not to repay the borrowed funds, the managers of EMC, under a fictitious purchase and sale agreement, simply transferred the shares of 40 enterprises that were part of the corporation to the balance sheet of a new structure, not burdened with debts - Energomashcorporation. Only three St. Petersburg enterprises dropped out of the scheme - the Leningrad Metal Plant (LMZ), the Turbine Blade Plant and Elektrosila, control of which was transferred to another large Russian holding.
The shares of the remaining plants were purchased on paper by Energomash Corporation, and then transferred to offshore companies Energomash UK Ltd. and Mardima company Ltd. from the British Virgin Islands, which were registered both to Alexander Stepanov himself and to persons close to him. In 2001, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case against the management of EMC under the article “Intentional bankruptcy”. The investigation of this case, which consisted of 120 volumes 7 years ago, is still ongoing.
New level of business
When the 1998 crisis passed and market conditions began to improve, Alexander Stepanov’s “business” reached a new level. A reorganization was carried out - the Energomash group of enterprises was born, which included Energomashcorporation OJSC, Chekhov Power Engineering Plant OJSC, EMK-Atommash OJSC, Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash OJSC and Energomash (Belgorod) CJSC . The holding's management company was the offshore Energomash UK Ltd, 90% owned by Stepanov. Also, a new super-project of Energomash was revealed to the world - the development and construction of small gas turbine thermal power plants, which were planned to flood the entire territory of the country. For this purpose, OJSC "GT-CHP Energo" was created.
Only in the next crisis, in 2008-2009, will it become clear what goals the Energomash management pursued when promoting this project. In 2008, the ex-chief of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, Vladimir Pronin, in a letter to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev, clearly stated that “OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya exists only through newly raised borrowed funds, which may be a sign of a financial pyramid.” “So, in 2004-2006, OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya received more than 17 billion rubles for OJSC GT-CHP Energo under loan agreements for the construction project of 120 low-power gas-fired power stations. In reality, only 14-18 stations were built, of which only 6 “are operational,” Pronin argued.
A loan for the project was issued by Sberbank in 2004-2006. Stepanov received billions from the country's largest bank on personal property and on the guarantee of the group's enterprises, including the offshore Energomash UK Ltd. And eventually he stopped paying. At the moment, the amount of debt, including interest for using the loan and penalties, is about 15.8 billion rubles - this is how much Sberbank was able to sue Stepanov in the Oktyabrsky District Court of Belgorod in October of this year.
The total debt of Energomash is 63 billion rubles. Among its creditors are the country's largest banks
Whether this money will be returned to German Gref’s institution is a big question. Previously, in order to get rid of the annoying creditor, the management of Energomash already tried to use a scheme from the 90s. When bankruptcy procedures were introduced at the enterprises of the group, which acted as guarantors to Sberbank and then were unable to pay the obligations of GT-CHEnergo, an offshore company from Belize, Olana Trading Inc., suddenly appeared. and demanded to include her among the creditors - allegedly Energomash (Belgorod) and Energomashcorporation owed her 16 billion rubles. Thus, Sberbank ceased to be the largest creditor of Energomash and its share in the sale of property of bankrupt companies decreased to 37%. However, it later became clear that the offshore company had submitted false documents. And the company itself ceased to exist at the beginning of 2006.
All these facts became the basis for initiating a criminal case under the article “Fraud.” Alexander Stepanov is charged with malicious evasion of repayment of loans to Sberbank, initiation of bankruptcy proceedings at enterprises that are bank borrowers, creation of “inflated” accounts payable and withdrawal of production assets, as well as falsification of evidence.
By the way, the electricity produced at Stepanov’s small thermal power plants also turned out to be fake. This episode formed the basis of another criminal case initiated by the Main Investigation Department of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate two years ago under the article “Fraud” against the management of GT-CHP Energo. From Pronin’s letter it follows that the commissioning of new facilities is of interest to the managers of this company only on paper, because the production of electrical energy at the thermal power plants under construction is not economically profitable. “Receiving tariffs is already admission to work on the wholesale market, where you can buy electricity and capacity at low prices, and then, without launching the station, sell them at almost twice the price,” Pronin emphasized. Energomash was able to pull off such a trick with its idle Vsevolozhsk gas turbine thermal power plant. Illegally, the station received the status of an object of the wholesale electricity market and the right to sell its products at a price of 1.08 rubles. per kW/h. As a result, in 2007, Stepanov’s energy company, without producing a single kilowatt-hour, bought 108.5 million kWh on the wholesale market at 0.52 rubles. and immediately resold them to OJSC Petersburg Sales Company, but for 1.08 rubles. per kW/h. More than 117 million rubles materialized out of thin air for the owner of Energomash, which became a subject of particular interest to Moscow investigators.
In total, Stepanov’s companies received more than 30 billion rubles in loans for the small-scale generation project, most of which, according to Pronin, disappeared into offshore companies. “Currently, the head of OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya is Stepanov A.Yu. active measures are being taken to counter the ongoing investigative and operational measures, even to the extent of discrediting law enforcement officers,” lamented the former head of the Moscow police. But despite the pressure, investigators were able to collect additional materials, on the basis of which another criminal case was initiated - for tax evasion on an especially large scale in 2005.
London calling
In addition to the above, Alexander Stepanov is currently a defendant in another criminal case - the theft of credit funds from the Kazakhstan BTA Bank. In August 2008, the oligarch managed to agree with the Kazakhs to open a credit line of $500 million. The loan was secured by a stake in the parent offshore Energomash UK Limited, which owns all of Energomash’s Russian assets, and a personal guarantee from the businessman. Before the main Russian “private energy company” stopped paying, BTA Bank managed to transfer him $365 million, or more precisely, to his company Rolls Finance Limited, created specifically for these purposes.
The Kazakh bank appealed for justice to the courts - the Cheryomushkinsky district of Moscow and the High Court of London. The Russian Themis did not question the obviousness of the dispute and at the end of last year decided to recover 12.5 billion rubles from Stepanov in favor of BTA Bank.
And during the pre-trial proceedings in the High Court of London, Alexander Stepanov presented additional agreements with the bank, allegedly signed back in 2008. “These documents significantly changed the terms of the loan agreement to the detriment of the interests of the bank, however, as a result of a handwriting examination, these documents were found to be forged, and the version events presented by Stepanov was refuted,” the bank’s press release says. After his attempt to deceive the English court failed, the oligarch changed lawyers twice, stopped responding to the judge’s demands to disclose information about his assets, and stopped appearing in court altogether. Moreover, as the media wrote, he changed his place of registration and moved from a luxurious Moscow apartment to a hostel in Belgorod.
