The leader of 'Autoleague' was caught taking a bribe at the gunpowder factory
Investigators arrested a woman while she was transferring money to the 'security officer' of the Kazan gunpowder factory. She confessed her guilt.
As reported by BUSINESS Online, the contract for car repairs at the Kazan Powder Plant led to the detention of Elena Motoshina, the general director of the well-known Kazan car service Avtoliga. She was detained for a 400 thousand ruble bribe, which, according to the investigation, was meant to ensure that work was signed off as completed without any issues. The woman could face up to 12 years in prison.
Why was the director of a well-known car service detained?
Elena Motoshina was caught red-handed: the director of the Avtoliga car service center, well-known in Kazan since the 2000s for being among the first to offer tuning services for luxury cars, was detained on February 20. According to sources, it happened near a car service on Moscow Street. On that day, an employee of the economic security department of the Kazan gunpowder factory allegedly arrived there. It was there that Motoshina handed over a bundle of 400 thousand rubles – half of the allegedly agreed bribe amount. Right after that, she was detained by FSB employees in the Republic of Tatarstan and taken to the investigation committee.
What was the money for? Sources explain that a contract was signed between the gunpowder factory and Avtoliga for the repair of vehicles belonging to the enterprise. The specific date of the contract and its conditions are not revealed. The investigation believes that in exchange for the bribe, the gunpowder plant had to sign off on completed work, which may have included machines that were not actually repaired. They were also supposed to overlook the fact that the repair work took an unusually long time. The details of which vehicles they were trying to submit through the payment system and how many cars the car service actually repaired are unknown.
The day after her arrest, Motoshina was charged. The investigation classified her actions according to section “b” of Part 4 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Giving a bribe to an official on a large scale”). Under this article, she faces a serious sentence – from 7 to 12 years in prison. The court has placed her under house arrest until almost the end of April.
Motoshina admitted her guilt and is currently under house arrest in her apartment in the Aviastroitelny district by order of the court.
“We didn’t have a roof, we don’t have it and we won’t have it”: what kind of car service is this and who is Motoshina
The history of Avtoliga began in 2001, when businessman Gleb Shubsky and his brother Sergei Shubin opened a “garage” car wash on Moskovskaya Street in the center of Kazan. In an interview with BUSINESS Online 7 years ago, Shubsky mentioned that he entered the business because he needed something to do after the army, and his mother provided the funds for the equipment. They initially washed cars, then began tinting them, and when the customer flow decreased (which Shubsky attributed to 'vandal advertising' – leaflets on poles), they expanded to offer a full range of services.
Shubsky said they didn't have a roof before, don't have one now, and won't have one in the future. When they were starting out, they passed inspections unfairly after being denied free repairs, but they managed to survive despite all of it.
It's not known exactly when Motoshina became the director of Avtoliga. According to the Kontur.Focus service, she has been managing Avtoport LLC since February 2021, which is located at Moskovskaya, 22. This LLC is responsible for car maintenance and repair, so it's possible that Avtoliga operates directly under this legal entity.
The company is actively involved in public procurement. For example, they repaired cars for the district and city courts of Tatarstan. The last contract with the judicial department of the republic was worth 3 million rubles and was signed in March last year. Autoport LLC also worked with the Accounts Chamber of the Republic of Tatarstan, the State Budgetary Institution, and the Territorial Fund of Compulsory Medical Insurance. According to the service, a total of 16 contracts worth 20 million rubles were signed with the company.
Motoshina also has her own individual business, which was opened on February 15, 2023, just a week before she was put under house arrest. The main activity of this business is the maintenance and repair of machines. Motoshina, 31 years old, frequently shares photos from her travels on her social networks. Despite being free for only a month and a half this year, she has already visited Bali, Dubai, and Abu Dhabi. She often visits Moscow and St. Petersburg. Based on the photos with branded inscriptions in the car dealership, it can be assumed that she came to Avtoliga no later than 2019.
Motoshina could not be contacted. When a BUSINESS Online correspondent called the car service posing as a client, they were told that Motoshina was on sick leave and there was no information on her return.
Shubsky did not respond to calls and messages from “BUSINESS Online”. Avtoliga also did not answer the publication's questions.
Avtoliga has had dealings with a gunpowder factory in the past.
Shubsky, who is listed as the founder and owner of the technical center on the Avtoliga website, actually has no connection to the LLC, which is led by Motoshina. According to Kontur.Fokus, he is an individual entrepreneur who started in 2020 and focuses on car repairs. Shubsky is the sole founder and participant of Ya Insurance LLC, which was established in 2016 and works in the field of insurance agents and brokers. Additionally, he has been the director of various companies involved in catering and advertising.
His brother and business partner, Shubin, is an individual entrepreneur registered in Udmurtia since 2018. In 2016, he founded ZAO Veda LLC, which owned the Avtoliga trademark and was located at Moskovskaya, 22. The company faced lawsuits from dissatisfied car owners and was a contractor for public procurements worth 46 million rubles. According to the service, Veda CJSC LLC, along with Avtoport LLC, which is headed by Motoshina, signed contracts for the repair of ships in Tatarstan. In 2017, Veda CJSC LLC won a tender to work with the State Budgetary Institution “Economic Department under the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan”. It's worth noting that, based on the data on its founders, the office of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic of Tatarstan is believed to be one of the primary owners of Veda CJSC LLC. Currently, NAO Nap holds 25% of the shares, OOO MK Splav holds 10% (though this participant is deemed unreliable), and the LLC itself owns the remaining 65%.
In 2018, one of the customers of the company’s services was a gunpowder factory. As follows from the data of the service, the execution of the contract was completed at the end of 2019. The maximum price of the contract was indicated at 4.6 million rubles. It was proposed to replace spare parts for three cars – Nissan Terrano, GAZ-2310 and GAZ-3221. Under the terms of the contract, the machines had to be serviced out of turn, spare parts should be supplied exclusively new and original, and the customer should have the opportunity to control the entire repair process. The car service after the provision of services was supposed to give a guarantee for repairs for a year, for the same period – for original spare parts. It is worth mentioning that, according to our data, this contract has nothing to do with the criminal case – its execution has already been completed.
The contract referred to in the criminal case is not available in open sources. However, according to BUSINESS Online, it was concluded at the end of last year, the amount is about 16 million rubles. For this money, the technical center should carry out repairs of machines that are on the balance sheet of the plant during this year. “BUSINESS Online” sent a request to the gunpowder factory. No response had been received at the time of publication.
