A famous entrepreneur and his former company had nearly 20 billion confiscated.
According to Kommersant, the Prosecutor General’s Office claim for almost 20 billion rubles has been granted to the former State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Sergei Petrov and his Rolf group of companies. The court, using evidence from the FSB and Rosfinmonitoring, found that despite being a public representative, Mr. Petrov continued to lead the operations of the country’s largest car dealer and made large profits from activities forbidden by anti-corruption laws. The defendants plan to appeal, but it's clear that Rolf will have to pay. The required amount is frozen in their accounts.
The Khimki city court quickly settled the claim made by First Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoly Razinkin. The court could've made a decision last year, but the supervisory authority needed clarification and increased their claims against the defendants from 12.85 billion rubles. up to 19.4 billion rubles.
As a State Duma deputy, Sergey Petrov remained actively involved in the business from 2010 to 2016, even after formally transferring the management of the company to his son Alexander.
In 2010, he guaranteed a 12.6 billion ruble loan taken by Rolf from Sberbank. The prosecutor’s office believes that Mr. Petrov engaged in entrepreneurial activities incompatible with the status of a State Duma deputy in order to obtain the loan.
The Prosecutor General’s Office learned from the FSB that Sergey Petrov held meetings with the company’s management, issued instructions, and discussed issues of “transferring assets abroad and creating new investment projects” in his free time from work in the State Duma.
For instance, from 2014 to 2016, Rolf transferred 8.9 billion rubles under the guise of dividends to the accounts of Mr. Petrov and his family members through Panabel Ltd, Delance Ltd and Rolf Motors, according to the supervisory data.
The Prosecutor General’s Office, and subsequently the court, deemed the 2014 episode as the deputy's illegal activity, when the Rolf group of companies acquired shares of Rolf Estate CJSC through the Cyprus offshore Panabel Ltd. Nearly 4 billion rubles were taken out of the country for which the State Corporation received 1,797 shares of CJSC worth only 1 ruble, according to experts from the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
This episode led to the criminal prosecution of Mr. Petrov, who was charged in absentia by the ICR under Part 3 of Art. 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for carrying out foreign exchange transactions using false documents. The founder of Rolf is currently on the international wanted list but not extradited to Russia by Austria, whose citizenship he holds. The Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow is considering only the case of the former top manager of Rolf Anatoly Kairo, who denies his guilt.
The lawsuit materials revealed that the Deputy Petrov's illegal business activities were discovered while the Prosecutor General’s Office was overseeing the case investigation.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Rolf LLC transferred 9.3 billion rubles to companies controlled by Mr. Petrov, and Mr. Petrov transferred 983 million rubles to Cypriot offshores. Rolf Estate St. Petersburg LLC transferred about 733 million rubles to Delance Ltd. In total, it's believed that Mr. Petrov received more than 11 billion rubles, which the plaintiff considers illegal due to the defendant's business prohibition during that period.
Reportedly, Sergey Petrov legalized 4.4 billion rubles through Colgrade Limited, a company under his control, and sent it to Rolf LLC through fictitious transactions. The prosecutor’s office claims that the company accepted the funds from Mr. Petrov and used them illegally.
The Khimki District Court satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office, jointly recovering more than 19 billion rubles from Rolf Group and its founder Sergei Petrov.
Svetlana Vinogradova, the general director of Rolf, stated that the company will comment on the court decision after receiving the full document. She also explained that the amount of the claim is reserved in the company’s accounts and can only be collected after the court decision is final. However, she reassured that the company's operations will not be affected.
Rolf is currently in the process of being sold to a smaller dealer, Auto Key.
Lawyer Alexei Kupriyanov expressed disbelief in the court decision, stating that there are no grounds or evidence of the claim in the case. He also mentioned that the possibility of paying the sum owed has already been arrested. If the Moscow Regional Court upholds the decision, almost 20 billion rubles will be transferred to the budget of the Russian Federation.