For contempt of the English court, Stepanov was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison. The same court decided to recover over $486 million from the entrepreneur and force the liquidation of Energomash UK, but the liquidators appointed by the court still cannot find the company’s property.
The show goes on
In July of this year, in an open letter, employees of Energomashkorporatsiya complained to Prime Minister V. Putin: “The history of 1998-2000 is repeating itself, when the international swindler Alexander Stepanov, through the deliberate bankruptcy of OJSC Energomashinostroitelnaya Corporation, acquired strategic production assets.” The appeal also talked about the businessman’s attempt to deceive his creditors and sell for 10 billion rubles the twice-pledged stake in Energomash UK to Ros_Atom’s subsidiary, Atomenergomash OJSC. The deal was banned by the High Court of London until the debt to BTA Bank was repaid.
The total debt of Energomash is 63 billion rubles. Among Stepanov’s creditors, in addition to the already mentioned Sberbank and BTA Bank, there are also MDM Bank ($47.9 million) and Rosevrobank ($38.5 million).
In the first half of November, the Prosecutor General's Office instructed the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation to combine all 6 criminal cases into one proceeding. The news is encouraging, but it is unlikely that the former flagships of the domestic power engineering industry will be able to regain their once leading positions. There is a high probability that their owner will remain the same, and only the sign will change...
How the state selects the private Energomash
The owner of Energomash, Alexander Stepanov, allegedly hiding from the investigation, was detained in the Moscow office of Sberbank
“This is a raider takeover,” one of the bankers who financed Alexander Stepanov’s Energomash holding told The New Times. For a month and a half now, the businessman, who just yesterday was on the list of dollar millionaires, has been sitting in Moscow pre-trial detention center No. 5; a criminal case has been opened against him under Article 159, standard for entrepreneurs - “fraud.” What the fight is for - The New Times found out
Alexander Stepanov began building his holding in the mid-90s. Coming from the first cooperators (since 1988 he headed the Professional Computers cooperative in Degtyarsk, Sverdlovsk Region), after the collapse of the USSR he began to gather power engineering enterprises into a single structure. In one of the few interviews given to Forbes magazine in 2005, Stepanov said that he made his first capital by supplying equipment to China, where the West blocked its supplies after the shooting of students in Tiananmen Square. By the end of the 1990s, the turnover of the Energomashcorporation he created was approaching a billion dollars, but in the default of 1998 he lost the three largest ones *Elektrosila, Leningrad Metallurgical Plant and the Turbine Blade Plant went under the control of Vladimir Potanin’s Power Machines company
their plants** "Elektrosila", Leningrad Metal and the Turbine Blades Plant went under the control of Vladimir Potanin's Power Machines company. Then life got better again. Stepanov is not involved in politics
he shone, didn’t hang out with the stars, didn’t give out interviews, didn’t buy football clubs, didn’t make billions either, since energy is still not gas or oil. The peak of his success - in 2008, Finance magazine placed Stepanov in 151st place on the list of Russian billionaires, estimating his capital at $0.7 billion. A year later, Stepanov dropped a hundred positions in this ranking - as with most mechanical engineers, The crisis hit him hard. He had to go into debt: at the end of 2010, he was no longer included in the TOP-500. And in early February 2011, Stepanov was taken by investigators from the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - at the moment when he arrived at the central office of Sberbank of Russia on Vavilova Street in Moscow for the next round of negotiations on the restructuring of credit debt.
On March 20, Investigative Committee Investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Pavel Zotov must decide on the advisability of further keeping Alexander Stepanov in custody. The court will consider the issue of extending the arrest in early April. However, few of The New Times' interlocutors doubt that the decision will depend primarily not on Zotov, but on his leader - the already famous Colonel of the Investigative Committee Natalya Vinogradova. Fame came to her along with her membership in Senator Cardin’s list, which includes those responsible for the death of Hermitage Foundation lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. As The New Times has already reported, this was not the first and not the last politically or economically motivated case in Vinogradova’s record - from the persecution of the head of the Internews Foundation Manana Aslamazyan to the direct extortion of a bribe from journalist Olga Romanova, whose husband’s case also ended up in development of Vinogradova’s subordinate *More details - The New Times No. 17 of May 24, 2010
Department of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs**More details - The New Times No. 17 of May 24, 2010. One of them is a case against a co-owner
Investigator Pavel Zotov also happened to lead the “Moscow Wine and Cognac Factory KiN” by Armen Eganyan. Now this group of investigators has reached Energomash. Moreover, this matter is doubly curious, since legal and PR support for Stepanov’s arrest is provided by the ORSI group (Open Market for Construction Investments. - The New Times), a co-owner of which until recently was, and according to The New Times’ interlocutors, remains the Northern Sea Bank way" by Arkady Rotenberg - judo coach of Vladimir Putin.
From a letter from the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref to the Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika:
“The companies of the Energomash industrial group are debtors to Sberbank of Russia for a total amount of over 15 billion rubles. /…/ According to our information, Stepanov A.Yu. together with the management, he is trying to transfer the assets of the Energomash group to various organizations controlled by him and other persons in order to evade payment of existing debt /.../ The group for the production, operation of equipment and materials in the fuel and energy sector exists only at the expense of newly raised borrowed funds funds, which is a sign of a financial pyramid. /…/ In connection with the above, I ask you, in order to prevent illegal actions of Stepanov A.Yu. organize an appropriate inspection to establish signs of a crime in his actions.”
From a letter from Assistant Prosecutor General A.S. Sologubov at JSC Energomashkorporatsiya:
“On August 18, 2010, the Investigative Unit of the Investigation Department (Investigative Unit of the Investigation Department. - The New Times) at the Internal Affairs Directorate for the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow at the request of the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia G.O. Gref. criminal case No. 276078 under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation."
This story began in 2004. Energomash took on a large-scale project that promised it considerable profit: the production of 120 units for gas turbine thermal power plants - small power plants that could, instead of outdated boiler houses, supply energy to small cities and industrial enterprises. These thermal power plants operate on gas, but consume much less of it (one and a half times, Stepanov claimed in one of his interviews) than conventional ones, and therefore the energy would be cheaper for consumers. Stepanov was going to make good money on this project. Counting on future profits, he agreed with Sberbank on a loan in the amount of 30 billion rubles. In the next two years, he received 17 billion. Until the crisis, the company gradually returned the loan: they paid, according to Energomash representatives, about 6 billion rubles. But in 2009, Sberbank decided to reconsider the terms of the loan, and in parallel, together with the Ministry of Atomic Industry, created the OJSC Energy Mechanical Engineering Group (GEM), where it demanded that Stepanov transfer part of his assets to account for part of the unpaid debt in the amount of 7 billion rubles.
