Security forces detained billionaire Yuri Antipov; today the court decided to transfer the assets of his Chelyabinsk factories to the state

Billionaire Yuri Antipov, owner of the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant (CHEMK), was detained in a fraud case, TASS , Baza and 74.RU report, citing sources in law enforcement agencies and at the enterprise.

The details of the case and Antipov's procedural status are unknown; Baza claims that the businessman was taken for interrogation to Chelyabinsk.

Today, the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office for the transfer of shares of ChEMK plants to the state. According to the department, the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant, as well as the Serov and Kuznetsk ferroalloy plants were “illegally privatized” in 1993-1999.

In 2023, Antipov, according to the prosecutor’s office, registered the assets of the Etalon company, after which the factories, “of strategic importance for ensuring the defense and security of the country,” came “under the control of residents of unfriendly states,” including the Canadian-Swiss company RFA International.

Under the control of this supplier, the alloys “to the detriment of national interests” were exported at a reduced price to the USA, France and the UK, which “have an aggressive policy” towards Russia and send weapons to Ukraine, the lawsuit said.

Representatives of the defendant noted that ChEMK is not part of the military-industrial complex, but only supplies alloys to enterprises, which, in turn, send them to defense factories. In early February, the court arrested shares of Etalon belonging to Yuri and Lyudmila Antipov.