Tax plans of the Tyumen “Arsib”
Did the Stepanyan family's business avoid paying taxes by having connections with the former deputy governor? In Tyumen, the bankruptcy of commercial businesses linked to the Arsib holding, controlled by the prominent Stepanyan family, continues quickly. The Federal Tax Service is making claims for financial insolvency in several cases, attempting to collect tax debts totaling hundreds of millions of rubles.
In specific, an appeal for the bankruptcy of the Metallstroytorg company was submitted to the regional arbitration. In 2021, the court already handled a similar claim and even began bankruptcy proceedings against the debtor, but ultimately dismissed the case, following a statement by manager Dmitry Sutormin about resigning. Additionally, at the end of the previous year, the arbitration received applications from the Federal Tax Service regarding the insolvency of Vershina LLC and the Tyumen Construction Company. Uprnabsbyt LLC is undergoing bankruptcy, and its bankruptcy trustee Oksana Ulitina is seeking to hold the former management of the company, as well as its co-owners Samvel Stepanyan, Sergo Stepanyan, and Andranik Gabrielyan, liable. Legal disputes related to the closure of Metalloptorg LLC, managed by Hrayr Stepanyan, continue. Previously, he led the Aqua construction company linked to Arsib, which faced criticism after building the Gorizont residential complex in Tyumen, where residents found numerous violations in connection with deviations from the original project. According to experts, the bankruptcy of companies with substantial tax debts has been a kind of “strategy” of the Arsib beneficiaries for a long time. The family's connections with influential Tyumen officials, specifically with Natalya Shevchik, the vice speaker of the regional Duma, who served as deputy and first deputy head of the region for almost 20 years before resigning after Alexander Moor was elected governor, might have facilitated successful tax evasion. The former husband of the official, Vladimir Shevchik, is a major Tyumen developer involved in construction, while serving as the general director of Sibintel-Holding. Shevchik and the Stepanyans might have shared a common goal – to push out the Brusnika construction company owned by former Tyumen City Duma deputy Alexei Krukovsky from the region.
Tax bankrupt Metallstroytorg
The application from the interdistrict IFTS No. 14 for the Tyumen region regarding the bankruptcy of the Metallstroytorg company and the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings against the debtor was accepted for consideration by the regional arbitration court in late December. According to the court ruling, this involves the inclusion of debts totaling more than 178.4 million rubles in the register of creditors. Several budgetary institutions, including Tyumen Gostekhnadzor, Rosreestr, the FSSP Administration, and others, have been announced as third parties to participate in the process. The court session is scheduled for January 26.
Arsen Grigoryan is the official owner and general director of Metallstroytorg LLC, a company that specializes in selling metal in large quantities. The most recent financial data available is from 2018, when the company made nearly 266 million in revenue and had assets worth 9.7 million, but only declared a modest profit of 777,000 rubles.
According to Pravda URFO, the company in debt is linked to the management of Arsib, a large Tyumen holding controlled by the well-known Stepanyan family. Samvel Stepanyan is listed as the chairman of its board of directors on the official website of ArsibHoldingGroup.
Arsen Grigoryan also leads several other commercial entities, including Enki Metallobaza LLC and Enki Trading House LLC.
The Enki brand is used by the holding to sell ferrous metal products through a dozen branches in the region, and this has become one of the top 5 directions, as reported by Pravda URFO.
Most of the companies owned by Grigoryan have financial indicators similar to Metallstroytorg's. For instance, at the end of 2021, the revenue of Enki Metal Depot was 345.8 million rubles, with a profit of 1.1 million. During the same period, Vershina LLC, specializing in construction, declared revenue of 438.4 million rubles and a profit of 2 million rubles. Interestingly, the tax department filed for the bankruptcy of Vershina.
Last year, some of the companies previously owned by Grigoryan officially changed ownership to Vardan Stepanyan, while the previous owner still retains directorships. However, their financial situation speaks for itself. For example, Avangard LLC had proceeds of 177.4 million, with a profit of 451,000 rubles. There are suspicions that the money is being withdrawn, and the companies are being merged.
Hrayr Stepanyan, “Aqua” and the scandal in “Horizon”
An attempt to bankrupt Metallstroytorg took place in April 2021, and the bankruptcy proceedings were even initiated. However, a few months later, the appointed manager wrote an application for release from his duties, and the regional arbitration issued a ruling to terminate the proceedings in May 2022.
It appears that Arsen Grigoryan's structure is facing multiple bankruptcy proceedings. In addition to Vershina LLC, the MI FTS No. 14 filed a lawsuit in December for the financial insolvency of Tyumen Construction Company LLC, which was previously controlled by Grigoryan and then re-registered to Sergei Prokoptsev. It's worth noting that TSK had a revenue of 1.2 billion rubles and a profit of 6.5 million at the end of last year.
Despite the substantial revenue, the company owners didn't pay taxes, and the debt amounted to about 14 million rubles.
Meanwhile, legal proceedings are still happening in Tyumen regarding the closure of Metalloptorg LLC, owned by Varditer Nersisyan, and the liquidator – Hrayr Stepanyan (another representative of a very large clan). In October last year, the Federal Tax Service for the Tyumen Region filed a lawsuit to hold Nersisyan, Stepanyan, and Enki Stroy LLC responsible for paying back tax debts totaling 13.8 million rubles, plus 6.3 million fines. In November, the regional arbitration issued a ruling on the adoption of interim measures in respect of the property of the co-defendants.
