Business in Russian: Deception of creditors and shareholders It is believed that there is nothing to take from an enterprise burdened with debts, which is in a difficult financial situation. But the Russian practice of recent years has shown that you can profit even in this ...

Russian business: cheating creditors and shareholders

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it is read that there is nothing to take from an enterprise burdened with debts, in a difficult financial situation. But the Russian practice of recent years has shown that you can profit even in this case. All you have to do is get creative and you'll be fine. Let's take the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant as an example. The situation in which this enterprise found itself can, in part, even be called a classic. Perhaps this is what makes it remarkable: everything seems to be obvious, but try to enforce the law.

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Now the controlling stake in JSC "BMZ" is owned by the local oligarch Petr Baum. The Bryansk plant is not the first major object in the sphere of his interests. Earlier, Pyotr Friedrichovich "credited" the Lyudinovsky diesel locomotive building plant. The cunning businessman got LTZ in a state of so-called "external surveillance", that is, in the first phase of the bankruptcy procedure. From this state, the enterprise was withdrawn, a controlling stake in its shares was owned by firms associated with Peter Baum. The most interesting thing is that LTZ shares in favor of offshore companies of this gentleman left with the assistance of an arbitration manager, who at that time was Peter Baum himself at the plant.

The story is dark: offshore companies paid for LTZ shares with promissory notes, not money. That is, in essence, they paid off with a promise. On this fact, as well as on stories with false exports, "black cash", tax evasion, the use of one-day firms registered under nominees from Central Asia, investigations were launched. In May last year, criminal case No. 0230 was opened under Art. 159 p. 3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“fraud committed by an organized group on a large scale”).

At the end of 2000, this entrepreneur expanded his business empire at the expense of the Bryansk Machine-Building Plant, purchasing a stake in its shares with 250 million rubles borrowed from a commercial bank. The enterprise was in a difficult situation: having an impressive factory property complex, BMZ had very large debts, in particular for taxes. Before the advent of Baum, the plant was restructured so that the lion's share of its property was allocated to separate balance sheets. 12 subsidiaries were created, where more than 70% of BMZ assets went. The then management of the enterprise obviously planned that debts to the state and suppliers would be repaid as far as possible, but the restructuring itself with the separation of financial and commodity flows was necessary: ​​a one-time satisfaction of budget requirements was still unrealistic, such an attempt would paralyze the work of the plant. It was assumed that BMZ JSC would only change the internal structure. The property of the shareholders was to be preserved, as were the jobs at the city-forming enterprise.

However, the "daughters" of the plant also accumulated debts, and the Federal Financial Recovery Service (FSFR) initiated an external monitoring procedure. And by the end of last year, both the subsidiaries and BMZ itself were in the stage of external management. Although Baum bought BMZ JSC, knowing full well the severity of his condition at that time, the decision of the FSFO unpleasantly surprised him.

The essence of the matter boils down to the question: why did the entrepreneur begin to buy the plant if it required multimillion-dollar investments, and Baum still had no money? Common sense suggests the only answer: to take the property, leaving the shareholders and creditors with an empty balance sheet of the plant. According to the information of the arbitration managers, the BMZ assets were being prepared for transfer to a third structure according to the scheme of Petr Fridrikhovich. The property was supposed to sail away in the same way as it was with the Lyudinovsky plant. A hole would have formed in the state budget for the amount of taxes not paid by the Baum team, and 20% of the state-owned shares of the plant would have turned into nothing. But the cards of Petr Fridrikhovich were confused by the FSFO initiative.

Now the Bryansk plant is in an uncertain position. On the one hand, changes for the better have already been outlined: working capital, long-term contracts have appeared, a system for searching for counterparties and investors has been established. The plant slowly began to climb out of the financial abyss. On the other hand, Mr. Baum does not leave attempts to regain control over the enterprise: arbitration managers are pestered by strange representatives of law enforcement agencies and the prosecutor's office, using, so to speak, near-legal methods of influence.

The successes achieved by the external managers are obvious: the plant is entering a normal operating mode. It would seem that this should be beneficial to Petr Fridrikhovich as a shareholder ... But then the investigators will come: they will study the accounting documents of BMZ, they will start asking uncomfortable questions ... For example, where is the money? Where did the property go? Why were taxes not paid? It will be awkward to answer. It is possible that we will at least have to part with the status of a regional oligarch. Obstructing the execution of a court decision, free treatment of the property of an enterprise, 20% of which belongs to the state, tax evasion - all this does not just happen.

However, let's see. In recent Russian history, there was just nothing. Maybe dubious transactions with the property of shareholders and deception of creditors are just business? The same business in Russian?