The head of the large company “Blago” Arkady Fosman, known for the fact that simultaneously with the expansion of his business, other oil companies lose their owners and become bankrupt, through one of the subsidiaries he became the collateral creditor of LLC ZRM “Ertilskiy”. The owner of the bankrupt enterprise, Salikh Konakov, was sentenced to 4 years. Like last time, Fosman’s business was expanding at the expense of another large oil plant, CJSC Masloprodukt-BIO. Its owner was also convicted, but escaped imprisonment in London.
Alexei Bazhanov, the former Deputy Minister of Agriculture of Russia and founder of ZAO Masloprodukt-BIO, left for the UK in 2013. According to him, back in his homeland, he had a company seized by a former partner and several courts on charges of fraud, embezzlement and money laundering.
Alexey Bazhanov, the founder of the Masloprodukt trading house, as follows from the materials of his case, in 2008-2009 was the organizer of the theft of 1.1 billion rubles of a loan issued to his company by the Rosagroleasing bank. These funds were used to purchase equipment for an oil processing plant in Voronezh, which was allegedly re-registered to other owners and then stolen.
The trial took place in 2013, and although Bazhanov was convicted, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations for the crime and the deadline for detention, he was released on the recognizance that he will not leave. Thus did not last long as he flew to London on the same day. After the disappearance of the founder, Masloproduct began to experience economic difficulties. Therefore, Bazhanov turned to Arkady Fosman, an old friend, owner of a large company “Blago”, with a request to invest in his company and divide its assets 45% by 55%.
According to Bazhanov, Fosman agreed , accepted all the necessary papers and stopped contacting him. The founder of Masloprodukt believes that in 2016 Arkady Fosman entered into an agreement with retired FSB general Viktor Voronin to take over Bazhanov’s business.
ZAO Masloprodukt-BIO had a debt of 9 billion rubles to Svyaz-Bank. Fosman bought it for 1.5 billion, although the estimated collateral value of the company’s assets, according to some sources, exceeded 13 billion rubles. After that, Fosman sold the property of Masloprodukt (including the equipment of the same Voronezh plant) to LLC Akvilon, whose owner is Olga Fosman. Bazhanov is sure that by his actions the former partner not only took away its production, but also damaged Svyaz-Bank.
General Voronin, according to Bazhanov, was associated with Fosman through the Blago company, in which his sister Larisa Voronina owned a share. In addition, the former owner of Masloprodukt believes that the cases that were brought against him in 2013 were initiated by the FSB in response to the fact that Bazhanov refused to testify against the Minister of Agriculture Elena Skrynnik, who ran Rosagroleasing, as well as against Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov and former Governor of the Voronezh Region Alexei Gordeev.
Bazhanov in 2017 tried to get justice through the courts of London, but suffered a setback. In 2019, he decided to file an application with the Investigative Committee of Russia, in which he accused Fosman and Voronin of the raider seizure of ZAO Masloprodukt. He was prompted to take this step by the fact that two former subordinates of Voronin, Dmitry Frolov and Kirill Cherkalin, were involved in a corruption scandal. They were arrested in the case of a bribe in the amount of $ 850 thousand and theft of assets worth 490 million rubles. UK adoptedBazhanov’s statement and began checking the fact that FSB officers were involved in the raider takeover of the Masloprodukt company. Voronin will be handled by the same group that is investigating the case of Kirill Cherkalin. Meanwhile, Bazhanov complained to the British police that he was being threatened.
In response, Fosman said in the media that Bazhanov’s accusations were far-fetched, and the real value of his assets did not exceed 2.5 billion rubles. Sberbank, VTB and Bank Rossiya estimated the assets at this amount. Moreover, in response to the claims, Fosman brought Bazhanov to subsidiary liability through the Arbitration Court of the Voronezh Region in the fall of 2019. Now the fugitive entrepreneur is forced to pay another 12.1 billion rubles to pay off the debts of CJSC Oil Production, which was part of the Masloproduct group of companies.
At the beginning of 2020, three more criminal cases were opened against Bazhanov . The Investigative Committee decided to recall the embezzlement in Voronezh and arrest the former owner of Masloprodukt. Several media outlets have suggested that the cases are fictitious, as Fosman and Voronin fear disclosure of details of their own activities. Bazhanov was put on the international wanted list and arrested in absentia.