Stepanov balked and began looking for somewhere to get credit. Found. A number of banks, including the St. Petersburg Petrocommerce, the Kazakh BTA, and the Swiss Swiss Credit Bank, were ready to give him money for the project. With this, according to the deputy head of Energomash, Alexander Tyryshkin, Stepanov came to Sberbank. But the country's main bank said no. Sberbank wanted the assets and began bankruptcy proceedings for one of the divisions of Energomash - the Belgorod Thermal Power Plant. They went bankrupt. We entered. But what is one thermal power plant without the rest of Energomash? “The holding is not only factories and already operating stations, it is also a design bureau in St. Petersburg, and the head office in Moscow, to which a number of unique production facilities are registered, and the head offshore Energomash UK Limited, registered in the UK. The state has set the task of taking over the enterprise. Sberbank, having issued a loan for 17 billion rubles, tried to take away the entire holding, whose assets alone at book value are at least 27 billion,” Tyryshkin told The New Times.
Thermal power plant built by Energomash in the city of Sasovo (Ryazan region)
Sberbank initiated proceedings in the Arbitration Court, but the court ruled that, firstly, revising the terms of the loan unilaterally is unlawful, and secondly, if Sberbank wants to immediately return the remaining debt, it can take away the assets of Energomash for this amount , but not the entire holding. The New Times contacted the Corporate Lending Department of Sberbank: they said that they were “not authorized to give comments” and forwarded them to the press services, where the editors sent an official request. Press secretary Vladimir Gubarev promised to “find the speaker, get answers and provide them” to The New Times. At the time of signing the issue for printing, we had not received any answers.
The editors also contacted banks that were either going to act as guarantors of Energomash or lend to Stepanov’s holding. Only MDM Bank responded: “We have no complaints against Stepanov. Payments were always made accurately and on time,” said a source at the bank. Strange as it may seem, neither MDM Bank nor most other organizations that The New Times contacted knew about the arrest of Alexander Stepanov and the initiation of a criminal case against him. Nor did the financial ombudsman, member of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets Pavel Medvedev (United Russia), whose task seems to be to peacefully resolve conflicts between creditor banks and debtor enterprises. When asked what could be behind Stepanov’s arrest, a number of interlocutors from banking and industrial circles answered unequivocally: “It was a command from above.” By “top,” they didn’t even mean the head of Sberbank, German Gref: “Higher, much higher,” was the answer. As one investigator said, "We're drawing the White House line."
The current executive director of Energomash, Alexander Tyryshkin, says the same thing: “When it was not possible to take the holding by legal means (after proceedings in the Arbitration Court - The New Times), the ORSI group, security officers and the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs got involved.”
The ORSI group (Open Market for Construction Investments) was created in October 2008 by the structures (sic!) of the magazine “Man and the Law” - with the goal of restructuring and subsequent sale of developers who went bankrupt during the crisis. In March 2009, 25% of ORSI was acquired by Arkady Rotenberg’s Northern Sea Route Bank, which was explained by “the bank’s natural desire to expand its presence in the debt market and gain additional profit,” the bank’s press release stated. Another 27.5% of the ORSI group belonged to businessman Mikhail Cherkasov, Rotenberg’s partner in the construction business. But already at the end of July 2010, Rotenberg Bank announced the sale of its stake.
„
If the Rotenbergs are involved in the process, then the command has been given to select
”
This happened after a loud scandal in early 2010: ORSI took over the management of the bankrupt development company RIGgroup, which belonged to US citizen Jeanne Bullock, and she, in turn, was the wife of the ex-Minister of Finance of the Moscow Region Alexei Kuznetsov, who is accused of embezzlement 27 billion rubles of budget money: he is wanted and is now hiding in the USA. Ms. Bullock told the media that her company fell victim to a raider takeover by ORSI and Arkady Rotenberg. He did not agree with the accusations, but the Northern Sea Route Bank hastened to sell its share in ORSI. However, whether they sold it or not is a fog: the new owners are not disclosed, and in business circles there is a strong opinion that Rotenberg retained control over ORSI through affiliated structures.
And this had to happen, but it was the ORSI lawyers that Sberbank of Russia entrusted to represent its interests in arbitration courts in claims against the Energomash holding of Alexander Stepanov. The corresponding powers of attorney were signed by Svetlana Sagaidak, Director of the Department for Working with Troubled Assets of Sberbank. “ORSI has good connections in the FSB, and the Rotenberg brothers have the name of Putin himself. The “M” department of the FSB has complete control over Vinogradova and over the courts,” an interlocutor at the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained to The New Times. One of the bankers who worked with Stepanov made a diagnosis: “If the Rotenbergs are involved in the process, then the command has been given to take away.” The formal reason was a loan to Sberbank of Russia. The real thing, say The New Times’ interlocutors, is Minatom’s long-standing desire to take Energomash under its control. And it’s clear why: Stepanova’s Energomash is the only Russian manufacturer of equipment for small thermal power plants (CHP), and small power plants are a direction, according to experts, very promising and profitable. By the way, back in early 2009, Minatom, represented by its head Sergei Kiriyenko, announced its desire to acquire a holding company, but Alexander Stepanov did not want to sell his brainchild.
On the fourth try
The investigation now claims that Stepanov tried to steal all the money received from Sberbank and transferred it to foreign accounts. On February 3, speaking in court, the prosecution representative argued the need for Stepanov’s arrest by saying that the entrepreneur allegedly fled after he was charged. The court was not surprised by the fact that the “hidden businessman” was not detained in the Canary Islands - in the lobby of the Moscow office of Sberbank, where he arrived for the next stage of negotiations on debt restructuring.
The current case is the fourth for Stepanov over the past three years. In August 2008, a case was already opened against him under the same Article 159 of the Criminal Code, then, in October of the same year, a charge was added to it under Article 199 - “tax evasion.” In June 2009, Article 201 was added - “abuse of power”. Stepanov, understandably, was looking for protection. The then president (now former) of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yevgeny Primakov, reported signs of a raider takeover of the enterprise to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev; the head of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexei Anichin, was addressed by the chairman of the Commission for Interaction with the Accounts Chamber of the Federation Council, Sergei Ivanov. In November 2009, the chairman of the Human Rights Council, Ella Pamfilova, presented a report to President Dmitry Medvedev, which spoke of an attempted raider seizure of one of the Energomash factories in Barnaul. Medvedev sent the report to Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with the resolution “Please consider it.” The entrepreneur was left alone for a while. As is now obvious, a regrouping of forces was underway - a new criminal case was being prepared.
