The beneficiaries of the popular “pasta” brand “Makfa”, Mikhail Yurevich and Vadim Belousov, risk losing not only their business, but ultimately all their property in Russia, say lawyers interviewed by Izvestia. The reason for this may be a lawsuit by the Prosecutor General's Office against the defendants, as well as their relatives and companies affiliated with them. According to investigators, While in power, former State Duma deputy Belousov and ex-governor of the Chelyabinsk region Yurevich received income illegally. In other words, they combined civil service and business, which in the Russian Federation is a corruption violation. Therefore, the supervisory agency believes that the assets of the country’s largest pasta manufacturer must be turned into state income.
Pasta Empire
The Prosecutor General's Office filed a claim for the transfer of the holding's shares in favor of the state to the Central District Court of Chelyabinsk on March 28. The very next day, the bailiffs seized the accounts and assets of the relatives of Belousov and Yurevich, on which their business was registered, follows from the seizure order. The total size of assets is still being established, however, based on the size of the “pasta” empire, the amount promises to be perhaps the largest in recent history.
To answer the claim, In addition to Yurevich and Belousov, another 34 legal entities and ten individuals were involved.
In addition to Makfa, shares of such companies as Dolgovskoye, SMAK, First Bread Factory, New Five-Year Plan, Arkom, Kalanchaksky and Mishkinsky bakery factories were arrested. As well as the assets of enterprises that are not directly related to the “grain” business – for example, Chelyabinskoblgaz, owned by Yurevich’s relative and Belousov’s son-in-law. According to the supervisory authority, all these companies are affiliated with McFoy.
They were also targeted assets of relatives and close businessmen – father, mother and son Yurevich, father, daughter and son-in-law Belousov, as well as the director of Issuer Consulting Marina Savranskaya, the ex-head of Arkom Natalya Petrasheva and the shareholder of SMAK Vladilen Fufarov.
As follows from the lawsuit, the reason for it was violations of anti-corruption legislation by Belousov and Yurevich during the period when both key defendants held positions in the executive and legislative branches. Mikhail Yurevich was a State Duma deputy from 2000 to 2005, and served as deputy chairman of the Committee on Energy, Transport and Communicationsthen served on the Committee on Civil, Criminal, Arbitration and Procedural Law.
From 2005 to 2010 he was the mayor of Chelyabinsk, and then became Governor of the Chelyabinsk region and led the region until 2014. Belousov was a deputy from 2011 to 2023 from the A Just Russia party, and was a member of the committee on agrarian issues.
During these years they could not engage in business, but an audit showed that both simultaneously owned a group of commercial companies through relatives and proxies, and also “used foreign instruments” follows from the lawsuit. As a result of this, both defendants “achieved unlawful enrichment for themselves and their controlled persons.”
What are Yurevich and Belousov charged with?
Mikhail Yurevich was the beneficiary of former state enterprises – the Chelyabinsk pasta factory, the Sosnovsky bakery plant and the Chelyabinsk bakery plant No. 1. On their basis, the Makfa companies were formed and the First Bread Factory, which became the largest enterprises in the Ural region.
Current The prosecutor's office estimates the assets of Makfa at 22 billion, and of the First Bread Factory at 3.7 billion. The annual revenue of both enterprises exceeds 31 billion rubles.
Makfa is still one of the top 5 world producers of pasta and is included in the list of strategic agro-industrial enterprises in Russia. The holding unites 26 companies,registered in the territory of Moscow, Kurgan, Moscow, Sverdlovsk, Kherson and Chelyabinsk regions. Their total value is 46 billion, annual revenue exceeds 41 billion, and gross profit is 13.6 billion.
Thanks to his administrative resources, Yurevich provided his companies with the “green light” in all their affairs: he allocated subsidies, preferential loans worth hundreds of millions of rubles, and land for the construction of commercial facilities, according to the GP’s lawsuit. This led to the monopolization of the market for state and municipal procurement, as stated in the document.
