Veniamin Veniaminovich Grabar. Veniamin Grabar - General Director of CJSC Holding Company Ladoga Battle in Piedmont
Text: Maria Evnevich
Grabar Veniamin Veniaminovich, born June 1, 1966 in Leningrad. In 1988 he graduated from the Military Engineering Space School named after. A.F. Mozhaisky with a degree in radio engineering. After graduating from college, he served in the space forces. In 1992-1996. held senior positions at Alcon OJSC. From 1996 to 1998, he served as General Director of CJSC Russian Vodka Trading House Rosalko-Neva. From 1998 to 2000, he worked as an assistant to the first vice-governor, chairman of the Committee for Economics and Industrial Policy of the Administration of St. Petersburg, overseeing issues of regulating the alcohol market. Organized a system of accounting and control over the circulation of alcoholic beverages in St. Petersburg. Since November 1, 2000, he has held the position of General Director of CJSC Holding Company Ladoga. Raises a son.
Like many modern businessmen, in my youth I did not even imagine that I would be involved in business. After all, I studied at the Military Space Engineering Academy named after. Mozhaisky, and then served in the space forces. In 1991, after being transferred to the reserves, my comrades and I organized our first business. We started with book publishing. They published everything from a public transcription of the Bible to Winnie the Pooh in its original translation. Gradually, my interest in publishing began to fade, and I began producing water purification systems.
— In those years, the state monopoly on alcoholic beverages was just abolished, and I chose this promising market. In 1995, my team created the distribution company “Rosalko-Neva” - the first retail company in St. Petersburg, which was faced with the global task of promoting Russian alcoholic products throughout the country. Later it became clear: to strengthen our position in the market we need a production base. Two years later, we launched our first alcohol production plant in St. Petersburg.
— Our main competitors in the North-West are Veda and LIVIZ. The activities of Veda are organized according to the same principle as ours: production and distribution. They launched their production a year before us, so they managed to occupy a fairly large market share. As for the LIVIZ company, their main enterprise is 100 years old; they have been in this field for a very long time, and it is not surprising that their position in the market is very strong. Currently, there are about 400 companies on the Russian alcohol market, and 25 of them hold 50% of the Russian market for the production of strong alcohol. If we consider the Russian market as a whole, then Ladoga occupies 2.5%. This is a good indicator.
— I manage a holding company that employs 700 people. It includes the Ladoga industrial group, the wholesale distribution company Rosalko-Neva, the export-import company Ladoga-Impex, and the transport company RAN-Trans. My main task as a manager is to assess the effectiveness of each enterprise, coordination and consistency of their actions. The holding must operate smoothly, as a single, well-oiled mechanism.
— The alcohol market is under the close attention of government agencies: eight or nine ministries control our every step. When making any management decisions, one has to predict the reaction from the state. I am a full member of the Russian Government Commission for the Regulation of the Alcohol Market and am a member of the working group on issues of state regulation of the alcohol market under the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District. But the problem is that first legislators figure out how to regulate the market, and then only ask the opinion of producers, who are forced to explain to deputies what consequences this will lead to.
“I know for sure that military service only benefited me and my company.” These skills helped make the company's structure clear and understandable. We employ many former military personnel, mostly in leadership positions. We speak the same language with them, which simplifies the management process.
— I'm a workaholic, and I like it. But human resources are not endless. Rest is a prerequisite for effective work. I prefer to relax where it is warm. The warmer the better - I had enough frosts and cold winds during my service in the Far North. The currently fashionable vacation at ski resorts does not appeal to me. I prefer scuba diving. Of course, I also had to dive into the cool Norwegian water, but I like diving in the Red Sea more. And the next time I have free time, I will definitely go diving in Kamchatka.
— As for vodka, I drink exclusively Tsarskaya. Even if I’m going somewhere abroad, I only order my own vodka, and if it’s not delivered there yet, I take it with me. If we talk about other alcoholic drinks, I really like Italian wines.