Almost a month after Stepanov’s arrest, on February 22, 2011, a paper marked “For official use” signed by the Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Infrastructure of the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexey Tsydenov, was sent from the apparatus of the Government of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Energy, the Federal Tax Service, Sberbank and Energomash: “ Materials regarding debt settlement /…/ were reported to Deputy Prime Minister I.I. Sechin. It was noted that the dispute resolution process should be carried out within the framework of the current arbitration legislation and bankruptcy legislation /…/ This process should not lead to the termination of the implementation of the investment project for the construction and operation of gas turbine stations /…/ The next report is due in April 2011.”
By this time, Stepanov must make a decision: give up the holding or sit down for many years.
Born on December 4, 1964 in Kazakhstan.
Education and academic degrees.
He received his diploma as an Engineer-Economist from the Ural Polytechnic named after Kirov, which he graduated in 1987.
Career.
The rapid career growth of Alexander Stepanov began in 1993, when he began working at the Power Engineering Company, where he immediately took the position of Vice President of the company. After a very short period of time, in 1996, he was appointed to the post of general director of an industrial corporation. In the context of the development of a market economy, the Power Engineering Company underwent a number of reorganization changes, as a result of which the open joint-stock company “EneregomashCorporation” was formed, headed by Stepanov. He not only took the post of CEO, but also became a member of the board of directors, and also became chairman of the company’s board. And in 200, he was appointed to the position of general director of the Energomash Corporation subsidiary in the capital of Great Britain - Energomash (UK) Limited, where he is actively involved in expanding markets for the company's products. Currently he is the General Director of the international company Energomash.
The Ordzhonikidze District Court of Yekaterinburg on Monday sentenced the ex-billionaire, former head of one of the largest power engineering holdings in Russia - Energomash - Alexandra Stepanova to two years in prison on charges of deliberate bankruptcy of the Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash enterprise, ITAR-TASS reports.
According to investigators, Alexander Stepanov, being the general director of the Uralelectrotyazhmash-Uralgidromash company, received a loan of almost 2 billion rubles. At the beginning of 2009, when the time came to return the money, the head of the holding created two new legal entities, to which he transferred all the working personnel and production assets of the enterprise. This led to the cessation of production and bankruptcy of the enterprise. Having failed to collect the debts, Sberbank initiated criminal prosecution of the holding's top management. At the initiative of the bank, searches were carried out at Stepanov’s enterprises. Documents and information on electronic media confirming the illegal activities of the company’s management were seized from the plant offices of the Energomash group of companies in Yekaterinburg, Sysert, Pervouralsk, Revda, Polevsky, Chekhov, Podolsk and Moscow.
Earlier, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced Stepanov to 4.5 years in prison, finding him guilty of attempted fraud of 12 billion rubles and abuse of office. “By partially adding up the sentences, Stepanov was given a final sentence of 4.5 years in prison. His time in custody from February 1, 2011 was credited,” the court explains.
Stepanov, being the general director of two companies of the Energomash holding - OJSC GT-CHP Energo in Moscow and OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya in Belgorod - received a loan from Sberbank of 17.5 billion rubles for the construction of low-power gas turbine stations. Energomashkorporatsiya acted as a guarantor for borrowing money. At first, Alexander Stepanov regularly paid interest on the loan, but then he stopped and filed a bankruptcy petition for both companies with the Arbitration Court. Thus, both the borrower and the guarantor were insolvent.
The damage to Sberbank amounted to more than 12 billion rubles. In addition, in order to maintain control over the bankrupt GT-CHP Energo, Stepanov entered into an agreement for the provision of services with LLC Management Company GT-CHP Energo, which was created two weeks before the emergence of the designated contractual relationship, and was headed by its director, controlled personally by Stepanov. The employees of the bankrupt enterprise went to work for the management company, essentially continuing to work at their previous jobs, GT-CHE Energy continued to operate as before and at the same time paid for services that it did not need. In particular, Stepanov used. his powers contrary to the interests of the company to withdraw its liquid assets. The damage from his actions amounted to more than 170 million rubles.
Having calculated how much the housing office or homeowners association owes you, you can demand compensation from them, but first things first. Let's start by calculating the amount that the housing office or homeowners association owes you using a special formula.
Formula recalculation for poor-quality heating or for its absence is taken from Government Decree No. 307. The date of its appearance is May 23, 2006. This resolution contains a clause stating that for every 60 minutes while the temperature in your apartment was below normal, you are entitled to a deduction. Its size is equal to 0.15% for each degree and is multiplied by the number of degrees by which the temperature in your apartment was below normal.
The formula itself is described in paragraph 15 of this resolution.
Explanation of the formula:
- ∑ - the amount of money you are owed as a result of the settlement.
- T is the number of hours in which the heating did not meet the standard.
- S - the total amount for heating according to the receipt for the month (or for the period for which you are trying to get a recalculation).
- С° norms - the temperature that should be according to the norms. Read about the rules.
- C° fact is the temperature that was actually in the apartment.
- 0.0015 is 0.15% in numerical terms. This is the coefficient by which we are recalculated according to Resolution 307.
When recalculating for poor-quality heating or lack of heating using this formula, take into account an important nuance. Its essence is that the calculation of the refund for night heating and day heating is carried out separately. This is due to the fact that temperature standards at night and during the day are different. In accordance with the law, the heating period is considered to be night from 12-00 at night to 5-00 in the morning. During this period of time, the permissible the norm becomes lower by 3 C°. Accordingly, daytime and nighttime values of “С° norms” will also be different.
We wrote about what the temperature in the apartment should be during the heating season in an article about.
Keep in mind that there is one law that states that we cannot demand from the housing office or homeowners association an amount for heating that exceeds what we were charged according to the receipt. This is the Law of the Russian Federation on the protection of consumer rights. His number is No. 2300-1. In other words, the maximum we can get from our housing office is free heating.
An example of recalculation for poor-quality heating using this formula
The amount for lack of heating is calculated using the same formula.
Let's give an example.
Let's take Chelyabinsk, for example. Our payment for heat in December was 3,000 rubles.
First, look at the permissible average temperature. To do this, open “SNiP 23-01-99” and look for table No. 1 in this document. In the column “0.92″ for the “five-day period” we find Chelyabinsk. Value: "-34 C°". This is lower than -31 C°. Accordingly, for our city normal temperature, defined as 18 C°, increase by another 2 degrees and amount to 20 C°. Where such norms come from - read in the same article located at the links above.
Let’s say that in all rooms of our apartment the temperature was 16 C° for the entire month (both day and night). December has 31 days.
First, we will recalculate for night time. In 31 days, we get 155 hours related to the night period, 5 hours per day.
The normal temperature for our city is 20 C°, but at night this norm is 3 C° less and is 17 C°.
∑=S*T x 0.0015*(С° norm - С° fact).
∑=3000 rubles *155 hours x 0.0015 *(17 C° - 16 C°)=3000 rubles *155 hours x 0.0015*1=697.5 rubles.
It turns out that the housing office owes us 697.5 rubles for the night hours.
