It seems that there is a corporate conflict in the Konoplex holding, which is engaged in the cultivation of technical hemp. Its parties may be the team of Yevgeny Skigin, the son of the founder of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal Dmitry Skigin, and people close to Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
The reason, as usual, could be a lot of money - a few years ago, the Ministry of Industry and Trade announced that it would support the production of hemp. It seems that many other business interests can intersect in this case, and even the grievances of old partners against each other.
Details - in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
A few days ago, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the requirements of the Cypriot offshore Konoplex Limited (Konoplex Limited), represented by the director of the offshore company Yevgeny Skigin, against the holding company Konoplex LLC to invalidate the decisions of the extraordinary meeting of the owners of the LLC.
As one of the decisions, they decided to appoint Roman Belousov as chairman of the general meeting of the company's members, approve the new board of directors and a number of other decisions. At the same time, Roman Belousov, along with Konoplex Limited, owns 50% of Konoplex LLC.
As follows from the court documents, representatives of Konoplex Limited were not at all notified of the meeting. Although in court, Mr. Belousov said that both participants took part in the meeting. Moreover, in one of his persons - both Belousov personally and Belousov, acting by proxy from Konoplex Limited. But the court denied these claims.
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/d2268179-7d32-43f5-810d-ec0dedc79c90/5fbe8c39-425b-476f-bb1b-58159c59c1be/A40-190904-2022_20230206_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
All this resembles an attempt at a raider seizure with the further possible extrusion of Yevgeny Skigin from the general business. But the court, we repeat, sided with the offshore, behind which is Mr. Skigin.
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/d2268179-7d32-43f5-810d-ec0dedc79c90/5fbe8c39-425b-476f-bb1b-58159c59c1be/A40-190904-2022_20230206_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
But this is far from the only court case between the participants of Konopleks LLC. On the same day, February 6, another decision was made - the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied another claim of Skigin's company related to the decisions of the company's previously elected Board of Directors, at which Skigin himself or his representatives were not present.
Photo: https://kad.arbitr.ru/Document/Pdf/5953d8aa-369b-449b-a0e1-e6fd601d0e8e/80b476cb-1dfd-46fc-a365-21bf07a1ea8e/A40-231212-2022_20230206_Reshenija_i_postanovlenija.pdf?isAddStamp=True
A number of decisions were made there - amendments to the charter, various provisions, and so on. The court ruled that Yevgeny Skigin's rights were violated. Note that the court documents do not disclose the essence and content of the changes that representatives of Roman Belousov could try to carry out "under the guise." And it seems that this is just the beginning of a corporate conflict.
Mortgage to spite partners
Now in court is a whole series of lawsuits from Konoplex Limited against Konopleks LLC and personally Roman Belousov. For example, this one, where the third parties are Konopleks subsidiaries - Konopleks Agro LLC and Konopleks Management Company LLC.
The essence of these lawsuits is not disclosed. But, according to the authors of the Telegram channel "Arbiter," allegedly we can talk about invalidating a number of transactions concluded by Konopleks LLC. This is already really like a corporate war - so far in the judicial plane.
The publication "Business Vector" also writes about this. Back in September 2022, Konopleks Limited and Konopleks LLC tried to call to account the tax, Roman Belousov and a number of related companies - Platnaya Doroga LLC, Central Research and Design Institute Platnaya Doroga LLC, as well as UK Platnaya Doroga LLC.
Further, in October, Roman Belousov filed a lawsuit on behalf of Konoplex and in the interests of the controlled Penza LLC Konoplex Food Products. The defendant was the Cyprus offshore, and the third person in the case was Konopleks Management Company LLC.
At the same time, the plaintiff (Belousov) obtained the imposition of interim measures: Konoplex Limited was forbidden to perform any actions aimed at foreclosure under the specified agreement on the pledged property, as well as its transfer to third parties.
At the same time, it is clear from the documents that Konoplex and Konoplex Food learned about the emergence of a pledge of movable property only much later. Is that the ground for conflict?