FEATURES OF THE NATIONAL DRINK
The tradition of drinking strong drinks in Rus' came from the West, in particular from Venice and Genoa. The Russian peasant liked it, and soon he invented his own technology for their production, which underlies the modern one. It is generally accepted that the history of Russian vodka goes back at least 500 years. The main difference between modern Russian vodka and imported analogues is that it is prepared not with distilled, but with soft spring water. Before Ivan the Terrible, in Rus' they drank natural tinctures with honey and herbs no stronger than 16 degrees. Vodka became 40-proof thanks to Dmitry Mendeleev - he found the ideal ratio of water and alcohol. The introduction of the first state monopoly on the production of vodka in Rus' dates back to 1474; historians date the date of production of the first alcohol from grain raw materials 20-30 years earlier.
The author of the loudest anti-alcohol campaign is Mikhail Gorbachev. A year after it began, alcohol production in the USSR decreased by 50%, 300 thousand hectares of vineyards were cut down, and the number of stores selling alcohol in Moscow alone decreased sixfold. The population compensated for these losses with moonshine and alcohol substitutes: in 1987 alone, about 1 billion bottles of alcohol-containing perfumes and 900 thousand liters of windshield cleaning fluid were drunk in the USSR. In 1989, Gorbachev admitted the failure of the anti-alcohol campaign. The estimated damage in prices of that time amounted to 200 billion rubles. In the 1990s, private manufacturers and distributors appeared on the market. The effect of the devaluation of the ruble after the 1998 crisis stimulated production growth in the alcohol industry, as well as in other industries.
LEADERS OF ALCOHOL PRODUCTION
18 enterprises produce alcoholic beverages in St. Petersburg. The largest producer of vodka in the region is JSC LIVIZ, which accounts for 73% of this product. The second place is occupied by CJSC Industrial Group Ladoga - 25%. In the total volume of wine and vodka products produced in the city, LIVIZ CJSC owns 29%, Industrial Group CJSC
"Ladoga" - 24%. These companies are included in the ranking of the ten largest manufacturers on the Russian market.
In general, locally produced products occupy 54% of the city market. In second place are enterprises of the Leningrad region - 11.6%, in third place - the Moscow region - 7.4%.
In 2004, excise taxes in the amount of 2.1 billion rubles were received from the production and turnover of alcoholic beverages, and in 2003 - 1.2 billion rubles.
In the field of production, the oldest enterprise in St. Petersburg is the LIVIZ plant. The first of the private (non-state) enterprises to appear on the alcohol sales market in St. Petersburg was the distribution company Rosalko-Neva, which is now part of the Ladoga holding. Today, both distributors and manufacturers are present in the Northern capital market. There are examples of successfully operating companies in both sectors - both together and separately.
According to the Committee for Economic Development, Industrial Policy and Trade of the Administration of St. Petersburg
Please enable JavaScript to view theVeniamin Veniaminovich Grabar- President of the Ladoga company, Russian entrepreneur.
Career
Graduated from the Military Space Academy named after. Mozhaisky with a degree in radio engineering in 1988. Served in the space forces. He served at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. After leaving the army, he and his fellow soldiers went into business. I had to try myself in many areas: publishing business, foreign economic activity, for some time I was even an employee in one large company.
From 1992 to 1996, he held senior positions at enterprises in the alcohol industry in St. Petersburg.
In 1994, the first distribution service in St. Petersburg was created.
From 1996 to 1998, he held the position of General Director of CJSC Russian Vodka Trading House Rosalko-Neva.
From 1998 to 2000 - assistant to the First Vice-Governor - Chairman of the Committee on Economics and Industrial Policy of the Administration of St. Petersburg. He dealt with issues of regulation of the alcohol market, organized a system of accounting and control over the circulation of alcoholic products in St. Petersburg.
In October 2004, V.V. Grabar was awarded the Gold Medal of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation “For his active contribution to the development of the alcohol industry by expanding the domestic market for alcoholic products and positioning new high-quality branded brands.” In October 2007, he became a laureate of the “TOP-100. The best managers of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region."
Married, has two sons.
Hobby
An ardent fan of the Zenit club - a Russian football club from St. Petersburg. A classic set of “hobbies”: diving, traveling, skiing, parachuting, theater. Prefers Italian cuisine.
