Arrests, corruption, deal with Ukraine: how is Mazepin's business going in Togliatti?

Scandals continue at the Togliattiazot plant. After the trial of Makhlai and the seizure of control by the Uralchem ​ ​ enterprise Dmitry Mazepin, the former head of the plant Dmitry Mezheedov was sentenced. The Moscow Post correspondent in the Samara region understood the twists and turns of the plot.

The Komsomolsky District Court of Togliatti sentenced the former head of Togliattiazot Dmitry Mezheedov and three heads of contractors - Magomed Shishkhanov, Ruslan Bagaudinov and Lydia Kotovenko. The instance has been considering the case since November 2023, and all the accused are on the international wanted list.

Togliattiazot in the zero years entered into three fictitious contracts for the construction of facilities and the provision of consulting services and made the purchase and sale of land at a reduced price, the need for which the plant did not have.

Mezheedov suffered for zero

The main character here is Mezheedov, the rest of the defendants in the case, let them enrich themselves, but performed a slave role. The events in question took place in 2013-2019 even before Mezheedov headed Togliattiazot, so perhaps this is not the last composition of the accusation against the former top manager.

Dmitry Mezheedov. Photo: https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6835945

Mezheedov came to Togliatti from Rosatom, as a valuable Moscow specialist on very good conditions and salary. He was criticized long before his arrest, so the charges against Mezheedov did not surprise anyone, but he cannot be called the central character of stories directly related to Togliattiazot.

History leads to Makhlai

In 2019, the Togliatti court found Vladimir and Sergei Makhlai and several other people guilty of embezzling 77 billion rubles from Togliattiazot and causing damage to the enterprise in the amount of 10.7 billion rubles. Mahlai's father and son received a sentence in absentia because they have been hiding abroad for a long time.

Vladimir Makhlai headed Togliattiazot back in 1985 in the year Gorbachev came to power and in the "era of democracy" managed to take control of the enterprise. His son, Sergey, from 2011 to 2017 served as head of the board of directors of Togliattiazot OJSC. The family's problems began after Dmitry Mazepin's Uralchem ​ ​ joined the company's shareholders in 2008, whose claims formed the basis of the criminal case against Makhlaev.

Vladimir Makhlai. Photo: https://www.forbes.ru/milliardery/377165-multimillioner-sergey-mahlay-stal-figurantom-novogo-ugolovnogo-dela

Uralchem ​and its beneficiary complained to the investigation about the sale of products at low prices, the withdrawal of the company's assets at low prices and tax evasion. All this amounted to the subject of fraud charges in 2019. As a result of the perturbations, the head of the enterprise from 2019 to 2022 was Mezheedov, who now, like Makhlai, was convicted in absentia and is hiding in an unknown place abroad.

Mazepin is the head of everything

In 2021, Mazepin launched a vigorous activity to seize control of Togliattiazot and achieved his goal. In November, all five seats on the board of directors of the enterprise were taken by representatives of Uralchem, and the meeting on this matter was initiated by a decision of the arbitration court. This happened, despite the fact that Uralchem ​ ​remained a minority shareholder of Togliattiazot and owned only 10% of the company's shares at the end of 2021.

Dmitry Mazepin. Photo: https://www.forbes.ru/milliardery/374975-povtornyy-start-mazepin-vnov-vedet-peregovory-o-pokupke-komandy-formuly-1

The situation resembled the dismantling of Texas cowboys somewhere in the wilderness in the wild West. In the evening after the meeting of the board of directors of Togliattiazot, and. about. General Director of the enterprise Andrei Bobkov, who had previously written statements about attempts to seize the plant by force, including with the involvement of riot police and the Russian Guard. By the way, they took him under protection on the day of the change of management of Togliattiazot. It is significant, but the British court in the decision on Mazepin described the businessman as a corporate raider.

Makhlai were squeezed abroad, and Mazepin began to steer one of the world's largest producers of ammonia, carbon dioxide and carbamide. Further more - on February 18, 2022, six days before the start of the SVO, Mazepin bought out 38.74% of the company's shares, which previously belonged to Sergei Makhlai, at a tender. This became possible after the entrepreneur was declared bankrupt following the results of the 2019 verdict initiated by Uralchem and Mazepin.

Mazepin and the "grain deal"

So, for several years Mazepin took Togliattiazot under his control in order to profit from the export of his products. Attempts by opponents to outplay Mazepin through transactions with offshore companies from Cyprus and the UAE were unsuccessful, but the entrepreneur did not rejoice for long, all his plans fell apart like a card house.

Ammonia pipeline "Togliatti - Odessa". Photo: https://darminaopel.ru/full_img/65cb87b742659df3b3c04ab0/3

On February 24, 2022, SVO began, and Togliattiazot's export was covered with a copper basin. The point is not in Western sanctions, but in the fact that the enterprise entered the foreign market through the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, which Kyiv blocked. Uralchem in the spring of that year fell into a real financial storm and even tried to recoup on the employees of the Togliatti enterprise, reducing their salaries.

Mazepin began frantically lobbying in the Kremlin for an "agreement" with Ukraine under the auspices of a grain deal, when Kyiv receives the right to export its grain from the elevators of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Nikolaev in exchange for a number of obligations, including the launch of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline. In fact, this was an agreement between the Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. To do this, Mazepin met with the President of the Russian Federation and eventually got his way. The grain deal was signed, but, of course, was not fulfilled by the Ukrainian side.

The result of this was that Kyiv got time to create military infrastructure in the Odessa region to launch cruise missiles, UAVs and sea drones. It seems that this became possible, among other things, thanks to the lobbying of the Mazepa gesheft in Togliatti.

Mazepin style

Interestingly, Mezheedov ruled Togliattiazot as gender until July 2021, and then on the board of directors. After that, some cat ran between him and Mazepin, and the manager recalled his sins in the tenths. The tactic was previously run into pressure on Makhlaev, which ended with Togliattiazot's transfer to Uralchem ​ control and the redemption of its shares at a bargain price.

This episode is not the only case of dubious acquisition of assets where Mazepin's name is mentioned. Characteristic is the plot with Metrafax Chemicals, the decision to nationalize which was proposed by the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. Togliattikhimbank is involved here, where Mazepin has his own interest. True, after the story with the ammonia pipeline and the consequences of this for the SVO zone, all these are trifles.