Ãëàâíàÿ > Press release of March 30th, 2012: YACONTO and Atommash in a nutshell

30.03.2012

Mr. Sergey P. Yakunin is the founder, proprietor and head of YACONTO LLC (Russia, Moscow), which is the full and the sole successor of Firm YACONTO LLP, Trade House YACONTO SE and Concern YACONTO JSC.

Since early 1991, private-owned YACONTO companies initiated mass production of garments, plastic products, household multi-operational woodworking machines, induction motors, electrical products and other goods, demanded by consumer markets, on the leased premises of state-owned industrial companies of the USSR.

In 1991, when the whole country, and agriculture in particular, experienced a severe economic crisis, Firm YACONTO SE agreed to the suggestion of officials to participate in the creation and organization of mass production of Biomass Power Generating Units (BEU – biomass energy units) in Russia to address the problems of the country’s agriculture. BEU were designed for rapid processing of livestock and poultry waste into an environmentally friendly fertilizer, production of biogas and using the latter as a source of energy and heat. Firm YACONTO SE attracted leading experts and designers from Salyut Design Bureau of Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center (Russia, Moscow) and the A.N. Bach Institute of Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia, Moscow) to the research and development of BEUThe production technology of BEU was designed in a way that rocket bodies of ballistic missiles intended for disposal or destruction during the reduction of armaments under national disarmament program could be used as reservoirs. Mass production of BEU could have become a good example of quality disarmament by bilateral agreement between the USSR and U.S. On 20.03.1996 Rospatent issued to Firm YACONTO LLP a Patent ¹2056393 for the invention of BEU of 20.03.1996 (priority of invention since 19.03.1993).

In late 1992, YACONTO Company was fully capable of purchasing more than 1.5 million privatization vouchers without any difficulty, and could have used these vouchers to buy an entire industry. However, instead they preferred spending large (at the time) sums on massive quantities of industrial equipment for mass production of civilian goods, investing in research & development and design documentation for the creation of new products. Therefore, only a small portion of financial assets was used to purchase the “vouchers” for obtaining large shares of industrial and other enterprises at voucher auctions.

In early 1994 Firm YACONTO LLP purchased a large share in Russia’s nuclear engineering flagship Atommash OJSC (Volgodonsk, Rostov region). This industrial giant, equipped with unique modern high-tech equipment, was capable of producing a large variety of goods (over 1000 kinds) for various industries and agriculture, for Russian and foreign consumers alike, using the world’s high-end technology. Over 80% of the equipment on Atommash was imported – purchased in Germany, Japan, France, UK, Italy, Austria, Sweden, USA and other countries, from leading concerns like Italimpianti, ESAB, Varian, Mannesmann AG.

However, already since mid-1994 YACONTO started receiving alarming information about a sharp deterioration of the Atommash OJSC business. Not having received the promised dividends in 1994, Mr. Yakunin decided to introduce Firm YACONTO LLP to the Board of Directors of Atommash OJSC. On the next Annual General Meeting of shareholders, which took place on 07.04.1995, Firm YACONTO LLP received three seats in the Board of Directors out of nine, after which Mr. Yakunin was elected Chairman of the Board (Protocol ¹1).

Since taking office, Mr. Yakunin started actively collecting information about real state of affairs on Atommash in 1992–1994, which the executive management strenuously concealed from him, the shareholders and the State. On the meetings of the Board of Directors of 23.06.1995 (Protocol ¹4) and 31.07.1995 (Protocol ¹5) Mr. Yakunin strongly demanded that the executive management of Atommash OJSC provides him with a detailed report on the production and economic activities and debtor-creditor situation, introduces a new management control system approved by the Board of Directors and solves other equally important issues.

Due to malevolent activities of specific officials, the financial, economical and production activities of Atommash OJSC were rapidly deteriorating, so Mr. Yakunin submitted his Statement (out. ¹5-9-PAYA from 05.09.1995) to the Prosecutor of Volgodonsk city Nikolay Volitskiy. The Statement informed about illegal activities of the executives of Atommash OJSC and the damage they caused to the State and the shareholders. Members of the Board of Directors mentioned in the Statement, scared by Mr. Yakunin’s decisive actions, expressed no confidence in him. Under a false pretext, on 07.09.1995 they voted for his dismissal from the position of the Chairman of the Board for an alleged “abuse of authority”. Thus, Organized Group of Interested Officials (OGIO) and the Organized Crime Group (OCG) members deprived Mr. Yakunin of control and opportunity to oppose their illegal activities, and restricted direct access to the documents regarding the illegal depreciation and sale of liquid assets of Atommash OJSC for a song. And the verification of specific facts of their criminal activities on terms of the said Statement to the Prosecutor of Volgodonsk city, in turn, was blocked by the administrative resource and “mutual guarantees” at the disposal of OGIO and OCG. It was practically impossible to oppose the mayhem and lawlessness which took place on Atommash OJSC without the involvement of the Supreme leadership of the State, as YACONTO LLC communicated in its Letter to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin (out. ¹1/15-10-PYA from 15.10.2000) which, as well as the Letter from YACONTO LLC (out. ¹80116-1 from 16.01.2008) never reached Putin due to active resistance of the corrupt officials in the structures of power.

