Translated material
Exporters of tricks
St. Petersburg bankers are playing with taxes
In the Vasileostrovsky Court of St. Petersburg, the trial of the former heads of two large financial structures of the city - Petro-Aero-Bank and National Bank - began. They are accused of large-scale scams involving the illegal receipt of compensation from the state for value added tax (VAT) worth $50 million. A witness in the case is the former head of the Ministry of Taxes and the current Minister of Labor, Alexander Pochinok.As you know, any type of goods sold in Russia is subject to VAT of 20%. However, for companies that then send products abroad, the tax is reimbursed by the state. There are many legislative loopholes in this scheme, which, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, in 2000-2001 two large businessmen decided to take advantage of them - the head of the Dita legal bureau, Mikhail Fastunov, and the general director of the VTF RD company, Valery Meshanov.
Using fake documents, entrepreneurs created the Paradise company in Kalmykia, which acquired a batch of rusty machines. Paradise resold the trash to the SPB-inform company (also a front company and also organized by Meshanov and Fastunov), but the documents already indicated that this was expensive cleaning equipment worth $250 million. It was at this price that the machines were sold to VTF RD. And VTF RD, according to the papers, sold the equipment to the Hungarian company Dunaferr Dunat vasmu RT. Further, Mr. Meshanov and Fastunov, as honest exporters, demanded that the Department of Taxation in St. Petersburg reimburse 20% of the cost of the equipment ($50 million) - that same VAT.
The scammers were helped in this by representatives of Petro-Aero-Bank, where accounts were opened for an export transaction with the Hungarians. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, bank employees prepared papers for Meshanov stating that proceeds for sold equipment were allegedly received in Russia from the offshore Trast Investment Bank Ink (Nauru), as well as other documents necessary for obtaining VAT.
The Department of Tax Administration in St. Petersburg refused to issue money to VTF RD. After a short dispute with the St. Petersburg tax authorities, Meshanov and Fastunov re-registered VTF RD in Kalmykia, and the local Department of Tax Administration agreed to pay them $50 million. Moreover, according to investigators, the fate of VAT for VTF RD was personally dealt with by the then tax minister Alexander Pochinok.
In 2001, the Prosecutor General's Office became interested in the story and opened a case of fraud. Investigators found that the “purification equipment” costs not $250 million, but 133 times less, all transactions for its resale in Russia were carried out only on paper, and Dunaferr Dunat vasmu RT did not actually purchase anything from VTF RD. The machines were simply thrown into a landfill in one of the foreign ports. Also, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, a structure called Trast Investment Bank Ink never existed in Nauru, so it could not transfer $250 million to Petro-Aero-Bank. The $50 million received by Meshanov and Fastunov was transferred into promissory notes, “rolled” through the National Bank and sent to offshore companies. Investigators also questioned Alexander Pochinok, but he stated that he had only given instructions to check on what grounds the St. Petersburg Tax Ministry refused to pay VAT to the company VTF RD. As a result, charges were brought against the former chairman of the board of Petro-Aero-Bank Olga Bezgacheva, her deputy Larisa Byala, and the ex-chairman of the board of National Bank Alexey Kukoev. Fastunov and Meshanov were put on the wanted list. The latter was even detained in Cyprus, but so far the island authorities refuse to extradite him to Russia.
By the way, shortly before the New Year, the Directorate of the Prosecutor General's Office for the Northwestern Federal District brought to court another large case of illegal receipt of VAT, in which the main defendant is the same Petro-Aero-Bank.