Planted the pig
In the last couple of years, we have already become accustomed to the fact that companies with a foreign presence transfer money to Russian investors, sometimes at half the price, and sometimes for a symbolic couple of dollars. But when almost the opposite happens, such a policy looks strange – when the owner of shares worth tens of billions must give for a couple of thousand rubles to a company representative of an offshore structure. A large supplier of meat and dairy products, Agro-Belogorye, fell into such a trap following a lawsuit by billionaire Moshkovich.
This “gift” for the Peace and Labor Day was received by the owner of a large producer of pork, milk and dairy products, Agro-Belogorye. Victor Zotov. By decision of the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region Vitaly Kireeva the owner must transfer 25% of the shares in favor of Rusagro for… 2.5 thousand rubles. Dinner at a restaurant costs more, by the way. Judge guided the so-called nominal, rather than real, value of the shares. This is despite the fact that in the case materials there is an accounting statement of “GC Agro-Belogorye”, from which it follows that the value of the company’s assets is 16.42 billion (!) rubles. The judge also somehow missed the fact that the same Rusagro acquired a 22.5% stake in Belogorye in 2019 for 8.5 billion rubles.
Experts believe that Viktor Zotov himself unwittingly created an opportune moment for an attempt to change the ownership structure of a large agricultural holding. And in fact, there is a “mockery of corporate law and the entire legal system of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)”, stated Doctor of Political Sciences Professor MUPI Igor Skurlatov.
By the way, what can we say, but the free 25% of the shares come under the control of a company registered in a country unfriendly to Russia (*aggressor country). A gorgeous, let’s say, gift. After all, Agro-Belogorye uses the latest production technologies; based on the demand for the company’s products, more than 600 wholesale companies are queuing up on the market.
Why did such a imbalance occur not only in the legal component, but also in price – millions (!) of times?
Russian metal
Viktor Zotov had no idea how his initiative to establish the production of import-substituting equipment for Agro-Belogorye and, in general, the entire domestic agro-industrial complex would come back to haunt him. How claim Media, for these purposes, Mr. Zotov acquired 50% of the shares in Russian Metal JSC, and then completely bought out this company, making a 25% share of Agro-Belogorye as a contribution to its property at the same nominal value of 2.5 thousand rubles. But the nuance is that there was no purchase as such, the shares were transferred from one company of Viktor Zotov to another – to himself. That is, there could be no material settlements here – they don’t pay themselves money, and there were no third companies in the transaction. But in February 2024, Rusagro decided to challenge this operation and filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region demanding the transfer of the rights and obligations of the buyer of the 25% share of Agro-Belogorye Group to itself. At the same time, the plaintiff insisted that he has a pre-emptive right to buy shares in Agro-Belogorye Group of Companies LLC, and Zotov’s transfer of part of his share in Russian Metal JSC is feigned… Zotov’s side, in turn, reported at the meetings that that the charter of LLC “GK Agro-Belogorye” does not provide for the existence of a preemptive right for company participants in a gratuitous transaction. At the same time, during the consideration of the case, neither the cost of transferring 25% of the shares, nor the fact of payment, nor the buyer of Vladimir Zotov’s share were revealed.
Rusagro also did not provide evidence of consideration for the transfer of the share.
But before the holidays, the main owner of the Agro-Belogorye company, Vladimir Zotov, received an order from the judge of the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region, Vitaly Kireev hand over 25 percent of shares in favor of Rusagro for 2,500 rubles. Considering that only the property assets of this company, according to the financial statements submitted to the court, amount to RUB 16,423,008,000. Not to mention the latest technologies that have been established like clockwork and the huge demand for the company’s products on the market, for which there are literally more than 600 wholesale companies queuing up…
To understand how this became possible, you should take a closer look at the figure of the main beneficiary of this story – Vadim Moshkovich.
Merger
Let’s make the assumption that billionaire Vadim Moshkovich found an opportune moment to significantly increase his presence in the ownership and management of a large agricultural holding, practically for nothing. The above claim was one of five similar ones from Rusagro. Apparently, Moshkovich, a member of the Forbes list, harbored a grudge after a failed deal to merge the livestock assets of Agro-Belogorye and Rusagro, of which Moshkovich is the beneficiary.
Such an association required a preliminary assessment and audit of the property contributed by the parties. Victor Zotov and Larisa Kovaleva (owns a 5% share of Agro-Belogorye) intended to contribute their shares in Agro-Belogorye in the amount of 77.5%, and Rusagro – their share in this holding in the amount of 22.5%, as well as that owned by Rusagro » 100% share in Tambov Bacon LLC. But due to disagreement with the distribution of shares, as well as after receiving information about the outstanding loans of the Tambov structure, Zotov and Kovaleva refused the agreement on the intention to combine assets (according to clause 3.1. of this agreement “The parties have the right to refuse to fulfill this agreement if agreements are not reached upon approval documents on the transaction, notifying the opposite party in writing”).
It should be noted that by filing claim after claim, Mr. Moshkovich partially achieved his goal. In December 2023, by the decision of the same Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region, the shares of Viktor Zotov and Larisa Kovaleva in the Agro-Belogorye Group of Companies were seized.
