TECHNICAL HIGH SCHOOL IN KHABAROVSK REGION IS AT RISK OF BANKRUPTCY DUE TO FRAUD

On December 11, the Khabarovsk Regional Commercial Court received a lawsuit from the Tenza Company, located in Sakhalin. The representatives of the company demand that the industrial and technological technical high school located in the city of Sovetskaya Gavan should be declared bankrupt. And although the court has not yet had time to start a consideration of the case, the prospects for a bankruptcy of the educational institution may turn out to be quite real.

The reason for filing a lawsuit, apparently, was the debt of the technical school to Tenza LLC under investment agreements that the company had concluded five years earlier. The company acted as one of the investors in the planned construction of an educational marine experimental station for the Sovetskaya Gavan educational institution.

In 2015, the company transferred 4.5 million rubles to the technical school accounts, and a year later - 2.15 million more.

The technical school was owned by the regional authorities, so the management of Tenza did not see any particular risks in the co-investment process. It seemed that the key ministries of the Khabarovsk Territory - the Ministry of Education and Science, as well as the Ministry of Investment and Land and Property Policy - would take on guarantees of control over the spending of funds. The head of the technical school at that time was Natalya Shustova, a member of the United Russia party, whose reputation also did not raise any questions.

However, when Tenza contacted the management of the technical school with a question about how exactly the investment funds were used at the end of April 2018, the answer was a refusal to provide any legal documents confirming the financial statements. It turned out that the school had a new director and all the documents were confiscated by law enforcement officers who initiated a criminal case against Shustova on large-scale fraud (part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

As a result of the investigation, it became clear that the money had been stolen.

According to investigators, for almost two years (from the end of 2014 to October 2016), Shustova has drawn up several fictitious contracts, which were allegedly used for a purchase of construction materials, as well as special equipment intended for driving training sessions. Having used this scheme, the accused withdrew more than 6 million rubles from the organization's budget, which is, in fact, the amount that Tenza Company had transferred.

As a result, the company made a decision to unilaterally refuse to cooperate with the educational institution in November 2019, demanding a refund. In October 2020, as a result of the revision of the court decision, the company managed to obtain a verdict on the collection of 6.65 million rubles of debt from the technical school. This money, apparently, that can become the basis for the further bankruptcy of the Industrial and Technological College of the Sovetskaya Gavan city.

As for the criminal case against Shustova, its result is not yet so obvious.

Investigators have seized Shustova's personal transport, the cost of which is estimated at 1.5 million rubles. The former director's membership in the United Russia party was suspended until the court's verdict is passed. If the charges against the former head of the United Russia party branch in Vanino (from where Shustova came to the post of the technical school director) are proven, she faces up to 10 years in prison. In the meantime, it is known that the suspect in the fraud Shustova got a job in the Far Eastern branch of the RANEPA.