The key initiators and participants of the bankruptcy fraud of Atommash OJSC were: the General Director of Atommash OJSC Alexey Golovin; First Vice President (as of 1996, General Director) of Energomashcorporatsiya OJSC (Russia, Moscow) Alexander Stepanov; T.A. Gramotenko, the head of Federal Office for Insolvency (Bankruptcy) Proceedings for Rostov region; Governor of Rostov region V.F. Chub and other OGIO and OCG participants on federal and regional levels.

Leadership of one of the states of the Persian Gulf was interested in buying state-owned 30% stake in Atommash OJSC. However, having learned about it, participants of OGIO and OCG did everything to prevent the acquisition of the shares of Atommash OJSC by the interested party, actively contributing to an artificial increase in accounts payable of the enterprise.

In order to accomplish the synthetic bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC and give it an appearance of legitimacy, in 1994 the company was forced to take loans at 216% interest per annum in the Volgodonsk branch of Commercial Bank “Doninvest”. As a result of these manipulations, the total company’s debt reached 243.1 billion rubles by 01.10.1995. That’s how the participants of OGIO and OCG achieved rapid growth in accounts payable by Atommash to the creditors-intermediaries in order to lead this giant to intentional bankruptcy. Although the amount of debt to VB CB “Doninvest” was a tiny fraction of the net book value of assets of Atommash OJSC, it served as a pretext for the Federal Office for Insolvency (Bankruptcy) Proceedings for Rostov region to initiate bankruptcy proceedings for the nuclear industry giant. It’s important to mention that the market price of Atommash OJSC was several dozen times greater than its book value.

In order to carry out a raider seizure of vast assets of Atommash OJSC and its subsequent forced elimination, Energomashcorporatsiya OJSC (abbreviated EMK OJSC) accumulated 10.8% of the shares and over 40% of the accounts payable of Atommash OJSC, including those to VB CB “Doninvest”, in 1995 and 1996. According to the fictitious plan of the external management of Atommash OJSC, approved by the Arbitration Court of Rostov region, EMK OJSC, gradually stealing the tremendous assets of Atommash OJSC for 4 years, brought it to bankruptcy and official termination on 25.11.1999. On the basis of the liquid assets of Atommash OJSC, EMK-Atommash JSC was established, 100% stake in which was received solely by EMK OJSC. Later EMK OJSC was re-registered into EMK JSC from Moscow to Velsk town of Arkhangelsk region, and then had its assets withdrawn into an offshore zone.

Concern YACONTO JSC (Russia, Moscow) was the owner of 28.5% share in Atommash OJSC. Therefore, as a result of the premeditated bankruptcy of this Russian nuclear engineering flagship, both the State (which owned another 30%) and Concern YACONTO JSC were illegally deprived of their property and suffered colossal damage. Taking into account inflation and changes in purchasing power of the U.S. dollar over the past years, the funds initially invested in Atommash and its infrastructure by the Soviet Union are equivalent to $122.8 Billion.

An equally compelling example of sheer lawlessness and violation of Constitutional rights in Russian Federation, in particular, is the fact that the law enforcement and supervisory agencies completely ignore the demands of Russian YACONTO enterprises to the Bankruptcy Trustee of Atommash OJSC Sergey Chesskiy (out. ¹19-7-PKYA from 19.07.1999) to return the Design Documentation (DD) for the Biomass Energy Unit (BEU). The Statement of YACONTO enterprises (out ¹14-8-KFYA from 14.08.2000) to police and the Prosecutor’s office of Volgodonsk city (Rostov region) regarding the inspection of the facts of illegal seizure of scientific and technical production and institution of criminal proceedings against the offenders, didn’t bring any results either. Today nobody can guarantee that intellectual property for said items is not used by third parties for commercial purposes, dealing economical and moral damage to YACONTO LLC.

