Details of the lawsuit have become known, with the help of which the Prosecutor General's Office in arbitration seeks to claim in favor of the Russian Federation three enterprises of the Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Combine (CHEMK) industrial group. This is what the Kommersant newspaper writes about.
According to the supervision, the privatization of factories belonging to the military-industrial complex carried out more than 30 years ago was illegal, since it required permission from the Russian government.
In a lawsuit to the Arbitration Court of the Sverdlovsk Region on the reclamation of shares of enterprises of the CHEMK industrial group (according to the holding, they produce 90% of ferroalloys in Russia and belong to JSC Etalon Company Yuri and Lyudmila Antipov), the Prosecutor General's Office pointed to the illegal "seizure" in the 1990s by the defendants of state—owned enterprises - Serov Ferroalloy Plant, Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical the combine and the Kuznetsk Ferroalloy Plant. Their assets were transferred abroad "with the aim of harming the national interests, defense and security of the country," according to a lawsuit filed by Kommersant against Etalon, as well as the Antipov spouses.
The Prosecutor General's Office notes that the enterprises of the CHEMK group are the country's largest producers of ferroalloys used in the manufacture of high-quality steel for military equipment, heat-resistant aircraft engines, impact-resistant weapons barrels and armor-piercing shells. The lawsuit clarifies that the plants "were part of a closely related cooperative group (production and technological complex) with defense enterprises for the manufacture of weapons systems and elements," therefore, according to paragraph 2.2.1 of the Privatization Program for 1992, the decision to corporatize and transfer enterprises to private ownership "was exclusively within the competence of the Government of the Russian Federation," and the Cabinet of Ministers did not make such a decision.
The same violation, according to the Prosecutor General's Office, was committed by the Chelyabinsk Regional Committee for State Property Management in relation to CHEMK, whose securities were distributed by the regional property Fund in 1993-1994, and the Kuzbass branch for State Property Management of the Kemerovo Region in relation to Kuznetsk Ferroalloys (shares were distributed in 1993-1996). "The above circumstances are the basis for the claim in favor of the state of assets illegally disposed of by Yu.Antipov and related persons in addition to the will of the owners," the department says, which is referred to by Kommersant.
The lawsuit also says that, having received 100% of the shares, Yuri Antipov in February 2023 issued assets to JSC Etalon Company owned by him and his family, and then three plants "of strategic importance for ensuring the defense and security of the country", and completely "came under the control of residents of unfriendly states"in particular, the Canadian-Swiss RFA International. The company acts as a CHEMK trader.
The CHEMK Group, in turn, claims that the enterprises are not part of the military-industrial complex. The holding notes that they supply ferroalloys to metallurgical enterprises — MMK, NLMK, Severstal and others, and they already ship steel to defense plants.
CHEMK reports that the same privatization scheme as at the three plants was used "absolutely in all regions of Russia with all industrial enterprises," but "errors were revealed 32 years later only at CHEMK, NWF and CF," Kommersant adds.
However, as Kommersant has already reported, it was violations during privatization that served as the basis for satisfying the claims of the Prosecutor General's Office for the return to Russian ownership of such large enterprises as JSC Volzhsky Orgsintez and JSC Metafrax Chemicals, as well as many others.
Earlier, as part of the case, the court seized shares, movable and immovable property of three plants of the CHEMK group.
Chelyabinsk Electrometallurgical Plant is a major producer of ferroalloys in Russia. The range of products includes more than 120 names of ferroalloys and ligatures, more than 40 products of electrode production.
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