VORONEZH "ALUMINUM KING" IS ACCUSED OF MAJOR FRAUD

Leonid Arapov, who once headed the Voronezh firm Ava-Trade, was sent under house arrest for one month. The decision on this was made by the Tagansky district Court, which supported the petition of the investigation. Arapov is accused of major fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The ex-leader is threatened with a ten-year sentence if the corpus delicti is proven.

According to Vedomosti, the current criminal case is not the only accusation in Arapov's career. In 2021, the entrepreneur was already involved in a case involving an attempt to avoid tax payments. The case concerned an amount of 200 million rubles. As a result, the damage was repaid, and the case itself was closed.

In the regional media, Arapov received the nickname "aluminum king". This happened after the businessman celebrated the thirtieth birthday of his wife Yulia Buryak on a large scale. Subsequently, the financial situation of the spouse was seriously shaken. Now the issue of declaring him bankrupt is being considered by the arbitration of the Voronezh Region.

Until 2017, Arapov was a co-owner of the Ava-Trade company. At the same time, even after the businessman lost his rights to a share in the company, he remained its head until 2022. In the last year of his leadership , revenue reached 6.5 billion.

In April 2022, he was removed from the position he had held since November 2014. It turned out that Arapov paid for his tourist trips with his wife with the company's finances. The total cost of flights and hotel accommodation amounted to more than 15.79 million.

Considering that the firm does not conduct any business operations in Turkey, the businessman failed to justify the expenses with production tasks. The former director also did not submit any business documents, be it business trip sheets or trip reports.

On February 15, the Voronezh arbitration court supported the Ava-Trade company, which presented Arapov with a claim to recover the entire amount of losses from his travels. The company itself is now owned by AL5, the country's leader in the production of aluminum profiles. Its beneficiary is Sergey Solodov, the ex–owner of the pharmacy chain and Arapov's former partner.