Literature
- “A person who drinks a lot is not our client” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg, Vedomosti, November 21, 2012 Vedomosti
- “It is necessary to increase excise taxes, but not at such a pace” - Veniamin Grabar, Business TV 08/23/2012
- “I’m not against beer, but there’s a lot of it” - Veniamin Grabar, Business Petersburg. 06/08/2012
- “Shopping and alcohol help you relax” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg Kommersant GUIDE, No. 54, March 30, 2010
- “They won’t stop drinking anyway” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // Business Petersburg, No. 015, February 8, 2010
- “Offices on vodka” Vedomosti, St. Petersburg, Wednesday, May 13, 2009
- “Real vodka is produced only in Russia” - Veniamin Grabar, Ladoga company // St. Petersburg RBC daily, No. 130, July 16, 2008
- “A bottle of beer for the price of a bottle of vodka” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg St. Petersburg Courier, No. 33 from 3.09 - 9.09.2009
- “The Royal Window to Europe” Panorama, St. Petersburg No. 34 from 25.08 - 31.08.2008
- “The main thing is not form, but content” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg, Sport, Wednesday December 10, 2008
- “Premium strength” Top-Manager No. 87, November 2008
- “We do not chase volumes just for the sake of volumes themselves” - Veniamin Grabar, President of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg, Kommersant No. 92, Friday May 30, 2008
- “It’s not soldiers and officers who drink, but loafers and parasites” - Veniamin Grabar, president of the Ladoga company // St. Petersburg, Business Petersburg, Thursday, February 22, 2007
© IA "Mosmonitor", 12/08/2017, Photo: via IA "Mosmonitor"
The person involved in dozens of cases and the owner of the fictitiously bankrupt Ladoga is trying to evade the claims of the tax authorities and the Investigative Committee
Leonid Semenov
| Veniamin Grabar |
However, Grabar and his business partner Andrei Kuporosov are no strangers to such troubles. Since the beginning of the 1990s, they have not appeared in any criminal cases and pre-investigation checks. Reading the track record of this couple of “vodka drinkers,” you might think that you are getting acquainted with the files of people who, in the shadow world of the Northern capital, almost reached the level of the former “night governor” of St. Petersburg Vladimir Barsukov-Kumarin. This includes taking bribes, non-payment of taxes, attempted murders and actual murders, extortion and much more. If it were not for Grabar’s connections, on which the entire Ladoga business rests, his “case” could already sound “louder” today than the case of the same Kumarin.
Medicinal vodka Grabara
A graduate of the Military Space Academy named after. Veniamin Grabar started Mozhaisky back in 1992, when he became an employee of Alcon OJSC. This is a Novgorod alcohol producer, whose interests in the 90s also included St. Petersburg. Enterprises in the “hard” years were very specific. It produced tinctures with herbs of oregano, sweet clover, peppermint, yarrow, and St. John's wort flowers, which (quoted from the AOOT advertising booklet) “have medicinal properties and help mitigate the manifestations of alcohol syndrome.” It is clear that some of the products were sold not as alcohol, but as medicinal drugs with all the required tax breaks. Apparently, Grabar also had a hand in such schemes, since his career at the enterprise developed rapidly. By 1996, Grabar was already part of the management of Alcon, where he was responsible for sales. And then he left him, starting his own vodka projects. But Benjamin did not leave empty-handed. Just in 1996, by order of Grabar, Alkon entered into banking service agreements with two commercial banks: Slavyanbank in Novgorod and Aktiv in Moscow. In both banks, Alcon opened current accounts for current settlement transactions.
But then strange things began to happen. Alkon sent payment orders to Aktiva to transfer 6 million rubles to accounts at Slavyanbank, confirmation of the transfer arrived, but the money mysteriously did not reach Slavyanbank. However, it’s hardly worth looking for a scam in Alcon’s actions here. The plant itself chose not to contact law enforcement agencies, but filed a lawsuit. Aktiv Bank defended itself extremely “sluggishly”: it admitted that it used other people’s money, but did not want to return it. But Alcon somehow didn’t insist much.
In short, this was the first time a scheme was implemented to “move” money “into the shadows” and avoid taxation. To date, many dozens of similar schemes have been developed; the fame of their authorship is rumored to be attributed to Veniamin Grabar.