Following the 4 Orders of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev: from 29.06.2010 ¹Pr-1883, from 21.08.2010 ¹Pr-2448, from 19.05.2011 ¹Pr-1413 and from 08.07.2011 ¹Pr-1948, and an Order of the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin from 13.07.2011 ¹VP-P7-4798, an investigation of the bankruptcy fraud and liquidation of Atommash OJSC continues. In reality, the inspection has turned into a sluggish profanity that involved officials from law enforcement, supervisory and controlling authorities of the Federal Center, acting in the interests of the former leadership of the Rostov region. Puppeteers of this orgy are found even in the Presidential Executive Office of Russia and the Russian Government.

It’s no wonder that not a single Resolution of the Volgodonsk police and GD MOI of Russia in Rostov region contains a slightest reference to the Letter of the Governor of Rostov region Vladimir Chub (out. ¹1/6049 from 19.09.1996) to his accomplice – General Director of the Federal Office for Insolvency (Bankruptcy) Proceedings Peter Mostovoy. The content of this Letter confirms criminal offenses committed by persons mentioned therein, who were in cahoots in the bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC. In particular, the Letter speaks of “writing off” fixed assets and allegedly “under construction” sites of Atommash OJSC, worth 878 billion rubles, by reducing the capital surplus, which led to a depreciation of the company’s assets – and that’s while the value of those objects has already been sharply discounted by then. Who and by what Law granted the Governor of the Rostov region Vladimir Chub rights to approach the federal government with a proposal to depreciate and write off assets of Atommash OJSC? Who and by what Law granted the General Director of the Federal Department for Insolvency (Bankruptcy) Proceedings Peter Mostovoy the rights to approve markdowns and write-offs of the property of Atommash OJSC, an enterprise which was owned by thousands of equally legitimate shareholders, and where the state itself owned 30% interest?

YACONTO LLC has submitted to the General Prosecutor of Russia Yuri Chaika the following: a Complaint (out. ¹110201-A01 from 01.02.2011), Addendum ¹1 (out. ¹110303-A01 from 03.03.2011) and Addendum ¹2 (out. ¹110321-A01 from 21.03.2011) to the said Complaint; a Statement (out. ¹110418-À01 from 18.04.2011), Addendum ¹1 (out. ¹110607-A01 from 07.06.2011), Addendum ¹2 (out. ¹110808-A01 from 08.08.2011) and Addendum ¹3 (out. ¹110915-A01 from 15.09.2011) to the said Statement.

The inspection of the facts of bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC conducted by the Audit Chamber of Russia showed that, with the complicity of specific officials, the State suffered enormous material damage. In particular, the State lost 30% stake in Atommash OJSC. Based on the auditing results, the College of the Audit Chamber of Russia issued a Resolution ¹ 6(289) from 22.02.2002. The opponents of the investigation of the bankruptcy fraud of Atommash OJSC did everything to make sure the materials received from the Audit Chamber of Russia are disregarded by the Russian State Duma itself, the Government and the Presidential Executive Office of Russia.

The premeditated bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC was initiated in 1995 by Tatiana Gramotenko - the head of Federal Office for Insolvency (Bankruptcy) Proceedings for Rostov region (FSDN, previously FUDN). Tatiana Gramotenko conspired with the General Director of Atommash OJSC Alexey Golovin, who deliberately led the nuclear industry giant to bankruptcy. At Golovin's request, Gramotenko lobbied the illegal appoinment of Alexander Stepanov as the Bankruptcy referee of Atommash OJSC through the Aribtration Court of Rostov region. At that time, Stepanov was the First Vice President of 'Energomashinostroitelnaya corporatsiya' JSC, founded by direct competitors of Atommash OJSC. Hence, Stepanov's appointment as Bankruptcy referee of Atommash OJSC was a gross violation of Russian Antimonopoly law and posed a severe conflict of interests.

Alexander Stepanov, one of the key facilitators of the bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC and its Bankruptcy referee, was arrested in Moscow on 02.02.2011 on charges of large-scale fraud with the loans issued by the Sberbank of Russia and is currently still under investigation in prison. Although Stepanov escaped punishment for a similar offence related to a major loan taken from a foreign bank, he was nonetheless sentenced in absentia by the High Court of Justice (London) for two years in prison and full payment of the debt on terms of the suit of the bank.

Another key figurant involved in the bankruptcy of Atommash OJSC, the odious ex-Governor of the Rostov region Vladimir Chub, became a member of the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of Russian Federation, a Senator representing the Murmansk region – as if this region has no worthier candidate than Chub; this was done with the help from his high-ranked patrons in order to grant him immunity from legitimate criminal proceedings.

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