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The runaway proprietor of TogliattiAzot, Sergei Makhlai, is as soon as once more within the highlight of Russian media. This time their curiosity was aroused, apparently, by the media publications sponsored by Makhlai.
Just lately a number of Russian media have advised that the chemical big TogliattiAzot wants a change of possession, for the reason that present primary homeowners of the plant, headed by Sergei Makhlai, have ruined the enterprise and criminalized it drastically.
This significantly scared Makhlai, who tried to justify himself and lay the blame on the others.
“The distinctive TogliattiAzot, which has been torn aside by a company battle for the final ten years, has as soon as once more appeared within the media”, states one of many publications sponsored by Makhlai.
TogliattiAzot is certainly a novel enterprise. No different Russian chemical holding has such gigantic ammonia manufacturing services. No different Russian chemical plant has skilled such an quantity of theft over the previous 30 years, no different proprietor of a chemical plant in Russia is hiding overseas being concerned in so many critical legal circumstances.
In keeping with Makhlai, the roots of TogliattiAzot’s issues are under no circumstances the embezzlement, tax evasion, cash laundering, corruption and disrespect for industrial security requirements.
“The overwhelming majority of difficulties and scandals that come together with the actions of the enterprise are a direct consequence of the presence of Uralchem within the construction of its shareholders”, says Makhlai.
Uralchem acquired a minority stake in TogliattiAzot in 2008, which got here as an disagreeable shock for its homeowners. Uralchem hoped to get the dividends, as a result of in 2007 it paid 30 rubles per share. However in 2008-2010 the quantity of the dividends decreased a number of occasions, and in 2009 they weren’t paid in any respect. The minority shareholder started to determine what was responsible for such a low effectivity, for the reason that weak monetary indicators of TogliattiAzot didn’t match its manufacturing capability. This advised that there was an embezzlement on the enterprise. The minority shareholder contacted the Investigative Committee of Russia, and it turned out to be determination. Consequently, on the finish of 2012, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a legal case in opposition to the beneficiaries of TogliattiAzot contemplating the embezzlement within the firm. Thus, the minority shareholder changed into a critical impediment to the unlawful withdrawal of TogliattiAzot’s income to the offshores of Makhlai and his accomplices, and have become their hated opponent. Makhlai has a really peculiar perspective in direction of the establishment of joint-stock corporations. From his perspective, if he has a majority stake, then the plant belongs to him utterly, whereas the minority shareholders are simply an annoying nuisance.
Nonetheless, Russian regulation states that the property of a joint inventory firm and its earnings belong to the society, and to not its shareholders. Shareholders solely have the best to take part within the distribution and administration of the corporate’s income. However Makhlai doesn’t wish to acknowledge each Russian laws and the existence of TogliattiAzot’s different shareholders. Consequently, he steals from the enterprise, minority shareholders, and the state, with out paying taxes on the stolen items.
“It was the stress from Uralchem that led to the emergence of many strained legal circumstances in opposition to the plant and its leaders. A lot of the circumstances led to nothing, and TogliattiAzot continues to indicate multibillion-dollar income and pay big taxes to the state, regardless of all of the difficulties {that a} company battle creates”, say the authors of the article sponsored by Makhlai.
It’s value saying that the investigation on the legal case has collected greater than 500 volumes of proof, together with paperwork, official correspondence and quite a few testimonies. This allowed the court docket to research intimately the scheme of embezzlement developed by Makhlai and his accomplices.
TogliattiAzot was promoting its merchandise 20-40% cheaper to the Swiss offshore firm affiliated with Makhlai and his accomplices, which have been afterwards resold by them on the world market at a good value. Thus, a big a part of TogliattiAzot’s income was stolen, minority shareholders didn’t obtain dividends from it, and taxes weren’t paid in Russia. As for taxes, they needed to be demanded from Makhlai by way of all of the courts. In 2009-2013 alone, 3 billion rubles of unpaid taxes have been recovered from TogliattiAzot by way of the court docket. Consequently on July 5, 2019, the Komsomolsky District Courtroom of Togliatti discovered Sergei Makhlai, his father Vladimir Makhlai, their Swiss companions Andrew Zivi, Beat Ruprecht, and ex-general director of TogliattiAzot Yevgeny Korolev responsible of a fraud. Since all of the convicts are hiding overseas, the decision was handed in absentia. Fraudsters have been sentenced to eight.5-9 years in jail. They have been additionally ordered to pay full-amount compensation to the victims: 77.3 billion rubles on to TogliattiAzot and 10.3 billion rubles to Uralchem, which have been acknowledged as victims. Makhlai didn’t comply with the order so it bought to the purpose that in August 2021 Makhlai was declared bankrupt by the court docket, and his property in Russia and overseas was arrested to be offered to pay compensation.