By the way, if there was no heating in the apartment at all and the temperature in the apartment was 0 C°, then the value of the temperature difference “(C° norm - C° actual)” could be equal to 20 C°.
Now let's recalculate daytime heating
It is expected that a significant number of prisoners convicted, in particular, of economic crimes, may be granted amnesty in our country. According to proposals from a number of deputies, the total number of amnestied persons could reach 14,500 people. The draft resolution “On declaring an amnesty in connection with the 20th anniversary of Russia’s independence” has already been submitted to the State Duma.
According to the authors of the initiative, amnesty for this category of convicts is a very serious step in terms of strengthening mutual trust between business and the state. Its consequences will have a positive impact on the investment climate in Russia and many other important aspects of the country’s economic life.
There is, however, a less enthusiastic and even negative point of view regarding the draft amnesty resolution. Electronic media, in particular, cite the statement of the head of the State Duma Committee on Legislation, Pavel Krasheninnikov. “Judicial errors should be corrected on an individual basis, and not through the adoption of large-scale amnesties,” he said. “The discussion and adoption of an amnesty by the State Duma is a very delicate process. Too many people - both convicts and their relatives - pin their hopes on amnesty. Therefore, the ill-considered, properly miscalculated introduction of the amnesty project, based on opportunistic, pre-election considerations, seems to me to be an immoral matter.”
What caused such a sharp and even harsh point of view of an authoritative and respected lawyer and legislator can be understood if we look at a very recent case that attracted a lot of press and was associated with the situation surrounding the head of the Energomash power engineering holding, Alexander Stepanov. The case is not just curious, but to a certain extent indicative in a number of ways.
The story is like this. The once prosperous businessman Alexander Stepanov “accumulated” debts, according to some estimates, as much as 29.5 billion rubles. According to experts, he has nothing to give them back; the creditors don’t want to wait, and they don’t believe in the revival of Stepanov’s Energomash from the ashes. And today it presents a more than sad picture: old equipment, no orders and a lot of small debts that turn into large ones, including to the pension fund. The leader himself is behind bars.
By the way, Stepanov has nowhere to go: as the central press writes, he is facing two years in prison on behalf of the British court for contempt of this court. These two years are given in absentia. During a full-time examination of Stepanov’s case, a document agreement between Mr. Stepanov and the Kazakh BTA Bank may emerge, which was found to be false. But all this is there, in “Foggy Albion”. But our articles are completely different.
In a letter from the ex-chief of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate Vladimir Pronin addressed to the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, article N 159, its 4th part, appears. The same one that is on the list of articles of the Criminal Code that fall under the Duma amnesty project. It reads like this: “Fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale is punishable by imprisonment for a term of up to ten years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.”
A strict and very specific article. However, many experts believe that next to it, if not always, then as a rule, there are others, for example, the 199th - tax evasion. In world legal practice, the attitude towards this type of crime is not just negative, but universally intolerant.
Let's return to Energomash. The actions of its leader were immediately dubbed “Stepanov’s five-year plan” by jokers. It turns out that he set himself a not entirely modest goal: by 2010, his holding was supposed to build almost hundreds of gas turbine thermal power plants, which were supposed to pay for themselves in about 5 years. The cost of the project, as the media wrote, seemed almost fantastic - almost 6 billion dollars.
It is difficult, if not impossible, to beg for such an amount. But why not try it in parts? Happened. Sberbank allocated a loan of 17.5 billion rubles for the construction of the first 120 stations. This happened approximately between 2004 and 2006. Somewhat later, in 2008, Stepanov managed, as journalists found out, to agree with BTA Bank on a loan of $500 million - that’s about another 15 billion rubles. Stepanov did not receive the entire tranche, but almost 3/4 of the amount appeared in the accounts of Rolls Finance Limited. The money is big. What can we say about the “unfortunate” 120 million rubles that Stepanov’s subsidiaries Energomash (UK) Limited and Energomash (Volgodonsk) Atommash LLC owe to the Rostov pension fund!
Of course, no one considers credit a crime; it is a financial activity. Not repaying the loan is the problem. And problems, according to observers, began for Stepanov with the beginning of the crisis. The idea of building 120 gas turbine thermal power plants may have looked attractive. However, the enterprises implementing this project and being part of the Energomash corporation
were simply unable to service Stepanov’s loan obligations. Therefore, by 2010, a money lump of 63 billion rubles had grown. The press wrote that it was for this amount that claims were filed against the companies of the Energomash group in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The largest creditors were Sberbank and BTA Bank, which were owed 14.4 and 12.5 billion rubles, respectively, by the court.
Then, as they say, it’s a matter of technique. Law enforcement. First, that is, in February 2011, Alexander Stepanov was detained, then a decision was made to arrest him. Not spontaneously, by the way, and not by chance, as some people are trying to claim today. Back in 2008, one serious document appeared in the Central Internal Affairs Directorate - the result of “carrying out special operational and preventive measures to decriminalize the country’s fuel and energy complex.” It states, in particular, that Energomashkorporatsiya OJSC, which positions itself as the largest organization in the field of small-scale energy development, in reality exists only through newly raised borrowed funds, which may be a sign of a financial pyramid. And then - a quote about the notorious 120 gas turbine thermal power plants. “So, in 2004-2006,” the document says, “Energomashkorporatsiya OJSC received more than 16 billion rubles for the GT TPP Energo OJSC under loan agreements for the construction project of 120 low-power gas power plants. In reality, only 14- 18 stations, of which only six are functioning... In total, more than 30 billion rubles were received as loans, most of which were transferred to the accounts of foreign offshore companies... The defendants legalize part of the illegally obtained income through speculative transactions with unsecured bills and shares , partly on behalf of third parties is invested in the construction of luxury real estate in Moscow..."
Here's an example. He, of course, is not the only one and was taken by us simply because he has been popular lately. And it confirms the thesis that if we are talking not only about an economic crime, but also about fraud and other actions that fall outside the scope of the law, then can we even talk about leniency towards the accused? As a result of such “projects”, such as the Energomash gas turbine thermal power plants, enterprises go bankrupt, people lose their jobs, pensioners are left without money, and entire industries collapse, literally and figuratively. And whoever is responsible according to the law and conscience receives forgiveness from the state? Amnesty? What about moral damage? What about material? What about the honor and dignity of the affected citizens?
In the high-profile story with the financial problems of one of the strategic enterprises of the domestic energy complex, the Energomash industrial group, which also produces rocket engines, another important point has been made. Alexey Pleshcheev, the junior partner of the holding founder Alexander Stepanov, filed for bankruptcy. Creditors' claims amount to 55.2 billion rubles.