Initially, Grabar’s independent vodka projects concerned exclusively the distribution of alcoholic products in the northwestern region. In particular, he had at his disposal a wholesale base for the sale of alcohol “Rosalko”. And in March 1998, a new distillery, Ladoga, opened in St. Petersburg, owned by Veniamin Grabar. By the way, according to an already proven scheme, the enterprise began with tinctures that supposedly “had medicinal properties.” However, Grabar could not develop to its full potential in the Northern capital. By the time Ladoga appeared, another “vodka king” reigned at the alcohol market in St. Petersburg - Alexander Sabadash, and no one could work in his “clearing” without becoming his “vassal”.
Grabar turned out to have a very good ace in his hole. During his distribution activities, he developed a trusting relationship with Ilya Klebanov, who just in 1998 was appointed the first vice-governor of St. Petersburg. Klebanov, soon after his appointment to this high post, granted Veniamin Grabar the official status of his assistant on issues of regulating the alcohol market.
Having formally rewritten “Ladoga” to his partners, Grabar, already as an official, zealously set to work. At his instigation, the city administration churned out decisions one after another that significantly helped Ladoga and put a spoke in the wheels of the company’s competitors, primarily the Niva plant, controlled by Sabadash and his business partner Anton Khokhlov.I wanted to imprison Nevzorov, but I imprisoned myself
That time, as later, Grabar was let down by pathological greed. And so, having huge informal income from lobbying the interests of his de facto “Ladoga” in Smolny, he decided to also earn money from donations from alcohol market players who wanted to obtain a license or other decisions in the city administration. Such activities were recorded by the businessmen themselves, and the information became available to selected journalists. But Grabar did not want to pay anyone for silence.
And so, on April 27, 1999, at 10 a.m., Veniamin Grabar personally brought a statement to the St. Petersburg RUBOP. A criminal case has been initiated with the following plot: “from March 1998 to February 1999, an unknown person, under the threat of physical violence and dissemination of information that could cause significant harm, extorted 30 thousand US dollars from him.” According to the reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, within an hour “during the conduct of operational search activities near the house 45 on Novocherkassky Prospekt by the task force 1 MRO SSZ RUBOP (senior - station department for internal affairs department Goryachev) together with the BT service of the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region detained: Nevzorov A.G., born in 1958, who was convicted of having repeatedly demanded from V.V. Grabar in order to obtain property on a large scale. 30 thousand US dollars... Nevzorov A.G. repeatedly sent incriminating letters to V.V. Grabar. at his place of work, as well as to the Government of St. Petersburg and the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.”
As a result, criminal case No. 993249 was initiated under Art. 163, part 3, paragraph "b" of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Extortion".
And although all the data of the detainee (including date of birth and address) coincide with the famous St. Petersburg television journalist of that time Alexander Nevzorov, today all participants in those events, by agreement, claim that it was “not that Nevzorov,” but supposedly some of his namesake. In any case, the case of extorting a large sum from Venimamin Grabar by reporter Alexander Nevzorov soon “died.”
But then, in April 1999, after a successful operation to detain Nevzorov on Novocherkassk Square, Grabar still could not know this, he was “inspired” by an endless string of victories and, in a great mood, again arrived at the RUBOP to fill out all the papers. And then, unexpectedly for himself... he was detained himself. He was handcuffed on charges of receiving bribes from Anton Khokhlov from Niva. According to the director of this vodka factory, from the very day of his appointment to the post of adviser to the first vice-governor, Khokhlov constantly paid Grabar money for issuing licenses and other services. This information was also confirmed during interrogations by Inna Nemtsina, Khokhlov’s sister and his business partner.
As a result, Grabar was arrested and sent to a pre-trial detention center, and his case could have become extremely high-profile. Soon Khokhlov filed a statement in which he pointed out Grabar’s possible involvement in the murder in November 1996 of the general director of the RossCo financial and industrial group, Dmitry Filippov. But this investigation was hindered by one circumstance. On May 31, 1999, Ilya Klebanov, Grabar’s boss in the St. Petersburg administration, was promoted, becoming Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government. Grbar began celebrating this appointment in advance, as soon as it became known.
On May 10, 1999, Anton Khokhlov’s apartment on Novocherkassky Prospekt was shelled. An unknown criminal fired 14 bullets at the illuminated window at night, in which he noticed Khokhlov’s silhouette. The director of Niva managed to hide behind a heating radiator and was not injured.
