| Prosecutors and Yukos have different views on the fate of VNK's assets The story of the failed sale of the government's stake in the Eastern Oil Company (VNK) in December 2001 unexpectedly received a criminal continuation. As it turned out, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation put Ramil Burganov, a member of the Board of Directors of VNK and the manager of the affairs of YUKOS's subsidiary, the YUKOS-EP company, on the international wanted list. Investigators accuse him of withdrawing the main assets of VNK - large blocks of shares in six enterprises, including Tomskneft. The securities ended up offshore through a complex chain, and a criminal case was opened on this fact. As part of this, police have already interrogated a number of YUKOS executives.
The investigation into this case is being conducted by the Main Investigation Department (GID) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Central Federal District. The version of the investigation outlined to the Vremya Novostei newspaper is as follows. When VNK was created in 1994, the state contributed shares of a number of enterprises, including Tomskneft, to its authorized capital. In 1997, a controlling stake in VNK (54%) was acquired by YUKOS, and 36.8% remained with the state. The new owner instructed CJSC Rosprom, headed by Vasily Shakhnovsky, to manage VNK. In 1998, Shakhnovsky issued a power of attorney for the right to sign contracts on behalf of VNK to Ramil Burganov, who held the post of manager of the YUKOS-EP company. After this, according to investigators, VNK began actively exchanging shares of its main subsidiaries for other securities from offshore companies. This was done without the general meeting of shareholders and the unanimous decision of the board of directors of VNK, as required by law in such cases. In particular, Ramil Burganov signed documents on the transfer of shares of Tomskneft, the Achinsk Oil Refinery and a number of other enterprises to offshore companies. Moreover, the securities of these enterprises were included in the VNK by the state. In return, the Eastern Oil Company, according to the State Investigative Directorate, received from offshore companies a small stake in Yukos itself, but this was soon exchanged for shares of a certain Fregat CJSC, which, according to investigators, does not represent anything valuable. The shares of six VNK subsidiaries ultimately ended up in three companies - Foster (Cyprus), Ideal (Belize), Ensing (Bahamas). Thus, according to representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Eastern Oil Company lost its main assets. After which the Moscow prosecutor's office opened a criminal case into the diversion of VNK's assets, and the investigation was entrusted to the State Investigative Committee. Investigators were the first to interrogate Vasily Shakhnovsky, who by that time had taken the post of vice-president of YUKOS. However, he said that he had given Burganov a power of attorney, allegedly not knowing about the latter’s plans. Ramil Burganov himself at first regularly came to interrogations, where he claimed that he signed all the papers on the orders of the management, but then he stopped responding to calls from the investigation. Then he was charged in absentia under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (embezzlement). At the end of last year, Burganov was first put on the federal and then international wanted list. At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized the register of shares of the six mentioned “subsidiaries” of VNK.
All these events coincided with the state’s decision to put up for sale its 36.8% stake in VNK, which was claimed by Yukos itself and the Tyumen Oil Company. The auction was scheduled for December 29 last year, but at the last moment it was postponed with a scandal. Firstly, the Accounts Chamber (CA) auditor who joined the investigation found that the starting price for the shares of $225 million was too low. And secondly, according to the State Investigative Committee, YUKOS did not fulfill the promises made to the authorities. According to investigators, the government, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the joint venture urgently demanded that the Yukos-EP company, which now manages VNK, return the assets taken offshore. YUKOS-EP promised to do everything, but this did not happen by the agreed date. Then, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, representatives of the Accounts Chamber wrote a letter to Mikhail Kasyanov with a request to postpone the competition.
YUKOS, however, does not agree with the investigators' version. The head of the YUKOS press service, Maxim Puchkov, told a Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent that all VNK assets were on the balance sheet of the Eastern Oil Company even before the announcement of the auction date. According to him, after YUKOS acquired a controlling stake in VNK in 1997, unscrupulous creditors attempted to illegitimately seize VNK's assets and, in particular, tried to seize the shares of the Tomskneft oil production enterprise that belonged to VNK. It was in order to preserve the assets of the Eastern Oil Company, a large stake in which belongs to the state, that the board of directors of VNK decided to enter into buyback agreements. Under the terms of the agreement, VNK received the right to repurchase these shares. In April last year, the board of directors of the Eastern Oil Company decided to return the shares of its subsidiaries, which, according to Maxim Puchkov, recently happened. According to him, the investigation into the alleged withdrawal of assets has been going on for three years, but law enforcement agencies have still not provided sufficient grounds to transfer the case to court.
The experts, whom the Vremya Novostei newspaper correspondent approached for details of the ups and downs with VNK shares, agreed to talk on condition of anonymity. According to them, before YUKOS purchased a controlling stake in VNK, a number of former top managers of VNK incurred very dubious debts, in connection with which the Tomsk special services allegedly even conducted an investigation. In particular, the Eastern Oil Company owed $22 million to the offshore company Birkenholz. “Birkenholz”, in order to secure these debts, demanded through regional courts to seize the shares of the six most attractive “subsidiaries” of VNK. In order not to lose these shares - which threatened, in particular, with the loss of the value of the state share in VNK - YUKOS took them offshore.
Thus, the versions regarding the goals of the withdrawal of VNK assets are fundamentally opposite - from “embezzlement” to “salvation.” Alexander SHVAREV |
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