Little tricks of an industry giant
Previously, in 2012, Alexander Stepanov was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for abuse of power and attempted fraud. Two years later, Stepanov was convicted again - for deliberate bankruptcy. Now he is awaiting another trial.
The junior partner Alexey Pleshcheev So far, as we see, he has escaped only with bankruptcy. But this, however, does not mean that everything has fallen into place in the Energomash case.
This story is interesting not only because of the substantial amount of debt Alexey Pleshcheev owes to creditors. We are talking, among other things, about a giant of the Russian energy industry.
PG Energomash was created back in 1998 on the basis of the Energy Machinery Corporation, which had gone bankrupt. The holding also includes OJSC Energomashkorporatsiyam (factories for the production of equipment for power plants and the petrochemical complex in seven cities of Russia). In total, the Energomash Industrial Group employs more than 22 thousand people.
Particular attention should be paid to the PG division called OJSC "GT-CHPP Energo". Its task during creation is the construction of mini-CHP, and, in addition, the sale of electricity. And it is no coincidence that these assets were consolidated on the balance sheet of the British Energomash UK Ltd. Because it was with this company that the rise and then the fall of Alexander Stepanov and Alexey Pleshcheev, who were considered extremely successful businessmen, began.
In 2004-2006, this same “GT-CHP Energo” received a loan from Sberbank for 17.5 billion rubles. The loan was targeted and intended for the implementation of an ambitious project proposed by Stepanov and his deputy Pleshcheev. They were talking about the idea of building many, many small gas turbine power plants in the cities and villages of the country, and thereby solving the problem of electrification of all of Russia (posed by Vladimir Lenin).
However, this problem could not be solved. Two years later, in 2008, servicing of loan obligations ceased. Soon, bankruptcy procedures were initiated at GT-CHP Energo, as well as at Energomashcorporation and CJSC Energomash.
From that moment on, Alexey Pleshcheev and Alexander Stepanov fell into a streak of failure. One of the brightest milestones in this period was the decision in 2010 by a London court to arrest Alexander Stepanov for a period of two years for contempt of court. It was issued during the trial of BTA Bank's claim for non-repayment of the loan.
Alexander Stepanov, of course, did not rush to the shores of Foggy Albion to sit on them for a couple of years. And with this he completely closed the road to Europe and beyond for the rest of his life. Which explains why, a year later, such a rich man as Alexander Stepanov, having learned that he was facing arrest, did not go on the run. There was nowhere to run.
Electric pyramid
Much is hidden behind the abundance of dry facts presented. Including questions: how did Alexey Pleshcheev, in company with Alexander Stepanov, manage to take control of strategically important enterprises, what prompted them to play a risky credit game with such a formidable partner as Sberbank, and so on.
A famous blogger answered some questions on his LiveJournal page Alexey Abakumov, who conducted his own investigation into the history of the rise and fall of Energomash and its owners.
If you believe Alexey Abakumov, Stepanov acquired the starting capital that allowed him to eventually enter the club of billionaires during the initial period of privatization. Energomash became the second and last stage of his career. By 1998, his Energy Machinery Corporation included the largest enterprises in the industry, including the famous Elektrosila and Atommash. At the same time, as noted, such a takeover did not cost Stepanov and Pleshcheev much money. They acted according to the scheme known in the nineties - they introduced their own people into the top management of enterprises, who then bankrupted these enterprises. And they bought it cheap.
But even this money was borrowed. And the owners of the corporation, apparently, had no intention of giving them back. When creditors began to press hard in 1998, Stepanov and Pleshcheev used another classic scheme - they created a new structure - OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya. The shares of enterprises that were part of the Power Engineering Corporation were transferred there and they declared it bankrupt. It seems that the prosecutor's office is still working on this case. It’s difficult for the prosecutor’s office, because Energomashcorporation OJSC was once again completely reconstructed, and the Energomash PG arose on its foundation. Nevertheless, all the assets included in it became the property of the British offshore company Energomash UK Ltd, more than 90% of the shares of which went to Alexander Stepanov personally.
However, the partners still needed money. Alexander Stepanov and Alexey Pleshcheev either did not know how to get them, or did not want to, in any other way than from loans. It was decided to use another classic scheme of non-violent money taking.
A brilliant project of national importance was drawn up: to build many, many small power plants and flood all the farthest corners of the country with light. For example, the first stage of the project provided for the construction of 120 low-power gas power plants.
Oddly enough, Sberbank liked this idea. Pleshcheev and Stepanov, acting as personal guarantors and guarantors, received 17 billion rubles for the development of the program.
Needless to say, only a little more than a dozen stations were built. Six of them actually work. In addition, it turned out that they are unprofitable. But Alexey Pleshcheev and Alexander Stepanov turned into electricity producers. And this gave them the right to enter the country’s wholesale energy market, where they engaged in banal electricity speculation - buying cheaper, selling more expensive. Receiving tariffs already means access to work on the wholesale market, where you can buy electricity and power at low prices, and then, without launching a station, sell them at almost twice the price.
Everything was going well. But partners Pleshcheev and Stepanov apparently did not take into account that almost ten years had passed since the time when they famously and with impunity took over their enterprises, received loans and did not repay them. Times have changed. Control over such transactions has become tighter.
And first, addressed to the then head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Rashida Nurgalieva a letter was received from the then head of the capital's main headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Pronin, which stated that “JSC Energomashkorporatsiya exists only through newly raised borrowed funds, which may be a sign of a financial pyramid.” Well, then the angry boss of Sberbank dealt a crushing blow to the debtors German Gref, who demanded to immediately stop the process of shameless theft of money from a credit institution that was happening before his eyes. On August 18, 2010, criminal case No. 276078 was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale) against Alexander Stepanov.
The rest is known.
It is curious that Alexander Stepanov took everything upon himself. His colleague Alexey Pleshcheev, who also vouched for Energomash’s loans, turned out to have nothing to do with it. Another cunning scheme?
And yet, it seems that the bankruptcy of Alexei Pleshcheev, which he himself initiated, is not the end of this story.
The owner of a well-known corporation, Alexander Stepanov, is accused of fraud and is in a Russian prison, and his enterprises are preparing to sell off their property
At the end of September, a celebration took place at the famous Chekhov plant Energomash. The company suddenly decided to organize a “non-circular” anniversary and celebrate the 69th anniversary of the plant with pomp. Everything, it seems, was not at all accidental. After all, the holiday took place under the sign of bankruptcy, as well as criminal prosecution of the general director and owner, Alexander Stepanov. There were songs and dances, jugglers and magicians performed. A paid entertainer tried to amuse the factory workers by showing sleight of hand: he quickly turned a 100-ruble bill into a 100-dollar bill...