And already on May 23, a raid was made on the dacha of Tatyana Lobanova, a close friend of Inna Nemtsina, commercial director of the AFB-2 company (owned by Sabadash). Four unknown masked attackers struck Lobanova herself, her daughter and son-in-law with baseball bats.
"The Godfather" Grabar
All victims openly blamed Grabar for the incident. But the investigation, as Klebanov settled into his new place, became more and more “deaf” and “blind.” Already in October 1999, Grabar was released on bail. And in court his case was frankly ruined. Having resolved all the problems with law enforcement agencies and the court, Grabar became a kind of “godfather” of vodka producers. The “players” of this type of business came to bow to him (of course, when Klebanov was in such a post in Moscow).
And for those who did not want to come voluntarily, there seemed to be other methods of persuasion. So, in 2002, killers fired at Inna Nemtsina’s car. After such a warning, the frightened woman ran to Grabar to negotiate a truce. Together, they first wrote a statement on behalf of Nemtsina, alleging that earlier during the investigation she had given false testimony against Grabar. And at the same time they accused their brother, with whom they shared a business, of assassination. Through the efforts of Grabar, a year later Khokhlov was even detained on suspicion of organizing an assassination attempt.
In the same 2002, Grabar was confronted with a new prospect of going to jail. As follows from the archives of the security forces, this year criminal case No. 440471 came to light, initiated by the tax police in St. Petersburg against a certain Lyudmila Amezhenko and Andrei Kuporosov. The latter is a co-owner of Ladoga and a longtime friend of Veniamin. It is not surprising that in the case materials one of the main defendants was Grabar himself. And it was about non-payment of taxes on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
But “godfather” Grabar then got away with it again. Why be surprised if in 2003 Ilya Klebanov was appointed plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District.
 |
| Andrey Kuporosov |
A well-trodden tax path
Tax officials fear that the ex-official may repeat the tax evasion scheme he has already tried by bankrupting his companies. Its former parent company, the Ladoga Industrial Group, once one of the leaders of the Russian alcohol market, unexpectedly became bankrupt for market participants in 2015. Moreover, she initiated the bankruptcy process herself - after claims from tax officials appeared, who accused her of tax evasion with the help of shell companies. According to investigators, this is a case of insolvency of a company with a 15% share in the alcohol market in St. Petersburg with a total turnover of about 20 billion rubles. per year, forms the classic composition of fictitious bankruptcy.
Until this moment, Ladoga was doing business very successfully. Having started as a distribution company in 1995, two years later it launched its production in St. Petersburg. Another 12 years later, in 2009, she bought the Czech distillery Fruko Schulz. And shortly before the crisis - in 2012 - it acquired two wineries in Spain with a total capacity of 13.5 million bottles per year and the EARL Les Vignobles Reunis distillery in France. As Veniamin Grabar himself boasted in one of his interviews, the company at that time had significant land plots in the most prestigious “alcoholic” provinces of France - Grande Champagne, Petit Champagne and Fins Bois.
What resources made such a rapid expansion into the EU possible remained a mystery for some time. But the secret turned out to be simple: it’s all about saving on taxes. Some facts were revealed in June 2014, when tax officials summed up the results of an on-site audit of the company for 2010-2011. And they saw that Grabar’s group successfully lowered income taxes with the help of... bottle decorations, paying for decorated containers at increased prices. And, accordingly, reducing the base for this tax.
Among the participants in this scheme were Akteon LLC, Grand LLC and Uniservice LLC. Tax officials were alarmed that these companies had all the classic signs of one-day companies. They were absent from their legal addresses. They had neither workers nor basic means of production. In some cases, two ephemeral organizations and one of the group’s structures even had the same IP addresses. The actual supply of glass bottles was carried out by RAS-Trans LLC, also part of Ladoga and registered at the same address as the main taxpayer. Until June 2009, among the founders of RAN-Trans were top managers of Ladoga, including Mr. Grabar. And the containers were decorated by Stimul LLC and the Glass-Decor group, with whom Ladoga worked directly.
Tax officials suspected that the group had simply created a scheme to increase the value of a decorated glass bottle. After all, the price of varieties of bottles with a full cycle of decoration is 5-6 times lower than the cost of those sold to Ladoga.
