The case of the ex-head of the Transfin-M company, Dmitry Zotov, in which Vladimir Putin personally intervened at the request of Boris Titov, caused an unexpected stormy and not entirely unambiguous discussion of the expert community. At a meeting of the public center under the business ombudsman, the protection of a businessman from the "London list" tried to destroy the new management of the company he headed earlier. The arguments of the opponents turned out to be so equally convincing that the representatives of the Center for Public Procedures decided to take a break to form their final position.
The case of former General Director of Transfin-M Dmitry Zotov from the "London list" of business ombudsman Boris Titov became widely known after President Vladimir Putin joined it in July 2020. The head of state, whom Titov turned to, instructed Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov to investigate the situation with the arrest of a businessman. Zotov voluntarily returned to Russia, but immediately upon arrival on June 10, he was sent by subordinates of Vladimir Kolokoltsev to a pre-trial detention center.
The result of Putin's intervention was the release of the businessman - the measure of restraint was changed to a recognizance not to leave the place. Recall that Zotov is accused of stealing freight cars in the amount of 395 million rubles before selling the company to a new owner. The case is being investigated by the transport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Central Federal District. The applicants are the current management of PJSC Transfin-M.
After the release of Dmitry Zotov, the current head of the TFM Maxim Anischenkov made a statement to Titov, pointing out that the business ombudsman did not know all the circumstances of the case, and Zotov was misleading him. Almost simultaneously, Dmitry Zotov himself turned to the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, pointing out signs of bias in law enforcement agencies and the ordered nature of criminal prosecution. The position of both parties was heard on September 29 at a meeting of the public council of the CSP "Business against corruption", which was attended by PASMI journalists.
Inadequate arithmetic
Charges against the former general director of PJSC TransFin-M Dmitry Zotov were brought under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Fraud on an especially large scale”. Zotov headed Transfin-M from 2012 to November 2018. The company is engaged in the leasing of railway transport, production equipment, special equipment, vehicles and aircraft.
According to the investigators, in the fall of 2017, Zotov entered into a deal with an organization controlled by him, Invest Aktiv LLC, to sell thousands of cars at a reduced cost. According to the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport in the Central Federal District, as a result of this transaction, the damage to "Transfin-M" amounted to about 395 million rubles, although the company's representatives filed claims in court for almost 3 billion rubles.
However, the expert of the Business Against Corruption Center, who analyzed the prosecution's arguments before the meeting, said that they were not confirmed by the factual materials of the case.
The main argument is the absence of damage, without which the charge under Article 159 is impossible. According to forensic accounting expertise, the transaction between Transfin-M and Invest Aktiv is profitable, its profitability is 12%, while the damage from the sale of wagons has not been specified by the investigation. The representative of the CSC pointed out that the investigators compared the redemption and market value of the cars, while these are completely different economic indicators, and their comparison is impossible. At the same time, the police did not analyze similar transactions.
However, Dmitry Zotov himself brought such analytics. At the meeting, he announced that the new management of the TFM had made many deals for the sale of wagons at the redemption price, information about which he was ready to provide to the investigation.
The arguments of the prosecution that Zotov did not receive the approval of the credit committee during the transaction, as required by the charter of the TFM, the experts of the CSC considered insufficient to bring charges under the article of fraud, indicating that these actions could rather be qualified as embezzlement. In addition, members of the Center for Public Procedures drew attention to the fact that the deal could be challenged in a civil procedure, but the new leadership of the TFM did not make such attempts. Although the agreement could have been terminated or invalidated, the deadlines for filing such claims have not expired so far.
At the meeting of the public center, the opinion on the Zotov case by Tatyana Mineeva, Ombudsman for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in Moscow, was also read out. She believes that Zotov's affiliation with Invest Aktiv has not been proven. Moreover, Mineeva noted that the buyer transferred most of the funds for the cars, and it is impossible to talk about the gratuitous alienation of the TFM property.
Hidden trump cards
However, representatives of "TransFin-M", who also spoke at the meeting of the CSC, said that they allegedly have answers to many of the experts' questions about the charges against Zotov - in the form of documentary evidence, some of which have not yet been disclosed in the interests of the investigation.
For example, the TFM security service, according to the speakers, found Zotov's official correspondence indicating that he was selling cars retroactively. Moreover, this correspondence contains the names of the employees to whom Zotov gave instructions to falsify documents. That is why, according to the applicants, the sale of the cars by the former director of the Transfin-M company was not coordinated with the credit committee, and the shareholders could not challenge it, since they simply did not know about it.
Representatives of the current management of the TFM are confident that the deal between Zotov and Invest Aktiv should be recognized as null and void, and this is precisely about criminal liability.
Moreover, according to the applicants, the new management of the company in 2019 allegedly tried to settle this issue peacefully, but Dmitry Zotov responded with threats to the proposal for compensation. This correspondence is also at the disposal of the investigation.
In addition, the police, as the speakers said, have evidence that Dmitry Zotov was the direct beneficiary of Invest Aktiv.
Stormy finale
Opponents did not continue their consistent presentation of their arguments for a long time and moved on to a rather heated discussion - Zotov was accused of withdrawing money through numerous schemes, data on which will be made public in the near future.
And the former general director of TransFin-M insisted that his criminal prosecution was a tool to silence him about the “dark” details of the privatization of Transfin-M - in 2019 the company passed into the hands of a former adviser to the head of Russian Railways on a voluntary basis and ex-head of the Federal Freight Company (FGK) Alexei Taicher. Previously, the company belonged to the pension fund of the Russian Railways - NPF Blagosostoyanie.