It seems that at that moment no one thought why this domestic property of ours is increasingly becoming overseas and becoming more expensive, and various swindlers, without asking us, are exchanging our dignity for nickels. However, the majority of residents of Chekhov, ChZEM employees and representatives of local authorities still do not know the secret of the “trick”, as a result of which the future of the enterprise was in question. Either they will destroy it by auctioning off its property, or they will transfer it to other hands...
Who is what or what is who...
Talking about the Energomash Group of Enterprises means the same as talking - at least for now - about Alexander Stepanov himself. We say “Stepanov” - we mean “Energomash”, we say “Energomash” - we mean “Stepanov”. And this is not some figure of speech. The credit monster created by this man may well deserve the title of the largest financial pyramid, based on the instillation of detailed technical illusions in such “savvy” people as German Gref and his subordinates. Something in Stepanov’s constructions is reminiscent of the scam with the mythical “red mercury”, but in his constructions the grain of truth is not zero. There is a real basis.
The formal top of the pyramid is the British company Energomash (UK) Limited. It is the management company of the Group and its majority, main shareholder. More than 90 percent of the shares of Energomash (UK) Limited belong to the General Director of OJSC Energomashcorporation, Alexander Stepanov. But on the balance sheet of this overseas “company” a controlling stake in Energomashcorporation OJSC is consolidated. It, in turn, owns factories in Belgorod, Engels, Saratov region, Yekaterinburg, Sysert, Sverdlovsk region, Volgodonsk, and also in Chekhov.
The corporation also has a network of engineering centers involved in the development of power equipment projects. There is also JSC "GT-TES Energo". It was engaged in the construction of small thermal power plants and, according to investigators, was the subject of speculation in heat and electricity.
However, since 2007, the official website of the Group has stopped updating the “History” section. And two years ago, on October 7, 2009, Energomashkorporatsiya OJSC itself turned to the arbitration court with a request... to sentence it to bankruptcy. The statement stated that summary enforcement proceedings have been ongoing against the corporation since 2007, the property has been seized and put up for auction. In May 2010, the arbitration court decided to begin bankruptcy proceedings and put the property up for auction. The total amount of loan repayment claims amounted to 13 billion 20 million 651 thousand 888 rubles 60 kopecks. By the way, there is no end in sight to this litigation, and it is clear that if the “mother” company sentenced itself to bankruptcy, then all is not well with its “daughters”. Among them is the Chekhov Power Engineering Plant (CHZEM), or Energomash (Chekhov).
Bankruptcy of ChZEM
In December 2009, two months after Energomashkorporatsiya asked the court to bankrupt it, representatives of Sberbank of Russia filed a claim with the Moscow Arbitration Court against several companies at once. These were Energomash (Volgodonsk), Energomash-Atommash, Energomash (Ekaterinburg), and Energomash (Chekhov). The amount of bankers' demands amounted to no less than 14 billion 942 million 341 thousand 120 rubles 86 kopecks. Here there are debt on loans, and unrepaid loans, and interest, and penalties.
The process dragged on, and only at the end of July 2010 the court recognized the joint and several debt of the companies in the amount of more than 14 billion rubles. But only after the “traditional” appeal, on September 22, the decision came into force. It is clear that the management of Sberbank did not wait for the results of the consideration of the cassation appeal (by the way, it was never satisfied), but immediately went to court with a demand to declare only one enterprise bankrupt... CHZEM. And although representatives of the plant asked the court to refuse the bankers, since the amount of the debt should supposedly be distributed among all debtors, the creditor’s application was accepted. It turned out that bankruptcy proceedings can only be initiated against one of the debtors. And it seems that Chekhov’s enterprise seemed to some to be the most “delicious”.
On December 16, 2010, the court declared Energomash (Chekhov) insolvent, introduced surveillance at the plant, appointed a temporary manager and determined the amount that the plant owes to Sberbank. This is 14 billion 113 million 248 thousand 216 rubles. On February 22, 2011, the appeal court upheld this decision, and on April 12, the cassation court rejected the complaint of Energomash (Chekhov) LLC.
Despite all this, rumors are spreading around Chekhov that the bankruptcy case has been suspended and is about to be closed. This is not entirely true. On May 19 of this year, the court considered the petition of a representative of Sberbank of Russia, who asked to postpone the case until the claims of all creditors were considered. This concerns claims of the tax service against CHZEM related to certain tax violations. And at present, some tax violations have been recognized by the court, but the appeal of Energomash (Chekhov) is still pending. As soon as this dispute ends in court, the bankruptcy process will continue.
Some ChZEM workers still hope that billionaire Alexander Stepanov will escape criminal prosecution and everything will work out. However, it seems that such hopes have shaky foundations. Too cool people both abroad and in Russia want to settle accounts with the famous businessman. And there is every reason for this.
London combination
Six criminal cases were opened against Mr. Stepanov in Russia alone, which have now been combined into one. There are similar cases in other countries - in particular in the UK. There he became involved in a case of theft of credit funds from the Kazakh BTA Bank. $500 million is the amount of the credit line opened by the bank in August 2008. The collateral for this loan was a stake in the parent offshore Energomash UK Limited, which owns all of Energomash's Russian assets. Stepanov also gave personal guarantee.
A special company was created to transfer money - Rolls Finance Limited, BTA Bank began transfers. He managed to transfer $365 million before the energy operator stopped paying for the bankers’ services. Then the Kazakh people went to court for justice. Their statements went to one of the Moscow courts and the High Court of London. And if the Russian court upheld the claim and decided to recover 12.5 billion rubles from Stepanov in favor of BTA Bank, then in the UK everything turned out differently.
At pre-trial proceedings in the High Court of London, Alexander Stepanov presented new documents that indicated that BTA Bank employees were not entirely competent or were interested parties. Additional agreements were brought to light, signed, according to Stepanov, back in 2008, but... “These documents significantly changed the terms of the loan agreement to the detriment of the interests of the bank, however, as a result of a handwriting examination, these documents were recognized as fake, and the version of events presented by Stepanov, was refuted,” this statement by bank employees dotted the i’s. After this exposed falsification, the schemer began to change lawyers and generally did not pay attention to the court’s demands to disclose information about the assets he owned. And then he even stopped showing up in court.
For such disrespect, a London court sentenced the engineer in absentia to two years in prison. It was also decided to collect more than $486 million from Stepanov, and forcefully liquidate his company, Energomash UK Limited. However, the liquidation service appointed by the court is still searching for the property of this offshore company.
Stepanov’s penchant for using offshore companies and front men is beginning to fail him. For example, Sberbank was considered the largest creditor of Energomashcorporation, but Olana Trading Inc. suddenly appeared on the scene. - an offshore company from Belize. It turned out that Stepanov’s companies allegedly owe her... 16 billion rubles. In this situation, the offshore became not only the largest creditor of Stepanov’s companies, but also began to play the role of the main coffer at the meeting of creditors, and also received grounds to claim the maximum share of compensation. Bankruptcy actually came under the control of a company free from “shores.”
