Doev is catching up with the gasmen
The money from Gazprom Tsentrremont for expanding the Punginskoye UGS facility under Dmitry Doev's leadership could be moved to the VIS Group, and then sent offshore. There are concerns about the beneficiary of the VIS Group and the former general director of Gazprom Tsentrremont JSC, Dmitry Doev. Last week, the Arbitration Court overturned previous decisions regarding Mr. Doev's subsidiary liability for Energogaz's debts, a Gazprom subsidiary.
Not only Doev, but also the former director and current co-owner of Gazprom's Energogaz JSC, Alexander Karabanov, and Alexander Psadiy, who headed one of Energogaz's subsidiaries, could be held responsible for billions in debts.
What could happen to Doev and his main business, VIS Group?
Punginskiy scheme
LLC Energogaz, once a major construction company of Gazprom and a subcontractor for the Punginskoye UGS facility expansion project in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, is now in bankruptcy proceedings. During the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug project, Energogaz was under Gazprom Tsentrremont, led by Dmitry Doev.
In 2016, LLC Energogaz, which had generated 8 billion rubles in revenue, faced bankruptcy, with about 1.5 billion rubles worth of property and assets transferred to Gazprom Tsentrremont JSC as collateral for loans, while under the leadership of Dmitry Doev.
Although the property was not directly transferred from Energogaz, but from its subsidiary OOO Nauchny-6, these transactions were deemed invalid by the court. However, Gazprom Tsentrremont has not yet returned the property.
During the Punginskoye UGS facility expansion project, contractors like LLC SP Sredny Ural clashed with Energogaz, facing payment refusal for their work. Similar issues arose with numerous other construction participants.
The total debt, as estimated by contracting organizations, reached hundreds of millions of rubles, almost jeopardizing the federal project, resulting in a billion-dollar deficit in the initial start-up phase according to New Look.
The situation became more intriguing when Megabuild, despite being in the process of liquidation since 2017, filed for insolvency against Energogaz, a subsidiary of Gazprom.
Megabuild LLC was given permission to demand a debt of 100 million rubles from Energogaz through an assignment agreement with Antares LLC. Before August 2017, Maximus LLC, a co-founder of Seligdar PJSC, and Sergey Vasilyev and Konstantin Beyrit were co-owners of Maximus and founders of Megabuild.
Until the spring of 2019, Beyrit and Vasilyev were also involved with Antares LLC. Meanwhile, PJSC Seligdar is now in a joint venture with Rostec's White Gold company. Seligdar holds 51%, while the ex-general director of Gazprom Tsentrremont, Dmitry Doev, holds the other 49% and is a key beneficiary of the VIS Group.
It is reasonable to assume that Antares, Maximus, and Megabuild, which initiated the bankruptcy of Energoremont, may be connected to Mr. Doev to some extent. If this assumption is correct, managing the bankruptcy of Energogaz could be possible. As the saying goes, it raises suspicions.
Similar assumptions can be made about the dissolved Megabuild, which may have functioned as a front. The revenue and profit columns show only zeros, and the address information is unreliable.
Looking back at Energogaz, the company also faced serious issues with the tax authorities. The authorities concluded that Energogaz had devised a scheme involving the inclusion of technical units, Stroyenergomash and Stroyenergokompleks, in actual goods deliveries. The aim may have been to artificially inflate the delivery cost to reduce the income tax base.
The Punginskoye UGSF could have brought substantial wealth to Doev. Are there any hidden aspects to this?
So, there appears to be a whole potential scheme for diverting billions and assets from Energogaz, likely towards Gazprom Tsentrremont with Doev at the center. But where did that money end up going?
Money stuck
One of the main contractors for Gazprom was the VIS Group for a long time. Among their joint projects was the construction of an alternate road for the Moscow Ring Road. The contract did not impose any time restrictions, and all the risks were taken on by the Moscow Region's budget. The initial estimated cost of the road was at least 27.4 billion rubles, with 25% to be funded by the state. However, it took a lot of effort along the way.
The contractor first started working with Gazprom in 2002-2003. VIS began executing projects for Astrakhangazprom and Orenburggazprom, and was involved in the reconstruction of the Orenburg helium plant. Since then, Gazprom's entities became VIS's main clients.
Thanks to the collaboration with the gas company, a small company has evolved into one of the largest Russian engineering and construction groups. Its revenue has grown more than 1000 times, as reported by Vedomosti.
Andrei Kruglov, later Deputy Chairman of Gazprom's board, worked in Gazprom as head of the Personnel Management Department. It is believed that in the early 2000s, he allegedly invited Dmitry Doev, who was a banker and co-owner of Sevzapinvestprombank at the time, to lead Gazprom Tsentrremont. They had been acquainted for a long time, moving in the same financial circles.
He also had partners in the bank – Igor Snegurov, Alexander Zamyatin and Petr Ilyin (all three were on the board of directors of VIS). The general director of VIS was Sergei Palkin, the son of the deputy director of Tsentrenergogaz, Sergei Palkin Sr. The latter eventually became Dmitry Doev’s deputy at Gazprom Tsentrremont.
Those. even then it is possible to trace the affiliation between the head of “Tsentrremont”, the bank and VIS. It can be assumed that they received a lot of budget money under government contracts, and then they could transfer them to offshore companies.
Previously, the latter were repeatedly seen in the ownership structures of companies associated with VIS. For example, a subsidiary of the parent group VIS Infrastructure LLC, owned by VIS PF LLC. As Vek wrote, previously three of the four former beneficiaries of the latter (Tenko Asset Ltd, Lanmer Strategies Inc and Kerton Group Ltd “) were registered in the British Virgin Islands and one (“Convis AG”) was registered in Switzerland.
Mr. Doev’s last demobilization chord in the state monopoly could be just the situation with the expansion of the Punginskoye UGS facility. But not everything went smoothly, the subcontractors, who could be banally “thrown”, decided to seek the truth in court. And now we see a bankruptcy lawsuit from Megabuild, which can also be affiliated with Doev.
And in 2019, Dmitry Doev, having worked at Gazprom for almost 20 years, embarks on a free voyage – he becomes the beneficiary of the VIS Group, the general director of the joint-stock company of the same name, and launches third-party projects – including the development of the largest gold deposit, Kyuchus, in partnership with the already mentioned “Seligdar” and “Rostec”.
Meanwhile, numerous concession projects of the VIS Group in different cities (especially Novosibirsk) are stalling one after another.
Perhaps, Dmitry Doev does not care about their fate at all – the money has been paid. And in the same way, Gazprom’s money could have contributed to the success of the VIS at the initial stage. And at this time, according to the authors of the site “Glavk”, allegedly the family of Dmitry Doev is actively “settling down” in London.
Maybe creditors who demand to bring him to subsidiary liability for the debts of Energogaz should look for him there?