As a result, the public council of the CSP, which was supposed to decide on measures to respond to the complaints, took a break to study the new circumstances of the case. The experts should publish their resume in a week.
The case of former General Director of Transfin-M Dmitry Zotov from the "London list" of business ombudsman Boris Titov became widely known after President Vladimir Putin joined it in July 2020. The head of state, whom Titov turned to, instructed Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov to investigate the situation with the arrest of a businessman. Zotov voluntarily returned to Russia, but immediately upon arrival on June 10, he was sent by subordinates of Vladimir Kolokoltsev to a pre-trial detention center.
The result of Putin's intervention was the release of the businessman - the measure of restraint was changed to a recognizance not to leave the place. Recall that Zotov is accused of stealing freight cars in the amount of 395 million rubles before selling the company to a new owner. The case is being investigated by the transport department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Central Federal District. The applicants are the current management of PJSC Transfin-M.
After the release of Dmitry Zotov, the current head of the TFM Maxim Anischenkov made a statement to Titov, pointing out that the business ombudsman did not know all the circumstances of the case, and Zotov was misleading him. Almost simultaneously, Dmitry Zotov himself turned to the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs, pointing out signs of bias in law enforcement agencies and the ordered nature of criminal prosecution. The position of both parties was heard on September 29 at a meeting of the public council of the CSP "Business against corruption", which was attended by PASMI journalists.
Inadequate arithmetic
Charges against the former general director of PJSC TransFin-M Dmitry Zotov were brought under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Fraud on an especially large scale”. Zotov headed Transfin-M from 2012 to November 2018. The company is engaged in the leasing of railway transport, production equipment, special equipment, vehicles and aircraft.
According to the investigators, in the fall of 2017, Zotov entered into a deal with an organization controlled by him, Invest Aktiv LLC, to sell thousands of cars at a reduced cost. According to the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport in the Central Federal District, as a result of this transaction, the damage to "Transfin-M" amounted to about 395 million rubles, although the company's representatives filed claims in court for almost 3 billion rubles.
However, the expert of the Business Against Corruption Center, who analyzed the prosecution's arguments before the meeting, said that they were not confirmed by the factual materials of the case.
The main argument is the absence of damage, without which the charge under Article 159 is impossible. According to forensic accounting expertise, the transaction between Transfin-M and Invest Aktiv is profitable, its profitability is 12%, while the damage from the sale of wagons has not been specified by the investigation. The representative of the CSC pointed out that the investigators compared the redemption and market value of the cars, while these are completely different economic indicators, and their comparison is impossible. At the same time, the police did not analyze similar transactions.
However, Dmitry Zotov himself brought such analytics. At the meeting, he announced that the new management of the TFM had made many deals for the sale of wagons at the redemption price, information about which he was ready to provide to the investigation.
The arguments of the prosecution that Zotov did not receive the approval of the credit committee during the transaction, as required by the charter of the TFM, the experts of the CSC considered insufficient to bring charges under the article of fraud, indicating that these actions could rather be qualified as embezzlement. In addition, members of the Center for Public Procedures drew attention to the fact that the deal could be challenged in a civil procedure, but the new leadership of the TFM did not make such attempts. Although the agreement could have been terminated or invalidated, the deadlines for filing such claims have not expired so far.
At the meeting of the public center, the opinion on the Zotov case by Tatyana Mineeva, Ombudsman for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs in Moscow, was also read out. She believes that Zotov's affiliation with Invest Aktiv has not been proven. Moreover, Mineeva noted that the buyer transferred most of the funds for the cars, and it is impossible to talk about the gratuitous alienation of the TFM property.
Hidden trump cards
However, representatives of "TransFin-M", who also spoke at the meeting of the CSC, said that they allegedly have answers to many of the experts' questions about the charges against Zotov - in the form of documentary evidence, some of which have not yet been disclosed in the interests of the investigation.
For example, the TFM security service, according to the speakers, found Zotov's official correspondence indicating that he was selling cars retroactively. Moreover, this correspondence contains the names of the employees to whom Zotov gave instructions to falsify documents. That is why, according to the applicants, the sale of the cars by the former director of the Transfin-M company was not coordinated with the credit committee, and the shareholders could not challenge it, since they simply did not know about it.
Representatives of the current management of the TFM are confident that the deal between Zotov and Invest Aktiv should be recognized as null and void, and this is precisely about criminal liability.
Moreover, according to the applicants, the new management of the company in 2019 allegedly tried to settle this issue peacefully, but Dmitry Zotov responded with threats to the proposal for compensation. This correspondence is also at the disposal of the investigation.
In addition, the police, as the speakers said, have evidence that Dmitry Zotov was the direct beneficiary of Invest Aktiv.
Stormy finale
Opponents did not continue their consistent presentation of their arguments for a long time and moved on to a rather heated discussion - Zotov was accused of withdrawing money through numerous schemes, data on which will be made public in the near future.
And the former general director of TransFin-M insisted that his criminal prosecution was a tool to silence him about the “dark” details of the privatization of Transfin-M - in 2019 the company passed into the hands of a former adviser to the head of Russian Railways on a voluntary basis and ex-head of the Federal Freight Company (FGK) Alexei Taicher. Previously, the company belonged to the pension fund of the Russian Railways - NPF Blagosostoyanie.
As a result, the public council of the CSP, which was supposed to decide on measures to respond to the complaints, took a break to study the new circumstances of the case. The experts should publish their resume in a week.
Society
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