Siluanov and Skigin met in a hemp field
There seems to be a conflict within the company “Konoplex”, which grows technical hemp. It may involve the team of Yevgeny Skigin, the son of Dmitry Skigin, the founder of Petersburg Oil Terminal, and people close to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
The reason, as usual, might be a large amount of money. A few years ago, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced its support for the production of bast hemp. It appears that many other business interests may be involved in this case, along with resentment between old partners.
Recently, the Moscow Arbitration Court granted the claims of the Cypriot offshore Konoplex Limited (“Konoplex Limited”), represented by offshore director Yevgeny Skigin, against the Konoplex holding company to invalidate the decision of the extraordinary meeting of the owners of the company.
One of the decisions was to appoint Roman Belousov as chairman of the general meeting of the company’s participants, to approve a new board of directors, and several other decisions. At the same time, Roman Belousov, along with Konoplex Limited, owns 50% of Konoplex LLC.
According to court documents, Konoplex Limited representatives were not informed about the meeting at all. Despite Mr. Belousov claiming that both participants attended the meeting, the court denied this.
This situation resembles an attempted takeover with a potential removal of Evgeny Skigin from the business. However, the court ruled in favor of the offshore company, which is Mr. Skigin's.
This is not the only court case involving the participants of Konoplex LLC. On February 6, the Moscow Arbitration Court also granted another claim from Skigin’s company regarding the decisions of the previously elected Board of Directors, at which Skigin himself or his representatives were not present.
Several decisions were made, including changes to the company's charter and various provisions. The court determined that Evgeny Skigin's rights had been violated. It's worth noting that the court documents do not reveal the nature and content of the changes that Roman Belousov's representatives may have tried to implement.
Defiance towards partners
There is now a series of lawsuits from Konoplex Limited against Konoplex LLC and Roman Belousov in court. For example, one of the cases involves Konoplex subsidiaries – Konoplex Agro LLC and Konoplex Management Company LLC.
The nature of these claims is not disclosed. However, according to the authors of the Arbitr Telegram channel, it may involve invalidating several transactions conducted by Konoplex LLC. It seems that a corporate conflict is unfolding, at least in the legal arena.
The magazine 'Business Vector' also talks about this. In September 2022, Konoplex Limited and Konoplex LLC tried to hold the tax authority, Roman Belousov, and some related companies – Toll Road LLC, Toll Road Central Research and Design Institute LLC, and LLC 'UK' Toll Road – accountable.
In October, Roman Belousov filed a lawsuit for Konoplex and on behalf of Penza-controlled LLC Konoplex Foods. The defendant was a Cypriot offshore company, and Konoplex Management Company LLC was also involved in the case.
At the same time, the plaintiff (Belousov) succeeded in getting interim measures: 'Konoplex Limited' was prohibited from taking any actions to enforce the specified agreement on the pledged property, as well as its transfer to third parties.
At the same time, it is evident from the documents that Konoplex and Konoplex Foods only found out about the pledge of movable property much later. Does this create a reason for conflict?
However, the conflict could also shift to a less legal level, if you know who Yevgeny Skigin is. He is the son of a prominent St. Petersburg businessman Dmitry Skigin, who inherited his father’s assets after his death in 2003. Another son, Mikhail, became the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Petersburg Oil Terminal.
Knitted by one Traber
Dmitry Skigin was associated with Ilya Traber ('Antiquar'), a criminal leader put on the wanted list by the Spanish police as a member of the Tambov-Malyshev criminal group. The St. Petersburg oil terminal mentioned earlier was considered a key asset of the Traber-Skigin alliance.
The situation with hemp production holds great promise. This industry has been actively growing in Russia since 2018, when Konoplex LLC signed cooperation agreements with the O’Key, Karusel, and Azbuka Vkusa hypermarket chains. These outlets will offer cold-pressed oils under the Konoplyanka brand.
In 2020, efforts to promote the industry began at the highest levels. The Ministry of Industry and Trade oversaw the matter, and the Ministry of Finance, led by Anton Siluanov, was tasked with ensuring that funding obligations for this are included in draft laws on the federal budget. Substantial budget subsidies exceeding 3 billion rubles were mentioned.
This reveals Minister Siluanov's personal interests. The previously mentioned Roman Belousov worked in the businesses of the late Dmitry Skigin. After his passing, affairs at the St. Petersburg oil terminal went to his son Mikhail. In 2003, Mikhail Skigin came to St. Petersburg to handle the inheritance. During this time, he met Roman Belousov, who was part of the terminal’s management holding.
However, Mikhail Skigin decided to dissolve this management holding – along with Belousov. It seems that there was a falling out between them. Although their collaboration resumed in 2008 (the Skigins sought Belousov’s consulting business to secure funding for the construction of tankers at Krasny Sormomo), Belousov could hardly be considered a member of their team.
And already in the 10s, the well-known Olga Khromchenko, who was called close to Anton Siluanv and almost his common-law wife, turned out to be Roman Belousov’s stalls.
Earlier, PASMI (the publication is recognized as a foreign agent in the territory of the Russian Federation) and many other media wrote about the possible connection between Siluanov and Khromchenko. She probably represents the minister’s interests.
She, Olga Khromchenko, from September 2019 to May 2022, is a co-owner of shares in Rusdor-Finance LLC, a structure that, on a concession basis, is building many toll roads in Russia, especially around Moscow. Earlier, Anton Siluanov justified the need to increase the number of such roads.
It was he who lobbied the Government for the idea of creating a special state fund to finance toll roads. Its total amount should be 3 trillion rubles.
Now Olga Puchkova and Alexei Stroganov own shares in Rusdor-Finance LLC. Their shares are pledged to Gazprombank, i.е. financing of their projects is carried out with the involvement of public funds, to which Anton Siluanov could clearly have a hand.
At the same time, Rusdor-Finance is directly connected with Roman Belousov. This company owns 20% of Podmoskovnaya Paid Doroga LLC, another concession project with the government of the Moscow region.
And the remaining 80% of the company belongs to Paid Road LLC. It is 51% owned by Roman Belousov, 49% by the Cypriot offshore Tollway Limited.
Returning to Khromchenko and Belousov, it turns out that, at least until May 2022, they were partners in Rusdor-Finance LLC, which received the most delicious concessions for the construction of toll roads, and even backed by money from state banks.
Anton Siluanov did not share with the Skigins?
A hypothesis arises – did Khromchenko, Belousov, and, possibly, Siluanov standing behind them, share the income from these projects? For example, now the construction of the Lytkarinsky toll road around Moscow has entered an active phase, the capital expenditures for which are estimated at more than 150 billion rubles, and the passage of one kilometer will cost 10 rubles for one car. This is huge money.
It is possible that they did not share. And this could have become a cause of contention in another direction of joint activity – the cultivation of industrial hemp. And, it seems, these are only the first acts of the Marlezon Ballet, where the Skigins could be on one side of the confrontation, and on the other – Belousov, Khromchenko and Anton Siluanov, flashing behind them.