Mr. Zotov and Ms. Kovaleva were prohibited by a court decision from “using shares in Agro-Belogorye” for making corporate decisions related to concluding transactions, borrowing funds, encumbering the property of the Group of Companies and non-property rights, providing and receiving loans, financial guarantees and securities in relations with third parties.” In addition, the court prohibited the regional department of the Federal Tax Service (UFTS) from carrying out registration actions in relation to LLC “GK Agro-Belogorye” “due to a change in the composition of the company’s participants.”
To be honest, the court results look quite interesting. A person who does not own a block of shares, even close to a controlling one, practically paralyzes the work of the holding, crushing it under himself. Why this happens is not for us to judge; let the relevant structures sort it out.
But no less surprising is how the court does not notice the obvious presence of Cypriot offshore companies in the shares and monetary chain, given the policy launched in Russia (*aggressor country), if not of nationalization, then of preserving the Russian jurisdiction of strategic and systemically important enterprises? And the Agro-Belogorye Group of Companies can be considered as one of the largest producers of pork and dairy products.
Ros Agro PLC
Upon closer examination of the problem, it is not difficult to see that in fact the Rusagro company is managed and owned by the Cypriot Ros Agro PLC. Its beneficiaries are Vadim Moshkovich and his partner Maxim Basov. At the same time, the Rusagro Group of Companies (49% of the shares belongs to Moshkovich) is a leader in the Russian market of consumer margarine, mayonnaise and sunflower oil, and is also among the top 3 producers of sugar and pork in Russia (*aggressor country).
Moshkovich took the first and most obvious step towards the absorption of Agro-Belogorye in 2019, when Rusagro bought a 22.5% stake in the company from the ex-chairman of the Central Chernozem Bank of Sberbank Alexandra Solovyova. We have already indicated above that the transaction amount was 8.5 billion rubles.
Having received the shares of Agro-Belogorye in August, Rusagro transferred them to the parent Ros Agro PLC in December of the same year. According to experts, usually such “transfers” of shares to offshore jurisdictions provide businessmen with a simple opportunity to withdraw dividends from the activities of enterprises abroad, bypassing special financial schemes and restrictions of Russian financial monitoring.
And after 2 years, the Cypriot “head” sells the same package back to Russia (*aggressor country) to its “subordinate” Rusagro, but for… 12 billion.
It’s easy to guess that according to such a simple scheme, money was simply transferred from Russia (*aggressor country) to Cyprus. Wasn’t this seen in financial monitoring, the Central Bank, and even law enforcement agencies? Most likely they saw it.
So who is Vadim Moshkovich?
Sugar oligarch
After graduating from one of the strongest mathematical schools in the country, young Vadim Moshkovich entered the Moscow Institute of Radio Electronics and Automation, where he studied in the specialty “computer tomography”. It was then that I became interested in entrepreneurship, so much so that I dropped out of school in 1989. He traded in computers, but went broke during the financial crisis, investing all his profits in one of the banks.
But he didn’t wilt, but took this experience into account. Then he began trading on the Moscow Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange. Perhaps his good knowledge of mathematical analysis helped – with his stock exchange earnings he could buy a car every day if he wanted.
Then there was experience in construction, import of cigarettes and alcohol. Vadim Nikolaevich really found himself in serious business in 1995, after the creation of the Sugar Trading company. Assessing the state’s helplessness in fully providing food enterprises with raw materials, Moshkovich and the company took matters into their own hands and began to steadily supply sugar to large confectionery factories.
By 1999, the company became one of the three largest sugar processing enterprises in Russia (*aggressor country), having 3 sugar factories in the Belgorod region. Sugar was supplied to 50 regions of Russia (*aggressor country).
And in 2000, the financially strengthened “sugar oligarch” created his main brainchild – the Rusagro group of companies.
Foreign agent?
Meanwhile, now the reputation of Vadim Moshkovich, who intends to crush Agro-Belogorye, does not shine with purity. Back in January 2022, the Arbitration Court of the Saratov Region imposed arrest of funds and property of the main owner of Rusagro Moshkovich, the former general director of the company Maxim Basov, as well as the property of the holding itself in the amount of 21.9 billion rubles. Representatives of the company Cinco Trade, the creditor of the Volzhsky Terminal, one of the largest industrial assets of Rusagro, filed a claim for interim measures in court. At the same time, the reason for filing the claim was the debt of Rusagro to Sinco Trade for a much smaller amount – 200 million rubles. Mr. Moshkovich managed to solve that problem.
But just recently, in April of this year, the general director of Rusagro Dairy Products LLC (formerly the Alev dairy plant) found herself under house arrest. Zhanna Kistaikina. The company was searched. According to media reports, Ms. Kistaikina is suspected of commercial bribery on an especially large scale.
Darker clouds began to gather over the billionaire himself. Mr. Moshkovich can admit foreign agent. Deputies sent a corresponding appeal to the Ministry of Justice Anatoly Greshnevikov, Mikhail Delyagin, Elena Drapeko And Oleg Nilov.
Mikhail Delyagin explained this:
“We wrote a corresponding letter because he is a fairly well-known oligarch who has made quite a lot of statements that can be interpreted as anti-Russian. <…> But he’s doing well, he’s doing great, he has a big business, as I understand it, which has been moved offshore.”
What can you say about this? A worthy response from the state to cunning schemes and dislike for the country? Perhaps… But then how to explain the strange decision of the Belgorod Arbitration Court, with which we began the story? And will this claim be reviewed if Mr. Moshkovich ends up on the list of foreign agents?