In March 2017, a criminal case was opened against Yurevich for briberyreported to the Investigative Committee. Vadim Belousov was also tried for taking a bribe, the largest in the history of Russia – 3.4 billion rubles. The ex-parliamentarian was sentenced in absentia to ten years in prison. In December 2023, the Supreme Court overturned this verdict and sent it for review. The deputy did not admit his guilt.
Both defendants fled abroad and were put on the wanted list, and Yurevich, according to the State Prosecutor’s Office, acquired Cypriot citizenship. But even now they continue to control business in Russia through Cypriot offshore companies (they are also defendants in the lawsuit) and 2 billion rubles are transferred abroad annually – to Cyprus and the UKfollows from the lawsuit.
The powers of power allowed Yurevich to create an entire holding company, including agro-industrial, shopping and entertainment, hotel, motor transport and media assets. The Prosecutor General's Office assesses these assets as corrupt, and says about their owners that they “were involved in a criminal scheme.” “The defendants used various platforms for cashing out illegal proceeds, organized channels for their legalization, and for these purposes established connections with corrupt officials of control and supervisory authorities,” the lawsuit says.
What is the defense talking about and where are the defendants now?
Defender of Mikhail Yurevich Igor Trunov has already written a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin (Izvestia has it). In it, he asks “to provide assistance in protecting against unlawful actions of the prosecutor’s office against bona fide market participants” According to the lawyer, “The norm for the possible conversion of an official’s property into state income began to operate only in 2013.”
— During this period, neither Yurevich nor Belousov owned any of the enterprises listed in the department's lawsuit in any form, and the legislation for the purpose of seizure limits property only to that to which there is ownership rights. But Yurevich does not have any shares or interests in the property specified in the lawsuit, the lawyer claims.
The lawyer believes that it is impossible to confiscate property in which the defendant “has an interest and, moreover, which was acquired indirectly.” Also Igor Trunov emphasizes that “since 2016, Yurevich is not an official and does not live in Russia.”
The press service of the company told Izvestia that “Makfa does not comment and does not plan to comment on this topic.” Rusprodsoyuz, of which the enterprise is a member, also refrained from commenting.
Why are company shares transferred to the state?
Transferring shares to state income is a punishment for any violation, in this case corruption, Yuri Umrikhin, head of the arbitration practice at MCA Knyazev and Partners, told Izvestia. According to him, in recent years the Prosecutor General's Office has already filed claims against several companies whose assets are of strategic importance for the state.
“Usually such requirements are connected with a past verdict in a criminal case or an
ongoing criminal case against the beneficiary of the seized assets,” explained Olga Zhukova, senior lawyer at ProLegals. – So, The claim against Makfe is related to the criminal case of Mikhail Yurevich, who is accused of receiving a bribe.
Conducting business activities by a civil servant, along with acting in a conflict of interest and failure to provide information about income, is a corruption offense for which various types of liability are established, including criminal liability, added Yuri Umrikhin. And the wide range of defendants in the case of Yurevich and Belousov is explained by the size of their business. Now large companies do not operate through one legal entity; several companies are created, the business is “split up” in order to optimize taxation, the lawyer explained.
— All such legal entities are affiliated, and the conduct of business activities by a civil servant, including through affiliated persons, constitutes a corruption offense“, the lawyer explained.
According to lawyers interviewed by Izvestia, The defendants have little chance: it is possible that they can provide, for example, accounting documents or apply for a forensic examination to prove that the real value of the property is less.
After a possible seizure, Makfa’s assets may be transferred to temporary management by the Federal Property Management Agency. It is also possible for them to be partially or fully sold to private investors; there are also no obstacles to this, lawyers believe.
The shares have already been arrested and a lawsuit has been filed, but if the team that carries out the temporary management is professional, production will not suffer, says former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation Leonid Kholod. At the same time, the expert also believes that in the future the assets will most likely be sold, since we are talking about food production and not a defense enterprise
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