Employees of EUROWINE alcohol distributor may be left without wages

As part of the bankruptcy proceedings of a large distributor of alcoholic drinks - EXPOSERVICE LLC (EUROWINE brand), a debt to 377 employees of the company was formed for a total amount of over 200 million rubles. According to the information from the bankruptcy commissioner's report, there are currently more than 90 million rubles in the company's accounts.

The entire amount of debt is included in the register of second priority creditors. It is known that before the start of the bankruptcy proceedings, EXPOSERVICE had significant inventories in warehouses. However, due to the actions of the persons who controlled the company that carried out the withdrawal of assets and the situation that developed during the bankruptcy proceedings of EXPOSERVICE, the chances of the company’s employees to get the money are not obvious.

On January 21, 2021, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the debtor company EXPOSERVICE LLC (within the framework of bankruptcy case No. А40-103442 / 19-187-113 "B"). Elena Zinovievna Rebgun, a member of "North-West" self-regulatory organization, became the bankruptcy manager of EXPOSERVICE LLC.

The debtor's current claims register included a debt to Sberbank in the total amount of 226,728,632 rubles.

The debts secured by pledge to Sberbank of Russia JSC in the amount of 233,425,362.75 rubles, JSC Bank Northern Sea Route in the amount of 306,162,305.75 rubles, PJSC Bank Vozrozhdenie in the amount of 334,400,000,000 rubles were also included in the register of creditors' claims.

According to bankruptcy law, the company's current payments must be paid before the claims of the second priority creditors, which include the payroll obligations. Similarly, the issues with the satisfaction of the claims of the secured creditors are resolved: since the pledged goods were in circulation, which dissolved in an unknown way, the court decided that the secured creditors could claim all the funds in the company's accounts. Thus, when the bankruptcy "pie" of EXPOSERVICE is divided, the employees may be left without money, and all the remaining assets of the company will be divided between the creditor banks.

It should be noted that despite the statements made by the employees, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee in Moscow did not begin to investigate the criminal case and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Anatoly Yushin, the Managing Partner of the Yushin & Partners Law Firm, says that the lawyers intend to appeal against court decisions made in the interests of banks, as well as prepare appeals to state bodies about the inadmissibility of violating the constitutional rights of Russian citizens.