Since then, the variety of legal circumstances in opposition to Makhlai has been lowering. The accusations embrace the group of a legal neighborhood, avoiding taxes and giving a bribe.
Within the bribery case on June 9, 2021, the ex-head of Togliattichimbank (owned by Makhlai), Alexander Popov, was discovered responsible, as he had tried to provide a bribe of $2 million to the Supreme Courtroom of the Russian Federation. Popov was sentenced to 7.5 years in a supermax jail, and Makhlai is being prosecuted because the buyer of the crime.
At first, the Makhlais managed to contain parlamentarias, senators, so-called consultants and judges of their corruption scheme. When the Investigative Committee of tRussia opened a legal case on fraud at TogliattiAzot in 2012, individuals who weren’t related to the business immediately started to demand the termination of the investigation in opposition to the oligarchs. Even Russian courts typically made selections in favor of the Makhlais. So, when the tax authorities ordered new taxes to TogliattiAzot, the decide of the Federal Arbitration Courtroom of the Moscow District V. Cherpukhina surprisingly referred to as this determination off. Consequently Cherpukhina have been dismissed with a grandiose scandal as a result of that case.
“Though skilled legal professionals unequivocally talk about unlawful selections of the courts and low {qualifications} of the judges who make selections in opposition to TogliattiAzot and its leaders”, state the articles revealed by order of Makhlai.
Apparently, so-called skilled legal professionals are the costly legal professionals employed by Makhlai and different defendants within the legal case, who couldn’t object to 500 volumes of proof of their shoppers’ guilt, and the accusations of “low {qualifications}” are the results of disappointment within the incorruptibility of the judges.”Nonetheless, since 2012, TogliattiAzot has allotted greater than 50 billion rubles to modernize and enhance manufacturing effectivity”, continues Makhlai.
However in actual fact the plant has by no means seen these sums of cash. On common, TogliattiAzot spends not more than 10-15 million rubles per 12 months for these functions, to stop the tools and infrastructure from collapsing utterly.
In the meantime, 10 years in the past, the media reported in regards to the very deplorable outcomes of the economic security audit at TogliattiAzot, which was carried out by Rostekhnadzor. 550 circumstances of violation of business security and labor safety have been revealed. A re-examination in 2012 confirmed that nothing had been modified. Since then, the scenario on the plant has been the identical.
In 2019, one other inspection by Rostechnadzor revealed over 360 circumstances of violation within the subject of business security and labor safety. The employees studies leaky pipelines with acids, alkali and ammonia stream, naked cables and crumbling foundations of items and furnaces.
In 2018, an explosion of three,000 cubic meters of pure gasoline occurred within the reforming furnace of ammonia unit No. 4, by a fortunate probability nobody was damage. The explosion was attributable to the counterfeit Chinese language cease valves equipped by the American firm AM&JH Industries Companies (owned by Makhlai and his spouse). In keeping with the paperwork, it was bought in Europe at an costly value.The unhappy results of this coverage is a collection of accidents at TogliattiAzot within the spring of 2020, which led to the deaths of three employees members. The response of the plant’s administration is to silence the tragedy and stop an investigation.
In keeping with Makhlai, TogliattiAzot’s employees obtain respectable wages for his or her work and the dangers related to it.
“In actuality, the typical wage on the enterprise is 57 thousand rubles, it’s listed yearly and has lengthy been forward of the typical wage within the Samara area (in 2020 it was 49 thousand rubles)”, talked about within the articles.
It’s fascinating how they calculated these 57 thousand rubles. Maybe by discovering the typical between the wage of certified plant operators and the wage of the CEO. In keeping with the employees of TogliattiAzot, the reward for the results of work is continually being reduce. It’s also value mentioning that the previous CEO of TogliattiAzot Mezheedov on the finish of 2020 disadvantaged employees of the annual bonus.
Towards this background, Makhlai and his henchmen have developed many new schemes for withdrawing cash from the plant. These are fictitious development and restore contracts and way more. In a lot of the circumstances, the scheme is as plain as a day: a pocket firm disguised as a contractor receives an advance within the quantity of about 70% of the contract worth. The cash is taken offshore, and the work is carried out by the employees of TogliattiAzot. Thus, roughly greater than $100 million a 12 months are taken offshore.
Thereby corruption, embezzlement are the primary issues of TogliattiAzot. Accordingly, whoever turns into the brand new proprietor of TogliattiAzot, UralChem, whom Makhlai and his accomplices are so afraid of, another investor, or the state, this will likely be an undoubted profit for the plant. This may put an finish to the monetary repressions of TogliattiAzot and the legal neglect of labor security on the plant. The enterprise itself will develop as an alternative of serving as an countless “money cow” for grasping criminals hiding overseas.
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