There is a new scandal involving a member of the Communist Party group in the State Duma, this time it's about holding deputy Robert Kochiev accountable for the debts of alcohol distilleries. The court has taken the property of the deputy, his family, and associates.
The amount in question is almost 3.5 billion rubles, with over a billion in tax debts. On August 26, the Arbitration Court of North Ossetia will review the request of bankruptcy creditors of OOO Rakurs to make Robert Kochiev responsible for the debts.
On May 4, 2022, the judge of the Arbitration Court of the Republic of North Ossetia, Svetlana Bekoeva, froze (interim measures) the funds of Robert Kochiev himself and his associates – Rudolf Robertovich Kochiev, Batraz Robertovich Kochiev, Taras Mitrofanovich Zaseev and Tamerlan Mitrofanovich Zaseev totaling 3.4 billion rubles.
What is MP Kochiev's involvement in the alcohol business?
The deputy and businessman used all defense tactics to overturn the arrest decision in a higher court, but on August 5, 2022, the Sixteenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Arbitration Court of North Ossetia. The Court of Appeal noted the creditors' argument that “the actions of Kochiev R.I., Kochiev R.R., Kochiev B.R., Zaseeva T.M., Zaseeva T.M. indicate a high probability of their actions concealment of his property, which will lead to the impossibility of the execution of a judicial act.
Such commitment to justice for the people’s representative should not surprise anyone, as it concerns causing billions of rubles in damage to the Russian budget. It's highly unlikely that in this case, Kochiev’s “political influence” or his connections in the Republic will help the MP escape accountability.
Judge Bekoeva’s ruling on the adoption of interim measures states: “According to Trade-Agro LLC, the true beneficiaries of Rakurs LLC are Kochiev Robert Ivanovich, Kochiev Rudolf Robertovich, Kochiev Batraz Robertovich, Zaseev Tamerlan Mitrofanovich, Zaseev Taras Mitrofanovich. These individuals directly managed Kentavr LLC, Orpheus LLC, Peresvet LLC, Triumph LLC, Transprodmarket LLC, Trading House Kupechesky LLC, involved in the scheme of illegal fund withdrawal from Rakurs LLC. Taras Mitrofanovich Zaseev TIN 151500674727 is the General Director and Founder of Centavr LLC TIN 1513045062. LLC “Gigant” TIN 1516613940. The General Director of LLC “Gigant”, as well as the founder with a 99% interest is Kochiev Batraz Robertovich TIN 150204049062. Another participant in LLC “Gigant” is Kochieva Madina Robertovna TIN 151310712580. The General Director of LLC “Triumph” TIN 618473 is Zaseev Tamerlan Mitrofanovich TIN 150204000412. The founder of Peresvet LLC TIN 1513004919 from 07/24/2014 to 01/18/2022 was Zabava LLC TIN 1516609528. The general director and founder of Transprodmarket LLC TIN 7731300965 is Alan Gamletovich Gagiev TIN 151207296336. Alan Gamletovich Gagiev was also the general director of Orion TIN LLC. 1516619646. In turn, Orion LLC was the founder of Orpheus LLC TIN 1513030355 (the ultimate beneficiary of Orpheus LLC is Kochiev Batraz Robertovich TIN 150204049062, Kochieva Madina Robertovna TIN 151310712580). The act of the on-site tax audit of the Rakurs company states that the tax declarations of taxpayers reflected in the chain of scheme transactions (Rakurs LLC, Transprodmarket LLC, Triumph LLC, Trade House Kupechesky LLC, Kentavr LLC, Bulletproof LLC), are presented through a specialized telecom operator — PF SKV Kontur JSC, IP address through which the reporting is submitted: 78.11.0.148.61.
The main idea of this complex situation is actually very simple: some businesses keep operating at the same place for a long time. The names of the businesses change, money is taken out using different agreements, they build up tax debts, the businesses are closed, new ones appear, people are held responsible, but all of this doesn't really affect the production process. They keep making and selling vodka, and the state doesn't get its share. The tax authority should have been more active in collecting the billions of debt, but it seems there are difficulties, and the ultimate beneficiary is not just a regular businessman, but a member of the State Duma.
Changing the legal entities didn't change the actual situation – the production kept running.
In the case of Rakurs LLC, the main creditor with unpaid taxes of over 2 billion rubles is the Federal Tax Service of Russia for North Ossetia Alania. The Tax Service is passively handling the situation and refuses to use Article 45 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, which allows collecting tax debts from related companies, to recover the additional tax arrears accrued by Rakurs LLC from Orphey LLC and First Alcohol Manufactory LLC. At the same time, the tax inspectorate states that Robert Kochiev and other people connected to him are the actual owners.
