Port of assignment: ex-head of Fesco sent to jail in embezzlement case

Two former top managers of the Fesco transport group have been sent to jail until April 11. This decision was made on February 12 by the Meshchansky district court against the former chairman of the board of directors and ex-co-owner of the company Andrey Severilov and its vice-president Boris Ivanov. The defendants in the case are accused of embezzlement of 885 million rubles, Izvestia found out. Sources of the publication report that both were detained on February 11, after a search of the company. According to the charges, Severilov and Ivanov face up to ten years in prison, lawyers believe. The situation may be related to the case of the ex-owners of Fesco, the brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov, who were convicted of embezzlement of 11 billion rubles in 2022.

Embezzlement of 885 million rubles

On February 12, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow sent Andrei Severilov, the former head of the board of directors and ex-co-owner of the Fesco transport group, to jail. He will spend two months there, until April 11. Boris Ivanov, the company's vice president for production development, was arrested along with him for the same period. They are accused of embezzling 855 million rubles, a source told Izvestia.

Severilov and Ivanov were detained on February 11, immediately after searches at the company's office. Interlocutors familiar with the investigation said that both were suspected of being part of an organized group that consisted of beneficiaries and managers of the Far Eastern Shipping Company (PJSC DVMP, the parent company of Fesco) and the Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port (PJSC VMTP).

According to the Izvestia source, the investigation believes that the participants in the OPS created the Vladporttrans company, which did not conduct any real activities. Then they fictitiously overestimated the value of its assets — up to 885 million rubles. And after that, they sold the company to the Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port.

— 885 million rubles were transferred from the VMTP settlement account to the account of one of the participants in the scheme. The investigation regards them as abducted by members of an organized group," the source told the publication. — This is qualified under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation — embezzlement on an especially large scale using official position.

At the time of these events, Andrey Severilov owned 23.8% of Fesco shares. Among the beneficiaries of the company were the brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov, who were arrested in March 2018. They were accused of creating an OPS and nine counts of fraud with damages of more than 11 billion rubles.

In January 2023, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General's Office for the conversion of a controlling stake (92.5%) of shares of the Far Eastern Shipping Company to the state revenue. Andrei Severilov and the Magomedov brothers were among the defendants in court.

What threatens the accused

The case of former FESCO top managers is a classic example of corporate embezzlement, says Sofya Lukinova, head of the legal department at VMT Consult.

— From the point of view of criminal law, there is a whole range of signs characteristic of organized economic crimes. A key element of the mechanism was the deliberately fictitious valuation of 100% of the share of the authorized capital of Vladporttrans LLC: It was artificially inflated almost nine times," the expert explained in an interview with Izvestia.

The money was withdrawn on a formally legitimate basis, but this transaction did not make economic sense, Sofya Lukinova believes.

"This allows us to classify actions not as an ordinary commercial risk, but as a deliberate withdrawal of company funds in favor of affiliated companies," she noted. — The actual transfer of 885 million rubles to the account of one of the participants in the scheme strengthens the position of the investigation, as it indicates the direct seizure of assets and the completion of the corpus delicti.

In addition, the embezzlement was committed using official position, the lawyer said. According to her, all the key elements are present in the case: the entrusted property, the use of managerial powers, the organized nature of the actions, as well as the particularly large amount of damage, which significantly exceeds the threshold established by law.

"The article on embezzlement on a particularly large scale using official position provides for serious punishment, reflecting the high degree of public danger of such acts," said Vladimir Kuznetsov, chairman of the All—Russian Trade Union of Mediators. — Embezzlement, as a form of embezzlement, involves the misuse of someone else's property entrusted to the perpetrator in their favor or in favor of others.

According to him, there are three aspects to the case: a particularly large amount of damage, the use of official position and the commission of a crime by an organized group.

"The sanction of part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to ten years with a fine of up to one million rubles," Vladimir Kuznetsov added. — This criminal case is developing against the background of the lawsuits that have already taken place related to the Fesco group, in particular, on the seizure of assets for state revenue and criminal cases against the previous owners, the Magomedov brothers. This may indicate a systematic approach by law enforcement agencies to investigating possible abuses in the management of large assets.

According to the expert, the investigation needs to provide convincing evidence of the fictitious activities of Vladporttrans, the overestimation of its assets, as well as the intent of the defendants to embezzle in order to successfully prove the guilt of the defendants. The defense will probably challenge the fictitiousness of the transaction, prove the real value of the share and the absence of intent to waste.