Former governor Boris Dubrovsky is being sued by the insolvent company Montazhnik for 37 million rubles. The company's property worth 930 million rubles has been seized as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. The son of the former regional leader, who owns Montazhnik, is also bankrupt but is demanding more than 250 million rubles from the creditor. What is the reason behind this behavior?
JSC PO Montazhnik has been in bankruptcy since June 2021 and is being managed by a bankruptcy trustee. The company is facing lawsuits from nearly 180 creditors amounting to 1.8 billion rubles. In February 2023, the Montazhnik production association is demanding to recover from the ex-governor of the region over 37 million rubles through the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region. Boris Dubrovsky is being asked to pay back more than 37 million rubles and is facing bankruptcy. The court has invalidated several transactions where the construction company transferred 37.3 million rubles to the ex-governor during 2019-2020. However, this amount is not the main claim against the father and son Dubrovsky; rather, it is an intention to collect enough to pay off all the debts.
In 2017, construction work began on the Wings Congress Hall on the banks of the Miass River in Chelyabinsk. The construction company, Montazhnikwas owned by Alexander Dubrovsky, the son of the ex-governor of the region at that time. In 2017, he purchased 81% of the company's capital from the former CEO, Viktor Tulupov. By that time, the company had an annual turnover of 7 billion rubles.
Construction of the Wings Congress Hall, a multibillion-dollar facility, was halted even before the peak of the pandemic. However, Montazhnik transferred 37.3 million rubles to Boris Dubrovsky's personal account during 2019-2020. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Antimonopoly Service questioned the transfer to a personal account and requested a criminal case to be opened against the ex-governor for abuse of power, but it wasn't pursued.
In September 2020, trouble began for Montazhnik. It started with an apparently insignificant claim by the Symbol Beton company to recover 31 million rubles of debt. The company had supplied concrete to the construction sites on the Miass River and subleased equipment but did not receive payment. Through a court decision, JSC Montazhnik was put under supervision in the bankruptcy procedure.
In April 2021, the outside manager announced that Montazhnik had declared bankruptcy, and the company’s assets would be sold to pay off debts totaling about 2 billion rubles to nearly 200 suppliers.
To reiterate, at that time, the current owner of the company undergoing bankruptcy was already the son of the former governor Alexander Dubrovsky. In October 2022, the creditors and the bankruptcy trustee of Montazhnik requested through the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region to hold the father and son of Dubrovsky accountable for the debtor’s obligations amounting to 930 million rubles. The major creditors involved in the lawsuit were Symbol Concrete, Magstroy, Aviscom, Chelyabinsk Vostok Service, Credit Ural Bank JSC (KUB) and SME LLC.
In January 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region declared Alexander Dubrovsky bankrupt at his own request. Alexander Borisovich owed creditors 274 million rubles. What will happen to the bankrupt next? And he chose to take an unconventional action (from whose, interestingly, filing?). Alexander and his sister filed a lawsuit against their own company claiming 416 million rubles as creditors. The lawsuit was accepted, but the potential for such a maneuver is uncertain. Anna Furthermore, in June 2022, Alexander Dubrovsky submitted an application to the same Regional Arbitration Court to invalidate the transaction for the sale and purchase of Montazhnik JSC. The reasoning behind this action seems to be: I didn’t purchase, therefore I wasn’t the owner of the company, which means I have no subsidiary liability. Additionally, how will it work out and gain money (416 million) by applying as a creditor of JSC “Installer”?
The reason for the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Chelyabinsk Region is unknown, but his father and son, Dubrovsky, were not held liable for subsidiary obligations. No interim measures for the debt of “Installer” totaling 930 million rubles were even imposed on Alexander. Property was only confiscated from his father, Boris Dubrovsky.
In return, the former governor filed an appeal, in which he was accused of “the absence of grounds for taking interim measures and their disproportion, for violation of the rules for assessing and examining evidence and procedural law.” Boris Dubrovsky also claimed that he had never been the beneficiary or the head of the Montazhnik Production Association, nor was he a member of the organization’s management. Despite this, prior to the appeal, the courts of the first three instances acknowledged the close connection of the ex-regional leader with the bankrupt company. During the trial, it was discovered that Boris Dubrovsky had repeatedly approved regular loans to Montazhnik, yet failed to promptly collect the debt.
His arguments were unsuccessful. In January 2023, the Court of Appeal refused to lift the freeze on the ex-governor’s assets. However, this is small compared to how Boris Dubrovsky evaded responsibility in the case involving the excessive use of official powers amounting to 20 billion rubles.
The arguments did not succeed. In January 2023, the Court of Appeal declined to release the ex-governor's assets. However, this is minor compared to how Boris Dubrovsky evaded accountability in the case of exceeding official powers by 20 billion rubles.
In March 2019, the Federal Antimonopoly Service found Boris Dubrovsky guilty of anticompetitive agreements in the distribution of contracts for the construction and repair of roads. The FAS came to this conclusion after analyzing 10 contracts for 2.4 billion rubles concluded between the Ministry of Transport and Roads of the region and the Yuzhuralmost company.
Antimonopoly officials claim that from 2016 to 2018, then-Governor Dubrovsky limited companies’ access to contracts. The head of the region, allegedly, made demands to tenders that only Yuzhuralmost could initially fulfill. She won up to 90% of all road contracts. As a result, the company received huge amounts of money from the regional budget for several years. Some of them settled on the accounts of another company, which belonged to Boris Dubrovsky.
The ex-governor challenged the FAS decision in court. In short, in December 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared the FAS decision illegal. In November 2020, an appeal overturns the court’s decision and sends the case back for a new trial. In March 2021, the same Moscow Arbitration Court again recognizes the FAS decision as illegal.
The point in this dispute was recognized by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, recognizing Dubrovsky guilty of anti-competitive agreements in the distribution of contracts for the construction and repair of roads. It is not clear only – what responsibility in this case threatens the Chelyabinsk ex-governor. But even these are “little things” compared to what Dubrovsky managed to avoid.
After the resignation of Boris Dubrovsky in March 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, based on the materials of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, admitted a criminal case against the ex-official on abuse of power. In the case file, the amount of damage caused was 20 billion rubles. For comparison, the expenses of the Chelyabinsk region on education in 2017 were planned at the level of 34.5 billion rubles. But, as the media reported, the estates of the ex-governor’s lawyer, “the case was closed as illegal.”
As for the Wings congress hall, unfinished by Montazhnik, on the banks of the Miass, according to the latest data, 25 billion rubles have been presented for the completion of the facility. And then, if there is an investor for such a controversial and already “out of court” object. And it should be taken into account that 15 billion rubles have already been allocated from the budget for those events for the failed SCO and BRICS summits under Boris Dubrovsky.