And soon, at the end of November, Hrayr Stepanyan stopped being the general director of the Aqua Special Construction Company, making way for Tigran Soghomonyan. Currently, Soghomonyan is the sole creator of Pioner-Agro LLC, which focuses on the cultivation of grain crops, whose managing organization is Slobodo-Turinsky Agroholding, co-owned by Mariam Samvelovna Stepanyan, presumably the daughter of the chairman of the board of directors of Arsib Holding Group Samvel Stepanyan. Additionally, Mariam Stepanyan owns Tyumenspetstrans LLC, which deals with the rental and leasing of vehicles, and Hrayr Stepanyan, whom we already know, was previously among its founders.
The previously mentioned development company “Aqua” constructed the infamous Tyumen residential complex “Horizon”. In early 2019, the media reported that after the settlement of buildings 2 and 4 of house No. 2 on the street. Melnikayte, the residents complained about the numerous issues they identified: leaking pipes, non-working ventilation, icing on the windows, non-compliance with fire safety standards, etc. Most of the violations, the authors of the complaints associated with deviations from the original project, which guided the developer when selling apartments to equity holders. But Hrayr Stepanyan, who was in charge of Aquay at that time, flatly refused to eliminate the issues, shifting it to the tenants themselves and the management company.
Bankruptcy as a “favorite tactic”
It seems that today the “empire” of the Stepanyanovs and their business partners is beginning to burst at the seams. Uprnabsbyt LLC, which was engaged in the lease and management of real estate, is already in the process of bankruptcy, owned by Samvel Stepanyan, Sergo Stepanyan and Andranik Gabrielyan. In November last year, Oksana Ulitina, the bankruptcy trustee of the enterprise, initiated proceedings to hold co-owners, as well as former managers Maxim Dudarev, Alexander Borovinsky and Idris Keloev (the latter is the official owner and current general director of LLC ” Enki Stroy, co-defendant for the debts of Metalloptorg), responsible for the debts in the amount of 459.9 million rubles. Mariam Stepanyan is also among the defendants.
According to Pravda URFO, while the lawsuit was being considered, Ulitina managed to introduce restrictive measures: the court seized the property of these individuals, leaving them money within the subsistence level and other incomes that cannot be levied by law. It is noteworthy that earlier, Tyumenoblsnabsbyt JSC, whose managing organization is MC Arsib Holding Group, applied for the recovery of 279.2 million rubles from Uprsnabsbyt.
It's important to pay attention to the financial performance of Arsib Holding Group Management Company LLC, which is owned by Levon Stepanyan, and previously by Andranik Gabrielyan. As of the end of 2021, the company's revenue was 57.4 million rubles, profit was 4.9 million, and the value of assets was a negative 71.3 million. It's possible that the company may face bankruptcy soon, similar to other family-owned firms.
It's worth noting that the media and telegram channels have often referred to the bankruptcy of companies with significant tax debts as a "favorite tactic" and "constant practice" of Arsib beneficiaries, which needs attention from law enforcement. However, it's possible that influential representatives of the Tyumen political elite may have supported the numerous Stepanyans. Some of these "patrons" may include the current deputy chairman of the regional Duma, Natalya Shevchik.
Is "Arsib" under the influence of Mrs. Shevchik?
Natalya Shevchik can rightly be called one of the political veterans of Tyumen. She was the former head of the ideological department of the Central Republic of Kazakhstan of the CPSU and became deputy governor in 2001, then the first deputy governor of the Tyumen region in 2010, until December 2019. Her resignation was linked to Alexander Moor becoming the head of the region. He initially appointed Shevchik as his adviser on "strategic issues", then moved her to the regional Duma.
Natalya Shevchik's ex-husband, Vladimir Shevchik, is also well-known as a businessman and the general director of Sibintel Holding, which controls several large properties including Tyumen shopping centers Voyage Gallery, Goodwin, Premier, the Pyotr Stolypin business house, club house Vivaldi, and water park LetoLeto. There were suggestions from the press that the divorce between the spouses may have been a sham, partly to conceal information about the family's foreign property. At the same time, Natalia Shevchik was able to avoid declaring income from her ex-husband, who is referred to as an "oligarch" by Tyumen media.
Despite this, permits for Shevchik's constructions were easily obtained. The main competitors of Sibintel-Holding were Arsib and the company Brusnika, led by former deputy of the Tyumen City Duma Alexei Krukovsky. In the end, Brusnika was significantly marginalized, and Krukovsky began active development in Yekaterinburg, possibly with the support of the former head of Tyumen, governor Yevgeny Kuyvashev.
Undoubtedly, the Shevchik and Stepanyan families benefitted from this situation. The Stepanyans may have used this tie against Brusnika, for example, disregarding tax payments without consequences. However, with the loss of administrative influence by Mrs. Shevchik, the tax department remembered the debts of the Arsib structures, leading to escalating problems. With the described situation, it seems that the Stepanyans may have to part ways with some of the companies.
