How can a lawyer like Arsen Tsipinov, who is close to the escaped former boss of RAR, Igor Chuyan, get away with heating up the government and business partners for tens of billions without consequences?
His hidden control over vodka distilleries in Kabardino-Balkaria and schemes for avoiding taxes earned him and his supporter huge profits. Now it's time to pay up – legal proceedings reveal the lawyer's ties to non-paying companies and hold him responsible. The total amount owed is 23 billion rubles, but there's no talk of criminal charges: only figurehead directors of bankrupt factories are being accused of tax evasion.
modest attorney
At the end of January, the Arbitration Court of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic ruled to hold lawyer and businessman Arsen Tsipinov accountable for the debts of Mineral Plus vodka plant LLC. The full text of the court decision was released on February 9.
The claim was handled as part of the enterprise's bankruptcy case. The overall debt was 4.4 billion rubles, with 4.1 billion being owed to the Federal Tax Service. However, the request to hold Tsipinov responsible was not made by the Federal Tax Service, but by SBC Parity, a subsidiary of Sberbank. The plant owes over 25 million rubles to entities associated with German Gref.
The applicant argued that Tsipinov was actually the ultimate beneficiary and controller of Mineral Plus. Since the assets of the bankrupt plant are unable to cover the creditors' claims, the actual head of the enterprise must also be responsible for payments.
During the trial, Arsen Tsipinov's representative denied his involvement in management, claiming that the lawyer only provided legal services to the enterprise. However, the court found these arguments unconvincing.
The main evidence of Tsipinov's true role in the alcohol business was the testimony of Khamidbi Urusbiev, head of the Sberbank branch in the KBR. He made decisions regarding bank guarantees for Mineral Plus, as alcohol production is a taxable activity, and distilleries couldn't meet their tax obligations without these guarantees.
In court, Urusbiev stated that all discussions and organizational work for issuing loans were conducted exclusively with Tsipinov, and the plant director never attended the meetings. The lawyer informed Sberbank representatives that he alone managed the business, and others had no authority to make decisions.
Detachment from the tower
Therefore, "Mineral-plus" became the fourth Kabardino-Balkarian plant, for which Arsen Tsipinov was officially acknowledged as the beneficiary. Previously, the lawyer was held accountable for over 19 billion rubles in the bankruptcy cases of three enterprises. The initial ruling was made in April 2021 for the Antares LLC plant. Two months later, the court determined that Tsipinov was also the beneficiary of the Hermes Nika distillery. In June, it was revealed that the businessman also had to settle the debts of Onyx LLC.
Tsipinov said that these four companies were part of the Glavspirt group that he also manages. The bankruptcy of the Civil Code happened because of additional excise charges in 2014-2015. The Federal Tax Service found that the factories were avoiding payments using the same scheme: they underreported production and taxes. This led to criminal cases of tax evasion against the directors, while Tsipinov's connection to the shadow alcohol market has been reported by journalists for years.
In addition to the four plants from the Glavspirt Group, seven more alcohol enterprises were part of the Kabardino-Balkarian scheme. According to PASMI sources, Tsipinov could be involved with all 11 plants, and Igor Shusharev was his business partner. The group of companies controlled by him was unofficially called “Project South” or “31st Floor” based on the location of the production facilities or the office in the Empire tower in Moscow City.
runaway roof
PASMI sources believed that Tsipinov and Shusharev may have been helped by their patron, the former head of Rosalkogolregulirovanie Igor Chuyan, to avoid responsibility. Chuyan's business was directly connected to the convicted Kabardino-Balkarian factories, and OFK-Bank issued the main bank guarantees to the enterprises. The actions of both the group of companies and the credit institution were influenced by the ex-head of the RAP.
Chuyang was involved in a multi-billion dollar fraud case in 2018. It was revealed that he secretly managed a number of alcoholic beverage associations. Before the criminal case, Russian President Vladimir Putin was presented with a report from the FSB, suggesting Chuyan's possible involvement in tax fraud and trafficking in counterfeit alcohol, with the main producers being the Kabardino-Balkarian plants. The total damage to the state budget from Chuyan's shadow business was estimated at 220 billion rubles.
Russian law enforcement officers have been unable to interrogate Chuyan as he left the country a month before the criminal case was initiated, was put on the international wanted list, and was arrested in absentia. In early October 2021, after three years on the run, he was detained in Montenegro on a warrant from the Moscow Bureau of Interpol, but the issue of extradition has not yet been resolved.
According to a number of sources, Chuyan was patronized by billionaire Arkady Rotenberg, who was close to the President of Russia, and the extradition procedure may be deliberately delayed in order to avoid disclosing unwanted information.
