6.7 BILLION WAS RECOVERED FROM THE EX-DIRECTOR OF THE KUCHINO LANDFILL

The Arbitration Court of the Moscow region heeded the petition of the bankruptcy trustee (KU) dealing with the bankruptcy of the company "Procurement" (CJSC). In operation of the company headed by Vladimir Volodin, there was a landfill of solid waste "Kuchino". The manager asked to bring Vladimir Volodin to subsidiary responsibility. As a result, the court issued a verdict on the recovery of 6.7 billion rubles from the former head of the company.

The case of subsidiary liability of persons who controlled the debtor's activities is being considered by the court for the second time. Initially, the courts refused KU. He demanded to bring to justice not only the ex-director Vladimir Volodin, but also the owners of the shares of the organization Dmitry Kuzovkin and Sergey Levashov. The case reached the Supreme Court, which on May 30 overturned the decisions of the lower judicial bodies, sending the case to the primary instance for reconsideration.

According to KU, the company "Procurement" went bankrupt because it had been working for a long time with obvious violations of the requirements of the law and existing contractual obligations. During the bankruptcy of the company, a problem arose with the establishment of the register of shareholders of the CJSC, since it was never transferred to the CU. The accounting department of the company did not correspond to the actual practice of operating a landfill for garbage collection and disposal.

However, KU's reference to the argument that the head of the firm and his shareholders could not have been unaware of what was happening at the landfill did not convince. Volodin's violation of the obligation to hand over documents was explained by the actions of law enforcement agencies that seized documents for the needs of the investigation. Kuzovkin and Levashov, as shareholders, were not recognized as persons controlling the debtor's activities, since they turned out to be minority shareholders.

Also, the courts previously referred to the verdict of the city court of Balashikha, issued on July 7, 2018. He was considering a crime of causing harm to the environment. The deputy general director and the master of the landfill were found guilty in the case. The investigator did not conduct a criminal case against Volodin, having drawn up a corresponding resolution on the refusal to initiate a case.

As a result, the Supreme Court, where KU's application got after all the collisions, recommended that the courts answer the question of who actually controlled the work of the CJSC. The courts also had to check the applicant's arguments about how the business itself was carried out and what the system of work that was established by the company's management had to do with bankruptcy.

As a result, the arbitration of the Moscow region brought Volodin to subsidiary responsibility, agreeing with the argument of the manager that the firm conducted illegal activities. Environmental damage was estimated at 6.2 billion rubles. At the same time, the court did not hold Levashov and Kuzovkin accountable.

Photo: Freepik