Sums of money: Rusagro founder Vadim Moshkovich arrested in Moscow

Vadim Moshkovich, the founder of Rusagro holding, was detained in Moscow, a source told Izvestia. The company's offices are being searched. For more information, see the Izvestia article.

What was the reason for the detention of Rusagro founder Vadim Moshkovich?

On Wednesday afternoon, March 26, Vadim Moshkovich, the founder of the Rusagro agro-industrial holding and a former senator from the Belgorod region, was detained in Moscow. Timur Lipatov, the general director of the company, was taken into custody with him, the 112 Telegram channel reports.

Previously, the billionaire and his accomplice are being investigated for large-scale fraud and illegal land grabbing. They are currently being interrogated.

The company's offices in Moscow, Belgorod, Tambov and Saratov are being searched, previously linked to a criminal case under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud by a group of persons by prior agreement).

There have been no official comments from representatives of the company or the businessman at the moment. Rusagro shares fell by 19.5% after reports of the detention of the company's founder.

Who is Vadim Moshkovich and Rusagro

Vadim Moshkovich was a senator from the Belgorod Region from 2006 to 2014. In addition to Rusagro, he owns a large construction company, Level Group. His fortune is estimated at more than $2 billion.

In 2022, he was sanctioned by Western countries. At the same time, in 2024, a group of deputies proposed to the Ministry of Justice to recognize Moshkovich as a foreign agent because of his series of anti-Russian statements. In addition, according to the parliamentarians, the businessman managed assets through offshore companies and was under the influence of Western intelligence agencies.

Rusagro is one of the most powerful agricultural holdings in the country, one of the largest domestic sugar producers. The company was founded by Moskovich in 2004 and is managed by the Cyprus organization Ros AGRO PLC.

The holding includes the brands "Russian sugar", "Chaikofsky", Mon Cafe, cane sugar "Brownie", cereals "Warm Traditions". In addition, 15 subsidiaries of the holding produce pork, dairy and fat products, as well as cereals.

The trial between Rusagro and Agro-Belogorye Group of Companies

In 2023, Rusagro and the co-owners of the Belgorod holding Agro-Belogorye, Vladimir Zotov and Larisa Kovaleva, signed an agreement on their intention to combine livestock assets. However, the parties could not agree on the details, and the deal was stopped. At the same time, Rusagro filed several lawsuits with the courts of the Belgorod region.

One of Rusagro's lawsuits (which had a 22.5% stake in Agro-Belogorye) It was submitted to the main owner of the agricultural holding, Vladimir Zotov, who owns 72.5% of the enterprise. Another 5% belongs to CEO Larisa Kovaleva. The reason for the litigation was the fact that in 2023 Zotov contributed 25% of his shares as a contribution to the property of another company, Russian Metal.

In April 2024, the Arbitration Court of the Belgorod Region ordered Vladimir Zotov, the main owner of Agro-Belogorye, to transfer 25% of the shares in favor of Rusagro for 2.5 thousand rubles.

There were several controversial points in the case, one of them was the share transfer price of 2.5 thousand rubles. This cost is nominal, and this information has been brought to court. According to the accounting department of Agro-Belogorye, the value of the company's assets is 16.4 billion rubles.