Founder of Rolf Petrov put on the international wanted list

The investigation put on the international wanted list the founder of the largest Russian car dealer Rolf and member of the Forbes list, Sergey Petrov, and asks the court to arrest him in absentia. The businessman is accused of illegally taking abroad 4 billion rubles.
06.09.2019
Forbes
Origin source
The founder of the Rolf dealer network, Sergei Petrov, has been put on the international wanted list, a representative of the Moscow Basmanny Court told Interfax. He noted that the investigation asks in absentia to arrest the businessman. The petition went to court on Friday, September 6th.

In addition to Petrov, the investigation asks to arrest two more persons involved in the case - the ex-general director of Rolf Tatyana Lukovetskaya and the general director of Panabel Limited Cyprus company Georgy Kafkali, controlled by Petrov.

A criminal case has been instituted against Petrov, Lukovetskaya, Kafkaliya, and Rolf’s top manager Anatoly Kairo under part 3 of Article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (currency transactions to transfer funds to non-residents' accounts using forged documents ”). According to investigators, Petrov entered into a conspiracy with the heads of companies controlled by him and transferred abroad 4 billion rubles through the sale to Rolf of shares in Rolf Estate for a multiple inflated amount (Panabel Ltd. acted as a seller of shares). The investigation is convinced that in reality Rolf Estate, on whose balance was all of Rolf's real estate in Moscow, cost only 200 million rubles.

On June 28, the court sent Cairo under house arrest. The top manager became the first person involved in the case, in respect of which a preventive measure was chosen. Petrov and Lukovetskaya are located abroad. Petrov said in an interview that he was not going to return to Russia.

Sergei Petrov denies his guilt. He said that the adequacy of the value of all transactions was confirmed by an assessment of independent auditors. The businessman mentioned several possible reasons for initiating a criminal case. One of them is a raider seizure: Petrov suggested that his pursuit could be provoked by competitors. According to another version, dissatisfaction with the authorities caused his political position. In addition, Petrov claimed that the case against him was based on the illegal wiretapping of his conversations.

All sentences that entered into force in 2018 under article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which is charged with the founder of Rolf Sergey Petrov, were in real terms. This is evidenced by the statistics of the Supreme Court, provided by Forbes.

Petrov founded Rolf in 1991. Now it is the largest car dealer in Russia, revenue in 2018 amounted to 229.7 billion rubles. The company's portfolio of brands includes Audi, BMW, Ford, KIA, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Porsche, Renault, SKODA, Toyota, Volkswagen and other brands. In 2007 and 2011, the businessman was elected to the State Duma on the list of the Just Russia party. Unlike most parliamentarians, he supported protests against falsification of the results of the 2011 Duma elections and voted against the resonant "Dima Yakovlev law" and the "Yarovaya package", and also did not participate in the vote on the annexation of Crimea to Russia.

Sergey Petrov takes 114th place in the rating of “200 richest businessmen of Russia” according to Forbes with a fortune of $ 0.9 billion.