The Bank of Russia discovered that two foreign companies manipulated the shares of the United Carriage Company (UWC), it said in a statement. In addition, the regulator suspects that through the purchase of shares of UWC, pension savings of citizens could be taken abroad. Materials Central Bank handed over to law enforcement.

The largest owner of UWC, according to the company, is Otkritie FC - through the eponymous NPF controlled by it, the bank owns 24.3% of the shares. NPF Future owns 16%, NPF Safmar 10.4%.

From October 2016 to May 2017, two foreign companies — the Belize-registered Gortec Management and the Cyprus GTCP Trading — conducted 275 transactions, buying and selling each other UWC shares. Obvious economic sense for these transactions was not, and they were held to maintain a certain level of stock prices and trading volume, said the Central Bank. The share of these companies in the auction reached 30-50% on those days when major players did not participate in them, including those interconnected with UWC. For the period indicated by the Central Bank, the value of the UWC share has decreased from 767.5 rubles. up to 721.5 rubles.

The accounts of both foreign companies were managed by Aleksey Dokuchaev, the Central Bank writes: through the City of Technologies company controlled by him and the website, he offered market maker services. At the same time, GTCP did not have the right to exercise the functions of a market maker, despite a bilateral agreement with Opening Broker on participation in supporting bilateral stock prices. The representative of the "Opening of the broker" confirmed that the company entered into a contract with GTCP, but it is no longer valid. According to him, at the time of signing the contract, such a market-making format was a market practice, but later the Central Bank opposed such cooperation. On April 30, the Central Bank annulled the certificate of Dokuchaev for brokerage activities.

While the companies artificially supported the price of UWC shares, they were actively bought by some management companies (UC) at the expense of pension savings stored in private pension funds. The regulator did not name these MCs and APFs.

In addition, the Central Bank suspects that foreign operations could be withdrawn through operations with UWC papers. In 2016, an additional issue of UWC shares was purchased using the funds of one of the NPFs for more than 5 billion rubles. The mediators were non-resident companies, including United Wagon, a company affiliated with UWC, owned by Alexander Nesis ICT group. These intermediaries purchased the shares when they were placed, and then sold them to one of the authorized capital, earning 328 million rubles, the Central Bank said in a statement that the yield from operations for foreign companies reached almost 500% per annum.

High yield and coordinated actions of bidders point to a possible scheme for withdrawing part of the NPF funds to non-resident accounts, the Central Bank writes. And UWC, which placed additional shares at a significant discount, did not receive a part of the money invested in them.

In NPF "Safmar" not aware of the situation with the manipulation - the Central Bank did not apply to the fund, said his representative. Safmar, he said, did not acquire an additional issue of UWC shares through intermediaries. Otkrytie Management Company, LLC conducts operations with fund portfolios in strict accordance with the law, the fund representative indicates that the fund did not receive instructions from the regulator on this topic. The Central Bank did not apply to the ICT group either, according to its representative, Gortec Management and GTCP Trading are unknown to it. All United Wagon shares were absolutely transparent and properly executed, he insists.

The situation with the manipulation of UWC shares in the NPF Future was learned from the message of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, said a company representative. “These structures are not connected with us,” he added.

The company "City of Technologies" liquidated, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities. Find contacts Alexei Dokuchaev and contact him "Vedomosti" has not yet succeeded.