The judgment nationalized the assets of the largest Russian producer of PVC - JSC Sayanskhimplast

The Khamovnican District Court of Moscow seized the assets of the largest producer of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - JSC “Sayanskhimplast” to the state’s income. According to Kommersant, assets worth more than 92 billion rubles were nationalized in the lawsuit of the Prosecutor General.

The actual owners of Sayanskhimplast JSC were the former head of the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region Viktor Kruglov and his family members. According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the deputy illegally owned the enterprise, since the Law “On Combating Corruption” prohibits people in state positions to engage in business.

In addition to Viktor Kruglov, the defendants in the lawsuit were his wife, two children, as well as the former first deputy head of the Irkutsk Region administration and ex-ex-leader Sayanskkhimplast, Nikolai Melnik. None of the defendants at the courts were present.

The supervisory authorities found that Kruglov in income declarations hid that he belonged to Sayanskhimplast JSC and other companies. He was a deputy in the Legislative Assembly of the Irkutsk Region from 2000 to 2016, having gone there from United Russia, including in 2004-2008 he headed the regional parliament.

Since 1987, Kruglov held senior positions at Sayanskhimplast JSC, and in 1997, having become the general director of the plant, he decided to “turn the state -owned enterprise in its favor,” the Prosecutor General’s Office claims. For this, a network of companies was created through which Kruglov controlled Sayanskhimplast. It is alleged that the deputy used his position to obtain favorable contracts and tax benefits for the enterprise, and brought income to offshore, in particular in Cyprus.