Police suspect auto brokers of fraud

The Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Krasnodar opened a criminal case on suspicion of fraud based on statements from twenty clients of the Lime Car company, which does not fulfill its intermediary obligations in selling cars to citizens. The company, created in April, positioned its offer as a unique service that guaranteed the sale of a car at the maximum price in a short time, but already in August it stopped paying customers. The police are searching for the director and founder of the company.

The head of the economic security department of the Krasnodar Ministry of Internal Affairs, Alexander Savochkin, told Kommersant that, based on statements from customers of the Lime Car company, a criminal case was opened under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). “The head of this organization and its founder have been identified. A search for them is now underway,” explained Mr. Savochkin. In total, about 20 complaints were filed with the police that the Lime Car company does not fulfill its obligations as an intermediary in the sale of citizens' cars - it does not pay money to the previous owners. About a dozen of the company’s clients staged a “sit-in”, blocking the entrance to the Lime Car office in Krasnodar. According to the victims, office employees are currently refusing to resolve the issues that have arisen, citing the absence of General Director Islam Kumykov. The editors were unable to contact representatives of the company - the mobile phone of Lime Car LLC, indicated in the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, did not work on Wednesday.

Lime Car LLC was registered in Krasnodar in April of this year, the main activity is wholesale trade in motor vehicles, the founder is Igor Ziva. The general director of the company, Islam Kumykov, according to kartoteka.ru , is the head of two more companies with the same name - Auto-Seven Marketing LLC, registered in 2011 in Nalchik and Vladikavkaz.

Since its opening, the Lime Car company has relied on an aggressive marketing policy, positioning its services as a unique offer when selling expensive cars on the secondary market. “The Krasnodar market is ripe for a European approach to selling used cars,” said the company’s executive director, Yulia Kornilova, during a recent roundtable at the Formula business center. “In Krasnodar there are many small car dealerships with used cars, where they will immediately give 60–70% of the market value of the car,” explained Islam Kumykov. “Lime Car gives 95–98% for the car, we offer the client an agreement under which we undertake to we have a certain period of time to sell the car, but regardless of whether we sell it or not, the money is paid on time.” According to Mr. Kumykov, an agreement is concluded with the client with the guarantee of third parties. “If a client instructed us to sell a car, and we failed to cope with this task, then we ourselves act as a guarantor that we will buy this car,” explained the general director of the company. The cars, according to the company's management, were put up for sale in Moscow; as of July of this year, 140 cars were sent to the capital from Krasnodar for sale. Lime Car LLC announced expansion plans - in August it was planned to open an office in Rostov-on-Don, and then in several other large cities.

According to Sergei Radchenko, senior lawyer at the Yug law office, the client’s agreement with Lime Car is a standard transaction: “If the commission agent, in our case Lime Car, undertakes a guaranteed obligation to pay money to citizens who handed over the car for sale, then Such relations, by their legal nature, will be an ordinary purchase and sale, albeit with a deferred payment. Lime Car can call it whatever you like, including a “third party guarantee agreement” (although such an agreement is not known to current legislation), the essence will remain the same - purchase and sale,” the expert explained. If a company violates the deadline for paying citizens money for cars, citizens can go to court demanding either the recovery of money or the termination of the purchase and sale agreement based on its significant violation on the part of the company and the return of the car handed over for sale, the lawyer explained.

Anna Perova, Krasnodar

Lime Car has moved out of payment