The High Court of London rejected the claim of local structures of the former deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexei Bazhanov to the companies of the owner of the St. Petersburg holding Blago Arkady Fosman. A former official tried to collect £ 30 million in compensation for the assets of the now bankrupt Masloproduct group, now controlled by Mr. Fosman. Lawyers of Mr. Bazhanov intend to appeal this decision, opponents consider their success to be "extremely unlikely". Mr. Bazhanov's homeland is being searched for by policemen on charges of embezzling about 10 billion rubles. at the construction of a creamery. The trial of some of the defendants in this story at the beginning of the year has already reached the court.

Arkady Fosman told about the victory in the trial of his lawyers over the representatives of Aleksey Bazhanov "b". "We did not just win the case. The High Court did not allow Bazhanov to appeal. His side can still do it, but practice shows that the chances that he will achieve something are extremely small. There must be some powerful reasons for reviewing the decision, but there are none, "Mr. Fosman said. According to him, the High Court also obliged Mr. Bazhanov to compensate the opponent £ 225,000 in legal costs. "But this amount can also increase. The court applied the minimum discount on court costs - 15%. In some cases, it reaches half, "- said the St. Petersburg businessman.

Mr. Bazhanov appealed to the London court last summer. Morrins Commercial INC sought to recover £ 30 million, or 45%, from Akvilon LLC, a UK-controlled businessman, Arkady Fosman, in Aquilon, which controls the former assets of Masloprodukt. The key one is a large creamery in the Verkhnekhavsky district of the Voronezh region. Alexei Bazhanov accused Arkady Fosman of violating the agreement on the division of assets of the bankrupt "Oil Product". It was assumed that the ex-official will receive 45% of business, and 55% will remain with Arkady Fosman, who also owns the food group Blago. But instead, the businessman, according to Alexei Bazhanov, ignored the agreements and acquired through Akvilon (the Russian subsidiary of Akvilon LLC) the assets of "Masloprodukt" at a low price - for 1.6 billion rubles, increasing as a result in 2015 its turnover business on 7.3 billion rubles.

Arkady Fosman denied any agreements with the former deputy minister. He asserted that "fraudulent schemes" were used on "Masloprodukt" under Mr. Bazhanov, and the ex-official repeatedly asked Mr. Fosman for money for his former assets, but he "did not see the grounds for satisfying these requests."

Lawyer Leonid Rosenthal, representing the interests of Alexei Bazhanov, told Kommersant that he plans to appeal the court decision "within a period of 21 days established by law."

Meanwhile, the criminal part of the history of "Masloprodukt" is nearing completion. Recall that in the spring of 2013 the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation instituted criminal proceedings against Alexei Bazhanov, as well as three former employees of the structures controlled by "Masloprodukt" - Roman Malov, Sergei Dudenkov and Sergei Tsvetkov. At first they were charged with fraud in a particularly large amount (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code), then the charge was re-qualified for a softer - fraud in the field of entrepreneurship (Article 159.4 of the Criminal Code). According to the initial version of the investigation, Mr. Bazhanov and his subordinates withdrew 1,125 billion rubles provided by Rosagroleasing to purchase equipment for the plant through Vita LLC, controlled by OOO Vita. Soon Alexey Bazhanov was charged with fraud in the sphere of crediting (Article 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It was about the theft of about 10 billion rubles. credits Rosselkhozbank, Moscow Industrial Bank and Svyaz-Bank, taken to purchase raw materials for the same creamery near Voronezh. By the spring of 2014 Alexei Bazhanov was also charged with "money laundering in a particularly large amount" (Part 3, Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code). Mr. Bazhanov, detained in 2013, spent nine months in custody, and then was released on his own recognizance. After that, he disappeared outside the Russian Federation and is now in England. He was put on the wanted list.

During the proceedings several times the composition of the defendants and its plot changed. Now Messrs. Bazhanov, Malov and Dudenkov, as well as the former lawyer of "Masloprodukt" Denis Kurilov, are again accused of a particularly large fraud (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code) for a total of more than 10 billion rubles. for all episodes. Meanwhile, one of the defendants of this story - the former general director of OOO "Vita" Sergei Tsvetkov has already appeared before the Verkhnekhavsky district court of the Voronezh region. Mr. Tsvetkov concluded a pre-trial agreement with the investigation and agreed to a simplified procedure for considering his case, separated into a separate proceeding from the common case of "Masloprodukt". He cooperated with the investigation and fully acknowledged his guilt. Consideration of his case on the merits may begin as early as early February.