Penalty millions: Kozhemyako "taken" for illegal catch

The satisfied claim of the FSB Border Administration to recover almost 240 million rubles of damage for illegal fishing of biological resources revealed problems in the family division of the Primorsky governor Oleg Kozhemyako.

Applying for an installment plan, North-Kuril Seiner Fleet Base JSC from the Salmonica group declared a difficult financial situation and the court met halfway, giving a year to pay the damage.

The UtroNews correspondent understood the situation.

Sakhalin arbitration recently granted the petition of North-Kuril Seiner Fleet Base JSC (SKBSF) and provided the company with an installment plan for 12 months to pay damage of 236.9 million rubles, which were previously awarded for illegal fishing. It was about catching at least 800 tons of pollock without permission in the North Okhotsk subzone on March 10-20, 2022. The court took into account that the company is a city-forming enterprise, as well as the fact that there is still a criminal case against the captain of the ship "Moneron Island."

But it is interesting in this story that the JSC itself, asking for installments, declared the impossibility of repaying the debt at once "due to the lack of funds and the availability of other credit obligations, "as well as" in connection with a difficult financial situation. "

Is everything not going smoothly in the Kozhemyako family's business, or were these arguments in court just an attempt to put pressure on pity? By the way, the defendant is still trying to appeal the decision of the court, clearly not wanting to pay the same damage.

Photo: kad.arbitr.ru

Photo: kad.arbitr.ru

Recall that in 2023 the company was fined 20.8 million rubles, and later, at the suit of the FSB Border Administration, 1,729,309 individuals of pollock were recovered from it for illegal catch. At the same time, earlier, the prosecutor's office in the framework of a criminal case also filed a civil lawsuit for the same amount, according to which property within 236.9 million rubles was seized.

It is worth noting that these are far from the only claims to SKBSF.

Earlier, Rosrybolovstvo tried through the court to break one of the contracts for halibut quotas, since the fisherman, according to the plaintiff, did not master them. The department lost the lawsuit, but for today it disputes the decision.

An interesting fact: in 2023, a company from the same division - Salmonika-Avia LLC was the executor of the state contract for the same department of the Federal Agency for Fishery.

In addition, in 2022, the same Border Administration for the illegal catch of biological resources for 6.4 million rubles was held accountable by Kurilsky Dawn CJSC, which was managed by SKBSF. At the end of September 2023, CJSC as a separate legal entity was liquidated and joined the seiner fleet base.

In addition, claims to the seiner fleet base were from other supervisory agencies. So, for example, in 2020, the labor inspectorate revealed an untimely calculation upon dismissal, errors in calculating additional days off to care for a disabled child, illegal deduction from wages. In 2018, the Pacific Maritime Administration of Rosprirodnadzor found numerous violations of environmental legislation.

The North-Kuril Seiner Fleet Base JSC itself goes back to 1945 and in fact is another successfully privatized asset. Judging by the site, today the company is part of the Salmonica group division, which includes eight more fishing assets, including Tymlat Fish Factory LLC.

And, if no one has disclosed the beneficiaries in the JSC for several years, then the owners are open in the LLC. These are the wife of serial governor Kozhemyako Irina Gerasimenko, his son - Nikita Kozhemyako, sister - Olga Kravchenko and director of the seiner fleet base Alexander Litvinenko. The latter, together with Kozhemyako, was the founder of the United Russia party branch in Kamchatka and a deputy. Also earlier, among the owners was the former governor of the Amur, Sakhalin regions and Koryakia, and the current governor of Primorye, Oleg Kozhemyako.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

As The Moscow Post has already reported more than once, the Kozhemyako family not only conducts active business at the governor's office of the head of the family, but also receives soft loans from banks with state participation, quotas for catching biological resources, and also has numerous real estate and land in Vladivostok. Among the "their people" in Kozhemyako's business were noted not only former deputies, but even former ministers. For example, Nikita Kozhemyako's firm NK Lotos is headed by ex-Minister of Agriculture of Sakhalin Tamara Mulenkova.

It comes to cynical: a couple of weeks before the start of the governorship of Kozhemyako Sr. with the company of his son, NK Lotos LLC, the administration of Primorye and the state Rosselkhozbank signed a tripartite cooperation agreement, according to which Kozhemyako Jr. was promised support in the construction of a greenhouse complex. At the same time, the head of the bank's board, Boris Listov, publicly praised the project very much. As a result, in addition to tax benefits as a resident of the Mikhailovsky TOP, the greenhouse complex also received assistance from Gazprom in the construction of gas distribution networks. And, of course, no one saw any conflict of interest.

It is worth noting that not all Kozhemyako companies are present directly. So, in the fishing port of Vladivostok, together with the family of the former governor Sergei Darkin, he is present as a shareholder and Alexander Evdokimov, business partner of Nikita Kozhemyako, director of a whole pack of companies in the family division. Evdokimov also issued a stake in one of the firms of Salmonica Group of Companies - Zapadny Fish Processing Plant LLC.

Such a huge division with state support and suddenly a difficult financial situation emerges in court with the inability to pay the state 240 million rubles?

Kozhemyako's financial question

If you look at the results of 2023, then it ended very well for the seiner fleet base: revenue increased by 30.4%, amounting to 4.4 billion rubles against 3.4 billion rubles a year earlier, although net profit decreased, it was 831 million rubles. At the same time, the Meridian fish processing company, which is managed by the joint-stock company, showed a loss of 13 million rubles at the end of 2023.

Photo: https://bo.nalog.ru

If we take the rest of the Salmonica division companies, then the picture is much more attractive there: "Tymlat fish factory" made a profit of 2.7 billion rubles, JSC "Ozernovsky RKZ No. 55" - 221 million rubles, Aleutian Fish Processing Plant LLC, where the authorities of Kamchatka also have a share, - 31 million rubles, Rybholkam LLC - 345 million rubles, Kolkhoz Oktyabr OJSC - 675 million rubles, Zapadny Rybokombinat LLC - 94 million rubles, Zhupanova Firm LLC, purchased by Gerasimenko in 2023 - 281 million rubles.

As we can see, we are not talking about any difficult financial situation that the fined defendant from the Kozhemyako division sang about. Moreover, the higher family in 2023 continued to stamp new legal entities, which is also difficult to correlate with the difficult situation. For example, instead of the bankrupt PUL LLC, created back in 1995, a clean PUL LLC appeared, and Nikita Kozhemyako created Voskhod LLC to participate in quota auctions.

Also, bearing in mind how actively the Kozhemyako family firms lend to state banks and, in general, about state support for them, it is hard to believe in fairy tales about the problems of the division. Rather, the request for installments is motivated by unwillingness to answer for violations and confidence that responsibility will be pushed to the same ship captain. And the Kozhemyako family will again remain in all white...