The origin of Robert Kochiev’s conflict of interest
“Conflict of interest” is a concept that is clear in theory. But in practice, the use of the term raises many questions. If a deputy draws up a guarantee agreement for the obligations of a third-party legal entity and promises to pay almost half a billion in its debts, is this a conflict of interest? What if then this LLC violates the law, and the deputy writes letters to all authorities in its defense? What if a deputy drives a Bentley that belongs to a commercial organization that is breaking the law? And again, parliamentary letters in defense... Maybe this is not a conflict of interest, but a crime? We will figure it out together.
Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Robert Kochiev announced a journalistic and parliamentary investigation and called on journalists to take an active part in it.
Deputy ethics – myth or reality?
In his speeches made from the podium of the State Duma, the parliamentarian accused lawyer Arsen Tsipinov , entrepreneur Igor Shusharev, as well as a number of officials of Rosalkogoltabakkontrol and the Federal Tax Service of Russia of capturing the alcohol market.
Robert Kochiev also told reporters about the massive deprivation of licenses of factories producing alcoholic beverages.
At the same time, despite numerous emotional speeches, the parliamentarian never bothered to name these factories or provide the public with any evidence of the involvement of the above-mentioned persons in the capture of the alcohol market.
Considering that the procedure for conducting a parliamentary investigation is regulated by a separate federal law and at least one fifth of the total number of deputies of the State Duma can initiate it, we decided to meet Robert Kochiev halfway and, without burdening ourselves with expectations of such a lengthy procedure, we conducted our own journalistic investigation.
So, first things first.
On December 8, 2022, during Operation Anaconda, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stopped a truck with alcoholic products from the Istok ZShV company. As a result of checking the shipping documents with the EGAIS system, it was established that the manufacturer Istok ZShV LLC committed flagrant violations - information on the circulation of alcoholic products was not recorded in the EGAIS in the manner established by the legislation of the Russian Federation.
Employees also discovered that documents certifying the legality of production and circulation of products were falsified.
In simple terms, they were bringing illegal alcohol.
Based on the violations identified by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on February 15, 2023, Rosalkogolregulirovanie appealed to the Arbitration Court of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania with a request to cancel the license of Istok ZShV LLC, and on 07/03/2023, apparently realizing the hopelessness of the situation, the management of the enterprise independently surrendered the license.
Thus, the Istok ZShV company voluntarily renounced its license, without which it cannot carry out its activities.
But what does Robert Kochiev have to do with it?
A year earlier, before the fateful operation Anaconda for Istok ZShV, the company took out loan money from the commercial bank Solidarnost.
Surprisingly, the guarantor under this agreement was not just anyone, but the initiator of the journalistic and parliamentary investigation, State Duma deputy Robert Kochiev. If this is not direct participation in commercial activities, then what?
We won’t even ask where the deputy got 495 million; voters have not yet recovered from the shock after the news about the arrest of the people’s deputy, his relatives and a couple of security guards and general directors of property worth 3.4 billion rubles.
The appropriate commission will check the proportionality of the deputy’s income and expenses.
The management company of Istok ZShV LLC is Istok JSC. It is he who owns the beautiful Bentley car, from which Deputy Kochiev is getting out in these photos. And in the background is the Istok office on Vereiskaya Street.
As it turned out, despite the arrest of property worth 3.4 billion rubles, Robert Ivanovich did not switch to public transport.
Robert Kochiev gets out of a Bentley car
And then, like in a fairy tale, the further you go, the more interesting it becomes.
The loan financing received by Istok ZShV with the guarantee of Deputy Kochiev was transferred, among other things, to First Alcohol Manufactory LLC. This company rents a production site from Gigant LLC, where, by a strange coincidence, the founders are Batraz Robertovich Kochiev and Madina Robertovna Kochieva.
04/23/2024 The Arbitration Court of the North Caucasus District revoked the license of the First Alcohol Manufactory.
LLC "First Alcohol Manufactory" operated on the same basic technological equipment for the production of ethyl alcohol as LLC "Orpheus". And this equipment was made as a contribution to the authorized capital of Orpheus LLC and First Alcohol Manufactory LLC. This equipment is located at the address: Vladikavkaz, st. Telmana, 82b.
Before the bankruptcy, the scandalous Rakurs LLC was located at the same address, for whose obligations, as it turned out, Robert Kochiev and members of his family were held vicariously liable.
Orpheus LLC and Rakurs LLC, as a result of their activities, systematically violated the requirements of the legislation on state regulation of the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products. After control activities, these violations were identified, and the companies themselves surrendered their licenses.
Let us remind our readers what the confusing scheme of legal entities located at the address: Vladikavkaz, st. Telmana, 82b.
During the audit, the tax inspectorate found that in the period from 2016 to 2018. Rakurs withdrew almost 2.9 billion rubles to the accounts of controlled companies LLC Centaur, LLC Orpheus, LLC Peresvet, LLC Triumph, LLC Transprodmarket and LLC TD Kupechesky.