It should be noted that arbitration judges often - wittingly or unwittingly - played along with Stepanov and his offshore creditors. However, it suddenly turned out that the creditor company did not exist at all and was liquidated back in 2006. Moreover, false documents were slipped into the case by the arbitration manager Agapov, who, as it turned out, after discovering the results of his “bad” work - in the interests of Stepanov - received the appropriate “parting words” from the judiciary.
Letter from General Pronin
It would be a mistake to assume that such a resourceful craftsman and his capital will remain outside the sight of the powers that be. Back in 2008, the former head of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, Vladimir Pronin, decided to write a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Rashid Nurgaliev. This epistolary work was made public by the newspaper Izvestia. It notes: “OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya exists only due to newly attracted borrowed funds, which may be a sign of a financial pyramid... Thus, in 2004-2006, OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya received for OJSC GT-CHPP Energo loan agreements amounting to more than 17 billion rubles for the construction project of 120 low-power gas power plants. In reality, only 14-18 stations were built, of which only 6 are operational.”
General Pronin also argued that the commissioning of new facilities is of interest to the leaders of this company only on paper, since the production of electricity itself at the thermal power plants under construction is not economically profitable. It turns out, “Receiving tariffs is already admission to work on the wholesale market, where you can buy electricity and power at low prices, and then, without launching the station, sell them at almost twice the price.”
Stepanov was able to pull off such a trick with the idle Vsevolozhsk gas turbine thermal power plant. Illegally, the station received the status of an object of the wholesale electricity market, as well as the right to sell its products at a price of 1.08 rubles per kW/h. As a result, in 2007, Stepanov’s energy company, without producing a single kilowatt-hour, bought 108.5 million kWh on the wholesale market at 0.52 rubles. and immediately resold them to OJSC Petersburg Sales Company, but for 1.08 rubles. This is how the owner of Energomash turned pieces of paper with numbers into real 117 million rubles.
In total, the businessman’s enterprises received loans worth more than 30 billion rubles for the small-scale generation project. Most of them, according to the general, disappeared into offshore companies. “At present,” writes Pronin, “the head of OJSC Energomashkorporatsiya is Stepanov A.Yu. “active measures are being taken to counteract the ongoing investigative and operational measures, up to and including discrediting law enforcement officers.” Despite the “menacing face” of a disabled corporate tycoon, Moscow police were able to collect the necessary materials about tax evasion on a particularly large scale back in 2005.
There are other examples of the epistolary genre in this story. Here is what the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank German Gref wrote to Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika:
“The companies of the Energomash industrial group are debtors of Sberbank of Russia for a total amount of over 15 billion rubles... According to our information, Stepanov A.Yu. together with the management, he is trying to transfer the assets of the Energomash group to various organizations controlled by him and other persons in order to evade payment of existing debts... The group for the production, operation of equipment and materials in the fuel and energy sector exists only at the expense of newly raised borrowed funds, which is a sign of a financial pyramid... In connection with the above, I ask you, in order to prevent illegal actions of Stepanova A.Yu. organize an appropriate inspection to establish signs of a crime in his actions.” Has the order been given?
And this is what Assistant Prosecutor General A.S. writes a little later. Sologubov to JSC Energomashkorporatsiya:
“On August 18, 2010, the Investigative Unit of the Investigative Directorate at the Internal Affairs Directorate for the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow at the request of the Chairman of the Board of Sberbank of Russia G.O. Gref. criminal case No. 276078 under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation." Let me be clear: this is a standard charge of fraud.
Raider seizure?
It would be wrong not to mention another point of view present in the press. According to investigators, Stepanov tried to steal all the loans received from Sberbank and transferred them to foreign accounts. Back in February, speaking in court, a representative of the prosecution argued the need for Stepanov’s arrest by saying that he allegedly fled after charges were brought against him. The court was not surprised by the fact that the “hidden businessman” was detained not in the Canary Islands, but in the lobby of the Moscow office of Sberbank. He arrived there for the next stage of negotiations on debt restructuring.
We must understand that this is not the first criminal case for Stepanov in the last three years. In August 2008, a case was already opened against him under the same Article 159 of the Criminal Code, and then, in October of the same year, a charge was added under Article 199 - “tax evasion.” And in June 2009, Article 201 was added - “abuse of power”. The businessman sought protection and turned to different people. And they, it should be noted, tried to help.
For example, at that time, the President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Yevgeny Primakov, reported signs of a raider takeover of the enterprise to the same Rashid Nurgaliev. The Chairman of the Commission for Interaction with the Accounts Chamber of the Federation Council, Sergei Ivanov, addressed the head of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexei Anichin. In November 2009, the chairman of the Human Rights Council, Ella Pamfilova, presented a report to President Dmitry Medvedev, which spoke of an attempted raider seizure of one of the Energomash factories in Barnaul. Russian President Medvedev himself sent this report to Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with the resolution “Please consider it.” Stepanov, it seems, was left alone, but many are sure that the raiders were only regrouping forces and preparing a serious attack - a new criminal case and a place in the bunk.
Almost a month after Stepanov’s arrest, on February 22, 2011, a document marked “For official use” signed by Deputy Director of the Department of Industry and Infrastructure of the Government of the Russian Federation Alexey Tsydenov was sent from the Russian Government Office to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the Ministry of Energy, the Federal Tax Service, Sberbank and Energomash. This is what he wrote: “Materials regarding the settlement of debt... were reported to Deputy Prime Minister I.I. Sechin. It was noted that the dispute resolution process should be carried out within the framework of the current arbitration legislation and bankruptcy legislation... This process should not lead to the termination of the implementation of the investment project for the construction and operation of gas turbine stations... The next report is due in April 2011.”
Many hoped that Stepanov would be released after such a letter. There were hopes for a relaxation of preventive measures against those suspected of economic crimes. And taking into account the fact that Stepanov is a disabled person of the first group, they were counting on house arrest. However, it remains unknown what was reported to Sechin in April, but at the end of June the court refused to release the head of the Energomash group even on bail of 30 million rubles. He was left behind bars until November 1, 2011.
There is not long to wait for events to develop. A year or two. But it has already become clear that Chekhov’s property, the glory of the city - CHZEM - has finally passed into private hands with all the ensuing consequences of the fight for capital. And it is no coincidence that the city authorities stand on the sidelines; no one is interested in or values the opinions of city residents and plant workers. The workers of Energomash, as it should be under capitalism, only have the right to observe and maintain their professional dignity. However, you can’t spread it on bread if, God forbid, the enterprise’s property is put up for auction...