Employees of the Vodka King tried to appeal the claims, citing the fact that intermediaries added additional decorations to the glass containers. But they could not convince the court.
In order not to pay about a billion rubles in tax claims, the owners of Ladoga - the majority shareholder and de facto leader Veniamin Grabar and his junior partner and official leader - general director Andrei Kuporosov, decided to bankrupt the parent structure. And at the end of February 2015, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region declared the Ladoga Industrial Group OJSC bankrupt, opening bankruptcy proceedings under a simplified procedure in relation to the liquidated company for a period of six months. To the delight of the owners, their good friend Andrei Shutilov was appointed as the bankruptcy manager. And in fact, this trio did everything to bankrupt a successful enterprise.
"Everything that is acquired through backbreaking labor"
The industrial group's debts to creditors unexpectedly surfaced. For example, as follows from the ruling of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region dated July 2, 2015 (available to the editors), Bowerstone Capital Limited (Great Britain) applied to the court to include claims in the register of claims in the amount of about 240 million rubles.
True, the owners of Ladoga tried to preserve the production itself. Back at the end of March 2014 - a couple of months before the results of the tax audit became known - Ladoga Group LLC was created. After bankruptcy, more than 140 employees transferred from OJSC PG Ladoga to Ladoga Group - that is, almost 100% of the staff of the new company (according to RBC). Moreover, based on the analysis of 2-NDFL certificates, all these people stopped working at the Ladoga PG at the same time and the next day - also at the same time - were hired at the Ladoga Group.
In a very similar way, production and warehouse equipment “gone”, which migrated from the Industrial Group to the Group through the SK-Standard company. The rights to the brands were inherited by Ladoga Distribution, which is now headed by Veniamin Grabar himself. After the St. Petersburg plant stopped working, Lada Distribution placed orders at other sites, and then returned them to St. Petersburg after the plant started operating again.
From an analysis of bank statements for the current accounts of OJSC PG Ladoga and LLC Ladoga Group, the court concluded that in fact the services and supplies necessary for the work were provided by the same counterparties. The main supplier of raw materials necessary for the manufacture of products for both companies was Ladoga Distribution LLC. And the products produced by the Ladoga Industrial Group at the time the decision came into force based on the results of the on-site tax audit were withdrawn from the debtor’s circulation. However, it remained in circulation of the Ladoga Group.
It also turned out that although the founders of the Group and the Industrial Group are different companies, the director of both was the same person - Russian citizen Yuri Tikhonov, who now permanently resides in the Czech Republic and does not appear when summoned for questioning by tax officials and law enforcement officers. Moreover, both parent companies are located in the same place - at an address in London. In general, Tikhonov heads dozens of Grabar’s offshore companies, which are involved in tax evasion and money laundering schemes in the European Union.
Although Grabar himself denied his connection with the new Ladoga Group, the tax authorities filed a lawsuit against this new legal entity in early February 2017. Two weeks later, she asked to seize the company's accounts and property, fearing that she would try to withdraw money if the decision was not in her favor. As a result, the court recognized both companies as interdependent legal entities and decided to recover from the Ladoga Group the debt of the bankrupt Ladoga PG in the amount of about 727 million rubles and a state duty in the amount of 200 thousand rubles.
Tax officials also proved in the courts the affiliation with Grabar of offshore companies, which acted as pseudo-creditors and were actually managed personally by Veniamin Grabar. Even at the time of receivership.
At the beginning of August 2017, the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region arrested, at the request of the tax authorities, the property of Grabar, Kuporosov and Tikhonov with a total value of more than 3.5 billion rubles as part of the company’s bankruptcy case. True, the Federal Tax Service also demanded that the funds in the St. Petersburg Bank be seized, the land plots of Grabar in the Tosnensky district in the village of Ulyanovka with a residential building, in the city of Pavlovsk and an apartment on Vasilyevsky Island, as well as prohibit all three from taking actions to dispose of the shares in the authorized capital of a number of organizations in which they are founders. However, the court supported only the request to seize the money and property of businessmen. That is, he gave the determination of the specific composition of the property subject to seizure to the bailiff. As the operatives said, most of this property was re-registered by Grabar to other persons on the day of the judicial arrest.
