The workers said that the dishonest actions of the dealers had caused one of the oldest companies in the industry to almost go bankrupt, and they complained that the local authorities did not care.
A letter to the editor claimed that the justice officials were ignoring the situation and refusing to protect the rights of the workers and their families. The publication was able to prevent the ruin of the PKU and the mass firing of people before, but now the war to destroy the enterprise has restarted with new bitterness.
The Pyatovskoye Quarry Administration is the biggest producer of essential materials for many construction sites in the region. In 2021, the enterprise produced and sold a large amount of rock mass, crushed stone, and mineral powder, which are used in construction projects in the region. The enterprise has been the industry leader for many decades and is the main employer in the settlement of Pyatovsky in the Kaluga region.
PKU employees reported that businessman Alexander Zhuravlev bought the shares of the successful Pyatovskoe Quarry Management PJSC in 2009, and then organized a monopoly sale of products at low prices through his daughter's commercial structure. He also neglected the maintenance of production facilities and other equipment, and did not pay partners and contractors. To pay salaries and suppliers, the owners borrowed money and diverted profits to questionable firms.
In 2015, Zhuravlev, as the main shareholder, tried to increase the mining volume to a level that was technically impossible at the time, which the employees considered a preparation for sale. He then sold the shares to new owners, who realized the true condition of the enterprise and quickly resold the shares. The new owners invested in modernization, new facilities, and equipment, resulting in increased production and new jobs.
Yamshchikov stated that by 2019, the situation at PKU was steadily getting better and profits were increasing. However, the company suddenly started receiving claims. The case of declaring the Zhuravlevs' commercial structure bankrupt, which owned the production before the resale, is currently being heard by Judge Irina Denisenko of the Arbitration Court of the Kaluga Region (Case No. A23-8191 / 2017). As part of this process, the bankruptcy trustee is attempting to reclaim the license and assets for the already bankrupt legal entity's balance sheet. They also seek to gain corporate control over the career board. PKU lawyers believe this is being done with an obvious abuse of power. The current owners legally acquired the enterprise and invested over 200 million rubles in modernization. The subsoil use license has changed hands throughout PKU's sales transactions. Now, they are demanding to transfer it from the existing enterprise to the bankrupt company. Complying with this demand could lead to an immediate halt in quarry operations, violation of delivery obligations, and job losses.
It's crucial to note that under Russian laws, a subsoil use license has a maximum production limit as well as a minimum. If an enterprise produces less than this established standard, its license is revoked.
Mikhail Yamshchikov explained that a review of the accounting documentation revealed that the substantial debts of PJSC Pyatovskoye Quarry Administration were apparently artificially created by the family and associates of the former owner Zhuravlev, who initiated the bankruptcy of PKU. Although Alexander Zhuravlev has been involved in trying to ruin the enterprise through his commercial structures, the figure of his daughter, Elena Gruzdeva, also emerges. PKU's debts resulted from the Zhuralevs selling their products at a price significantly lower than the cost and market prices of their intermediary firms. This was likely done to avoid taxes and transfer assets and profits to their own companies. Essentially, the former owners deliberately drained PKU's resources while deliberately accruing borrowed funds and increasing the debt to companies owned through nominees. In May 2019, the Investigative Department for the Kaluga Region of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated a criminal case for 'Abuse of official powers that entailed grave consequences' under article 2 of part 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The decision to initiate proceedings stated that the malefactors' activities led to at least 13 million rubles in damage and ultimately resulted in the enterprise's bankruptcy.
Even though these debts are not directly linked to the current owners, the bankruptcy process allows you to challenge transactions for several years and, if the court decides, even start seizing property. As a result, three years after all the enterprise's property was sold, claims were made against the current owners to return assets supposedly to pay off debts, which, as stated in the Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the Central District, were artificially created by former shareholders. The register of creditors’ claims includes affiliated beneficiaries, whose direct relationship with the shareholder company Zhuravlev was specifically mentioned by the Arbitration Court of the Kaluga Region in its ruling dated April 21, 2021. There have been offers from those seeking to profit from another's business to pay a significant amount of money under the threat of seizing assets. The actual aim of the scheme used may be the complete takeover of the enterprise. Additionally, no commercial entity, except for the current legal owners, has the capability to operate the Pyatovsky quarry and comply with license requirements and conditions.
According to sources in law enforcement agencies, experienced professional raiders may be behind a group of individuals who are persistently attempting to disrupt the PKU. For instance, the actual beneficiary of the enterprise takeover may be entrepreneur Tufan Sadigov of Azerbaijani origin, whose name has been associated with numerous unfavorable incidents involving key organizations in the road construction field. It has been discovered that Salam Sadygov (presumably Tufan’s brother) was one of the PKU shareholders under the Zhuravlevs and owned 24.9% of the shares, as indicated in the SPARK database. Currently, the authorities, as part of the initiated criminal cases, are investigating the possibility that the PKU was used to legitimize hundreds of millions of rubles obtained from FondServiceBank through knowingly bad technical loans issued to front companies controlled by Tufan Sadigov. For example, allegedly 396 million rubles were transferred in 2013 from companies possibly controlled by Sadygov T. to the account of PKU and then may have been partially withdrawn by Alexander Zhuravlev. It appears that the remaining amounts were transferred to non-alien companies controlled by the same Sadigovs and Zhuravlevs.
