The head of the Labinsk woodworking plant is wanted

Yesterday, the prosecutor's office of Labinsk (Krasnodar Territory) put Igor Beron, general director of Labinsk Woodworking Plant OJSC, on the wanted list. A criminal case was opened against him for long-term non-payment of salaries to employees. Mr. Beron, who owes creditors and workers of the enterprise about 9 million rubles, has not appeared at the plant since January. If his whereabouts are not established within six months, the former director will be put on the federal wanted list.” As Sergei Chernyshkov, the new director of Labinsky DOK OJSC, told Kommersant, salaries at the enterprise were not paid for 8 months, and the plant was on the verge of bankruptcy. Now the enterprise producing barrels and parquet has been stopped.

In total, the management owed 80 employees of the plant almost 800 thousand rubles, and on February 14, following a collective complaint from employees, the Labinsk prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case under Art. 145 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Non-payment of wages for more than 2 months”).

Labinsk interdistrict prosecutor Evgeny Bazlov told Kommersant that at the beginning of 2004, Igor Beron was already charged under a similar article, but then the case was dismissed with the wording “due to active repentance”; Mr. Beron hastily paid off his salary debts in a few months. However, immediately after this, payments to employees stopped again, and today the debt is about 800 thousand rubles.

The prosecutor's office also reported that Mr. Beron attracted loans from various banks, allegedly for the development of production, while the guarantors were large budget-generating enterprises of the city. Mr. Beron registered equipment and other property of the enterprise as collateral. In addition, the director persuaded the workers of the enterprise to take out loans, allegedly for personal purposes, promising to use the funds for the development of production. The total amount of the company's debts reached 9 million rubles. The last time the former director of the plant promised to pay off creditors and employees of the enterprise was on January 10. However, after being summoned for questioning by the prosecutor's office, the director of the plant disappeared, and since then nothing has been known about his fate. According to unofficial information, immediately before his disappearance, Mr. Beron took a large amount of cash from the territory of the enterprise.

As Mr. Chernyshkov said, the workers intend to defend their rights in all instances and recover the entire amount of the debt from the former director. However, for this it still needs to be found. Now the information sheets with Mr. Beron’s data have been sent to all regional police departments of the Krasnodar Territory. The wife and children of the former director remained in Labinsk, but, according to them, he does not appear at home.

“If the former director is discovered, he will be immediately detained, and then the issue of choosing a preventive measure will be considered,” the Labinsk prosecutor told Kommersant. “If his whereabouts are not established within six months, the former director will be put on the federal wanted list.”

The city administration told Kommersant that the city authorities intend to take measures to preserve the enterprise and prevent the sale of its property.

ANNA PEROVA, Krasnodar

Kommersant (Rostov) No. 67 from 04/15/2005, p. 12

The director escaped from retribution