But the conflict can go into a less legal plane, if you know who is the same Evgeny Skigin. He is the son of the authoritative St. Petersburg businessman Dmitry Skigin, who, after the death of the latter in 2003, inherited his father's assets. Skigin's other son, Mikhail, who became chairman of the Board of Directors of the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal, was not left idle either.
Knitted by one Traber
Dmitry Skigin was known as the man of Ilya Traber ("Antiquarian"), a criminal authority whom the Spanish police put on the wanted list as a member of the Tambov-Malyshev criminal group. One of the main assets of Traber-Skigin was the Petersburg Oil Terminal mentioned above.
The situation with hemp production promises considerable benefits. This topic has been actively developing in Russia since 2018, when it became known that Konopleks LLC entered into agreements on cooperation with the networks of hypermarkets O'Kay, Karusel and Azbuka Vkusa. There, the townspeople will be offered oils produced on the principle of cold pressing under the Konoplyanka trademark.
Later, in 2020, lobby for the development of the steel industry at the highest level. The topic was supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Finance, under the leadership of Anton Siluanov, was instructed to ensure that expenditure obligations for this were included in interest in the draft laws on the federal budget. Then it was said that the volume of budget subsidies could exceed 3 billion rubles.
And here you can view the interests of Minister Siluanov himself. Previously, the aforementioned Roman Belousov worked in the structures of the late Dmitry Skigin. After his death, business in the St. Petersburg Oil Terminal went to his son Mikhail. In 2003, Mikhail Skigin came to St. Petersburg to conduct an audit of the inheritance. Then he met Roman Belousov, who was part of the terminal's management holding.
However, Mikhail Skigin decided to abolish this managing holding - together with Belousov. Apparently, then a black cat ran between them. And even if in 2008 their cooperation resumed (the Skigins turned to Belousov's consulting business to seek funding for the creation of tankers at Krasnoye Sormomo), Belousov himself could hardly be considered a person of their team.
And already in the tenth years, the notorious Olga Khromchenko, who was called close to Anton Siluanva, turned out to be in the stalls of Roman Belousov.
Earlier, PASMI (the publication was recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation) and many other media wrote about Siluanov's possible connection with Khromchenko. Probably, she represents the interests of the minister.
She, Olga Khromchenko, from September 2019 to May 2022, co-owner of shares in Rusdor-Finance LLC, a structure that, as a concession, is engaged in the construction of many toll roads in Russia, especially around Moscow. Earlier, the need to increase the number of such roads was justified by Anton Siluanov.
It was he who lobbied the Government for the idea of creating a special state fund to finance toll roads. Its total volume should be 3 trillion rubles.
Now shares in Rusdor-Finance LLC are owned by Olga Puchkova and Alexey Stroganov. Their shares are pledged to Gazprombank, i.e. the financing of their projects is carried out with the involvement of public funds, to which Anton Siluanov could clearly have a hand.
At the same time, Rusdor-Finance is directly connected with Roman Belousov. This company is 20% owned by Moscow Region Paid Road LLC, another concession project with the Moscow Region government.
Photo: Rusprofile.ru
And the remaining 80% of the company is with Paid Road LLC. It is 51% owned by Roman Belousov, 49% - by the Cypriot offshore company Tollway Limited.
Returning to Khromchenko and Belousov, it turns out that, at least until May 2022, they were partners in Rusdor-Finance LLC, which received the most delicious concessions for the construction of toll roads, and even provided with money from state banks.
Anton Siluanov did not share with Skigin? Photo: press service of the State Duma of the Russian Federation
A hypothesis arises - did Khromchenko, Belousov, and, possibly, Siluanov behind them, share the income from these projects? For example, now the construction of the Lytkarinskaya Toll Road around Moscow has entered an active phase, the capex for which is estimated at more than 150 billion rubles, and one kilometer will cost 10 rubles for one car. This is a lot of money.
It is possible that they did not share. And this could cause discord in another direction of joint activity - the cultivation of industrial hemp. And, it seems, these are only the first acts of the Marleson ballet, where Skigins could be on one bowl of confrontation, and Belousov, Khromchenko and Anton Siluanov flashing behind them on the other.