A little earlier, in March, the Office of the Federal Bailiff Service for St. Petersburg seized equipment and more than 248 thousand bottles of alcohol as part of interim measures imposed by the court. Today, the vodka empire of Veniamin Grabar operates in a stable manner. Proceeds from the import and production of alcohol are transferred to offshore accounts for laundering in the EU according to well-established, albeit rather obvious, schemes.
Ladoga Distribution assures that their reserves are sufficient to meet customer requests for at least a year. LLC "Ladoga Group" has already filed an appeal against the court decision. Whether the tax authorities will be able to bring the matter to an end is still unknown. The scheme of bankruptcy of the parent company and preservation of the business is, in general, not new, and has long been used in Russia. However, recently the role and weight of the Federal Tax Service in the public finance system has increased significantly.
And the tax authorities, it seems, do not intend to miss out on such large, multi-billion dollar sums, and will seek the fulfillment of taxpayers’ obligations to the budget in full - no matter what signs they hide behind. Although it is quite possible that the master of developing tax schemes, Veniamin Grabar, will figure out how to get away with it this time too. Well, or he will flee abroad, where everything is prepared for a well-fed life with funds hidden from taxation in Russia and laundered in the EU. If he has time, of course. After all, Grabar’s tax frauds have already attracted the interest of not only tax authorities, but also employees of the central apparatus of the Russian Investigative Committee due to their alarmingly large volumes.
The office of the President of the Ladoga industrial group, Veniamin Grabar, is spacious, but devoid of conspicuous luxury. Obviously, this is an official office, and the atmosphere in it is working. Photo portrait of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. And a huge canvas above the chair of the owner of the office - Russian Prime Minister Sergei Yulievich Witte. The head of the tsar's cabinet was a supporter of the industrialization of the state and contributed in every possible way to the development of industry. The current Russian prime minister is solving, among others, the same problems. Sergei Yulievich contributed to the introduction of a state “wine monopoly” on alcohol. This monopoly did not at all contradict the creation of private companies for the production of alcohol. Which, in fact, is what Ladoga, led by Veniamin Grabar, does. The hospitable owner of the office seemed to take a thoughtful approach to the choice of portraits. I must admit, I expected to see a photo of Dick Advocaat or Pavel Sadyrin on the walls, because Veniamin Veniaminovich’s passion for Zenit is well known.
Zenit is forever
— You are an ardent fan of Zenit. Have you been sick for a long time, Veniamin Veniaminovich?
- Since 1979.
— Does the date have something to do with it?
— At first, with events not directly related to football. That year I changed schools, moving to a new area. And there I made a friend who played excellent football. He dragged me to the stadium. And then everything happened instantly. I was immediately and forever hooked.
— It was going to the boy at that time...
— I was 13 years old then. It was too late to start playing football seriously.
Battle of Piedmont
— I haven’t tried to study. Play - played, and constantly. This friend of mine was our ideological inspirer and organizer during our school years. After classes we immediately went to play. On weekends it's the same. He played at the military academy, and when he served in the army he never parted with the ball. This went on for quite some time. But my last match was a long time ago - 5 years ago. The meeting was international: in Piedmont, Italy. We arrived to visit our business partners. Our partners are passionate Juventus fans, fortunately Turin is close to Piedmont. There were five of us - the full board of directors of the company. Well, we played five on five, on a field that was half the size. We didn’t have any uniforms or anything with us. So our Italian friends gave us sports equipment. As a result, we played...in Juventus uniforms; Zenit ones were not sold in Italy at that time. And all five were Del Piero.
- Apostasy, Veniamin Veniaminovich!
- In no way! It's not a matter of form, but of content, and with us it is always Zenit!
— But you played better against the Juventus fans than Zenit did against the Old Lady?
— We played 2 halves of 20 minutes. The first one was completed - 1:7. We didn’t play well, everyone ran to attack - well, they stuffed us.
— The Italians love counterattacks...
— We sat down during the break, made a plan for the game and won the second 8:6.
- That is, approximately like Zenit and Juventus. It turns out that the Ladoga board of directors is able to field a completely competitive team for the Zenit fan tournament in memory of Pavel Sadyrin?