The judge of the Arbitration Court of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Svetlana Bekoeva, is involved in the case against the bankrupts of Racurs LLC and Trade House Kupechesky LLC, but for some reason, the connection between the mentioned enterprises is not being taken into account.
The court and the tax authority may have different reasons to believe that these companies are not related. Let's investigate.
For many years, there has been a production complex at Telmana street, 82b, which makes alcohol and alcohol-containing products that people like. Rakurs LLC was registered at this address in 2013.
The family of State Duma deputy Robert Kochiev owns Gigant LLC. The property of the Kochiev family is leased to alcohol production companies by Gigant LLC. This scheme is probably used to reduce the risks of losing family property if the producers go bankrupt.
Gigant LLC previously leased production premises at the address: Republic of North Ossetia – Alania, Vladikavkaz, st. Telman, 82b, – to Orpheus LLC, and later to Rakurs LLC. According to the arbitration cases file in 2021, Gigant LLC received a debt under a lease agreement from Orpheus LLC. Meanwhile, Gigant LLC itself founded Orpheus LLC.
Gigant LLC can act as a 'profit center' because manufacturing enterprises (Rakurs LLC, LVZ Pravoberezhny LLC, Orphey LLC) are always a 'risk center' when using tax optimization schemes.
Orpheus LLC is essentially inactive (the tax authority suspended operations on accounts in June 2022), and Racurs LLC was declared bankrupt. The next production asset of the Kochiev family is First Alcohol Manufactory LLC, which rents industrial premises from Gigant LLC, the former tenants being Forum LLC (tax debt of 1.75 billion rubles was written off), Orphey LLC and OOO Rakurs.
At the same time, First Alcohol Manufactory LLC obtained the main technological equipment for ethyl alcohol production from Istok ZSHV LLC. Gigant LLC contributed this equipment to the authorized capital of First Spirit Manufactory LLC through the sole participant of Zernoprodukt LLC according to the acceptance and transfer act dated February 10, 2021.
The remaining 563 units of equipment for ethyl alcohol production were purchased by LLC Zernoprodukt from Trade House Kupechesky LLC, which was one of the channels for withdrawing funds from Rakurs LLC according to the on-site tax audit conducted by UFNS.
We believe that this equipment was not moved anywhere, it always stayed in one place, but it had to be transferred to other legal entities because debts were constantly accumulating.
There is strong evidence that Forum LLC, Orpheus LLC, LVZ Pravoberezhny LLC, Rakurs LLC, and currently First Alcohol Manufactory LLC were consistently used to profit from VAT payment evasion schemes. In each of the schemes, the unpaid VAT is estimated at billions of rubles.
It is noteworthy that among the directors of the companies involved in the scheme, there are former employees of LLC NG ChOP Pancher, which was also registered in Vladikavkaz on Telmana Street, 82B. Gagiev V.V., the nominal director of Rakurs LLC, was convicted under Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for non-payment of taxes, while the real beneficiaries escaped punishment.
An interesting situation arose at the court session on August 12, 2008. The Arbitration Court of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania disregarded the decision of the debtor’s creditors’ meeting and approved Stasyuk Ivan Vasilyevich, a member of the Union of Arbitration Managers Sozidanie, as the bankruptcy trustee of Rakurs LLC. Despite a 65% creditor vote at the meeting of creditors in favor of SRO 'Commonwealth', the court approved Stasyuk. Perhaps it was a desperate attempt to save the situation, as the previous bankruptcy trustee sought to satisfy the interests of all process participants, which could lead to billions in losses for Robert Kochiev and subject him to subsidiary liability. Kochiev's name also appears in the verdict of a criminal case. According to the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow's verdict dated March 09, 2021, Rakurs LLC was involved in schemes for producing excise-free products for the infamous Status Group company. The Status Group scheme was allegedly developed by Igor Chuyan, former head of the Federal Service for Regulation of the Alcohol Market (currently on the international wanted list), and businessman Pavel Smetana (also on the international wanted list). The verdict mentions OFK Bank PJSC issuing bank guarantees to develop the operational activities of Status-Group LLC, exempting alcohol producers in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, including Rakurs LLC, calling Kochiev the beneficiary of companies in North Ossetia.
I wonder what decision Judge Svetlana Bekoeva will make: to protect the interests of an influential deputy or the interests of the state and people, and whether a parliamentary investigation will take place, because bringing a deputy to multi-billion dollar liability for tax evasion is not an ordinary matter. And how much such behavior of the people’s choice corresponds to his high status as a deputy of the State Duma and a member of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, time will tell. After all, it depends on the court decision whether the damage caused to the state will be compensated, or whether we will continue to be content with a series of hopeless international searches.