For example, 1.1 billion rubles were transferred to the settlement account of Peresvet LLC from Rakurs LLC through Centravr LLC. By the way, Peresvet LLC is also located at Vladikavkaz, Promyshlennaya 4th St., 1 (where the division of Rakurs and Gigant LLC is located).
On March 11, 2022, the regional tax service identified a newly familiar pattern. Orpheus LLC and its counterparties (Centaur LLC, Bastion LLC, Favorit LLC, Bumservice LLC, Triumph LLC, Topaz LLC, Argo LLC, etc.) also contain signs unreality of operations. By analogy with Rakurs, the Orpheus company was exposed to tax arrears in the amount of 630 million rubles.
However, after the start of the tax audit, Orpheus manages to transfer the equipment for the production of alcohol to LLC TD Kupechesky (payment to Orpheus never went through, as can be seen from the materials of the bankruptcy case of TD Kupechesky). This company then transfers the equipment to Zernoproduct LLC. Next, the latter creates LLC “First Spirit Manufactory” (“PSM”), registering everything at the same ill-fated address, Vladikavkaz, st. Telmana, 82b, and transfers the equipment to the newly created company.
By the way, the founder of Zernoproduct LLC from November 17, 2015 to November 15, 2018 was Timur Chermenovich Kulaev, who is also the general director of Orpheus LLC.
The connection between companies in Vladikavkaz and the companies of the Istok group is obvious. All enterprises of the group have large arrears in wages, taxes and fees. The Federal Tax Service is trying to declare bankrupt LLC “First Alcohol Manufactory”, LLC “Istok ZShV”, LLC “Orpheus”, LLC “Istok Spirit”.
Most of the enterprises surrendered their license when violations were discovered; the rest lost it through the courts.
Istok LLC, also part of the group, magically received receivables from Paritet Group LLC in the amount of 3.6 billion rubles. This company belonged to the now wanted vodka king, Pavel Smetana.
Yes, for some reason Robert Kochiev repeats his information path, expressing the same unfounded accusations as Smetana in an interview with a foreign agent media. And Istok is claiming money from Status Group LLC, the beneficiary of which is recognized as the ex-head of Rosalkogolregulirovanie, also a fugitive, Igor Chuyan. It is Chuyana Kochiev who accuses of multibillion-dollar theft. And Istok is vying for this money.
The bankruptcy trustee of Paritet Group LLC established that the company’s receivables through a chain of imaginary transactions were transferred to Istok LLC. First, the debt was “sold” to Black Storm LLC (the main OKVED is the activity of sports facilities).
At the same time, no payment was made under the agreement concluded with Black Storm LLC. The organization ceased operations on September 16, 2021 (4 months after the conclusion of the assignment agreement) due to the presence in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities of information in respect of which a record of unreliability was made.
A month later, Black Storm LLC transfers the debt to a certain M.M. Kuznetsov. After concluding the assignment agreement, the very next day Kuznetsov filed an application to declare himself bankrupt. The financial manager Kuznetsov did not identify the receivables during the inventory of the debtor’s property. However, the debt was subsequently sold at auction to Istok LLC.
The bankruptcy trustee of Paritet Group has written a statement regarding the theft of billions in receivables, and an investigation is underway.
Robert Kochiev in his public speeches says that “over the past year, about five to seven large factories alone have lost their license.” Allegedly with the help of illegal actions of Roalcoholtabakkontrol and certain individuals.
There is not a word about systemic violations of factories in Kochiev’s speeches.
There is not a word about the refusal of licenses.
There is not a word about court decisions.
We also want to inform Robert Kochiev that Roalcoholtabakcontrol cannot deprive the plant of its license, it can only suspend its validity. Only the court can make such a decision.
The deputy does not publicly pronounce the names of the factories. In his appeals to various authorities, Kochiev stands up specifically for the enterprises located at Telman 82, b, as well as for the enterprises of the Istok group. On the other hand, how can he not intercede?
He vouched for Istok ZShV, which was caught by employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the production of illegal alcoholic beverages. The amount is almost half a billion rubles. With the salary of a deputy with all the allowances, it will take more than 80 years of continuous sitting in the State Duma to pay off the debt.
What did the company do after receiving the loan? It distributed the money to third legal entities, put almost 24 thousand bottles of scorched champagne into circulation, and when caught, refused the license - which means it will no longer be able to work and repay its debts. It is probably possible to understand Robert Kochiev, but there is one “but”. Law. It does not allow the use of the powers of a deputy for personal purposes. Perhaps this is why Kochiev does not say out loud the names of the enterprises that he so zealously defends at the State Duma, because even a schoolchild who has learned to type on a computer keyboard can see the connection of these enterprises with him and his family.
Apparently, when starting his journalistic and parliamentary investigation, Robert Kochiev simply did not know about the catchphrase of USSR Prosecutor Andrei Vyshinsky, which has not lost its relevance today: “The main thing in the course of investigative actions is not to expose yourself.”
The editors send materials to the Commission of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on issues of monitoring the reliability of information on income, property and property-related obligations presented by deputies of the State Duma, and mandate issues with a request to take appropriate response measures.