- It turns out so. The top management of our Italian partners has a serious team, one might say, a family one. This is the company “Gancha” - they are all relatives in the management there. Monopoly company. “Martini”, “Cinzano”, “Gancha” are world brands. By the way, we constantly discuss football news with them.
— The unifying force of football? Helps in business?
- Certainly! There is not enough free time, or rather, in fact, there is simply no time. We try to use our trips to Zenit matches for good. At the same time, hold business meetings. Madrid is no exception. Football brings people together. Many issues are resolved easier and faster.
Who played football from the cradle? Our Volodya Kazachenok!
— You are a fan with 30 years of experience. Do you have any favorite football players?
- Undoubtedly. In previous years - Vladimir Kazachenok. I will also highlight Nikolai Larionov. I have great respect for Alexey Igonin. I really liked the way he played for Zenit, and now I continue to watch him closely. From the current composition - first of all, Igor Denisov. It seems to me that in previous years he was unlucky. The guy was missing something. This season has been a great success for him. For many years, my idol was Kerzhakov, but now he is not in that shape. A very difficult attitude towards Arshavin. He is, of course, a genius, but...
— When did you start seriously hoping that your favorite team could win the European trophy? It’s not because everyone is chanting: “There will be a goal, there will be two, there will be a UEFA Cup,” but in reality?
- Seriously? This spring, when Marseille scored a goal away. And so... There was something about youthful maximalism in 1984, but in reality - this spring.
— Were you disappointed by Zenit’s debut in the Champions League?
- Not at all! The team played great, but they were very unlucky. The ball didn't go into the goal! But we should have defeated both Juventus in Turin and Real in St. Petersburg. I think that we performed very well.
Football is a family affair
— Are you interested in any other sports besides football?
— I love biathlon, it’s an amazing sport. Of the individual species, this is the only one I love. I watch basketball, and in general I prefer team sports. All this is like a fan. And I myself have been doing only diving for a long time. Dives - all over the world.
- But still, fan love is the truest, agree, Veniamin Veniaminovich! Perhaps even more faithful than to a woman.
- No, no, no, I don’t agree! These are completely different feelings, they cannot be compared.
“Then tell me about your family.”
- If you please. My wife is also a fan. So we go to football as a family. And we often fly on trips as a family. And so, by the way, is almost the entire management of Ladoga.
The price of success
— This season, Zenit won the UEFA Cup and Super Cup, the Russian team won bronze medals at the European Championship. In your opinion, is it possible to talk about the rise of Russian sports?
— Russian sport is difficult to climb (smiles). There is, of course, this rise. Everything in this world is closely related to the economy. Where is the rise? Where the money is invested. They invested money in clubs and there were successes. They brought top coaches - and this brought good luck. This is in football, but it is similar in basketball. On the one hand, the dominance of legionnaires does not seem to be very good. But our athletes really have problems with dedication in training. Legionnaires, as they say, are being pulled up. Take Fernando Ricksen for example. He doesn't have much game practice. But always, when he enters the field, he demonstrates excellent readiness. So, he works hard in training! Tymoshchuk is also an example. I am sure that my beloved Denisov has improved because the situation in the team has changed, and the guys are plowing. Well, and, I repeat, financing. They began to invest money in biathlon, and the team held a fantastic, victorious championship. And in those sports where there is not enough money... Here is alpine skiing. No money - no tracks - no results.
— Let’s return to your main activity, Veniamin Veniaminovich. In very ancient times, our football players loved the saying “Vodka is for dribbling, beer is for dashing.” She is still in use.
— Strong alcoholic drinks are an integral part of the life of all peoples living in northern latitudes, not only Russians. What is a stadium? Let's take Petrovsky - 23,000 healthy, normal, energetic men. Well, why don’t they take 100 grams? You just have to do it skillfully. If you don't know how to drink, don't drink. Too much is bad in everything. And so - it’s normal, alcohol liberates a person, let the man drink a little, shout in the stadium... But, I repeat, in moderation.
Russian vodka
-What do you prefer?
- According to the situation, according to the situation. I love the first sip of freshly poured beer. But - the first sip. And in winter, after a good walk in the frost or after a hot bathhouse - how can you not take a shot of vodka? I just can't imagine. So, perhaps, my favorite drink is vodka!
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