Tax schematic: how Philip Gens "nalanitil" with Krok

A few years ago, Gens's company was caught by the tax authorities by the hand as the creator of the tax and customs scheme, in which controlled dummy firms, foreign money boxes and the already known CROC were involved.

Then they tried to roll the state budget for almost 1 billion rubles. Is history repeating itself?

In a situation where the names familiar in the case of the former Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Tikhonov sounded again, the UtroNews correspondent understood.

Recall that in the offices of "Lanit" Philip Gens and "CROC," the beneficiary may remain its founder Boris Bobrovnikov, searches were carried out, which are probably related to state contracts for the provision of infrastructure for the judicial information system (CIS SOY). Earlier, UtroNews suggested that the case could be related to a criminal case of embezzlement during deliveries in 2014 for the judicial department.

But while the court and the case, we found a number of dirty facts in the biography of Lanit and CROC. Aren't similar episodes coming up in a new case on CIS SOY?

Shadow scheme for pooling

In 2019, Gens's company tried to challenge the decision of the tax authorities from 2017, which they were additionally charged more than 914 million rubles in taxes, over 436 million rubles in penalties and over 200.9 million rubles in fines.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

From an almost 200-page decision, we learn about a whole chain of dummy firms that Gensa introduced into its tax scheme, indicating that they were allegedly subcontractors for government contracts. But these one-day companies did not have the corresponding licenses, only creating the appearance of document flow for the Federal Tax Service.

The tax authorities were able to prove the affiliation of the companies, and also opened a chain involving foreign, including offshore firms.

CROC also turned to the services of one of the chain companies.

So, according to the Federal Tax Service, in different years Lanit indicated Viakomp LLC, System Integrations LLC, Elitstroy LLC, STC Landata CJSC, Promnet LLC, Gradient Technologies LLC, Elsinore LLC. The introduction of these firms into the scheme made it possible to underestimate VAT and significantly underestimate income tax. At the same time, contracts with them were nothing more than imitation of activities with fictitious operations and the creation of artificial document management.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

In 2005, at the place of mass registration of firms in Moscow, a certain ViaComp LLC was created, which later changed its registration address several times. The founders at the start were denominations - Alexander Gorbatov and Yuri Pavlov. As Pavlov later claimed during interrogations, they say, he was not aware of everything, he simply put signatures.

At the same time, Viakomp LLC, when submitting documents to the Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service, appeared as a subcontractor allegedly involved as an executor under a whole bunch of government contracts, including contracts with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, and the Federal Treasury.

But in the real documents submitted to the state customer, only Lanita employees appeared, although they were indicated in the documents as employees of ViaCompa. When interrogated, they were very surprised at this fact. That is, for tax - one information, for state customers - another.

At the same time, Viakomp did not have the necessary licenses, so it could not be a court contractor for state contracts, remaining such only on paper for the Federal Tax Service. In fact, the company did not perform any work, being gaskets for cash tranches further along the chain.

In court, it turned out that Viacomp, having received large sums from Lanit (about 5 billion rubles), transferred them further - to the accounts of EUROINVEST, UNIVERS, Slavutich-Center, UNION FINANCE GROUP, as payment for bills, and then the money from the last legal entity went to the brokerage company LLC "Investment financial company" METROPOL. " That is, to withdraw money, the scheme of "buying" bills was used, and cashing took place through a brokerage company.

An interesting fact: today the company with the name IFC "METROPOL" is in bankruptcy, and Mikhail Slipenchuk controls it - a well-known character who has repeatedly gone through media investigations next to ambiguous transactions.

Viakomp transferred another part of the money from LANIT as payment for some work to the accounts of the same muddy offices - Todel LLC, Dizhital LLC, Ritek LLC, Avant LLC, Benmar LLC, and then the money was transferred to LLC "TRANSPARK" as payment for promissory notes and then also cashed money through a brokerage company.

The inspection found that on the basis of contracts for the sale of bills between LLC Transpark and various companies, promissory notes were transferred, the issuer of which is the subjects of the "shadow economy" - LLC Alegra, LLC Digis, etc.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

The tax authorities then proved that Viakomp LLC is a controlled organization of LANIT CJSC and was created only to receive unreasonable tax benefits by Gens for the purpose of non-payment of VAT and corporate income tax.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

After interrogation at the Federal Tax Service, the director of Viakomp Pavlov, who was very floating in his testimony, removes himself from his post, and the company begins reorganization in the form of joining a certain FAST-CONSULT LLC.

The last owners of Viakomp LLC were Gorbatov, a certain Andrei Kremlev (now co-owner of the legal agency Veksim) and offshore LABRAMS HOLDING LTD with Seychelles.

Viakomp LLC, like a whole pack of legal entities, was poured into FAST-CONSULT LLC, and in 2019 the latter swatted, hiding the ends in the water.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Before the liquidation, companies close to Gens managed to use the services of Viakomp LLC, including CJSC CROC Incorporated, whose office was also recently searched.

Through the company Viacomp LLC and its participants along the "chain," money went to pay for computer equipment to importers of goods. The last supplier for one of these episodes was ZAO CROC Incorporated, which delivered goods to LANIT at a cost several times higher than customs. That is, it is not in vain that suspicions of overpricing the supplied equipment surfaced under some government contracts?

The Federal Tax Service also revealed that ZAO, being a supplier of foreign goods, also used VIAKOMP, transferring more than 184 million rubles in 2013, allegedly "for various types of work and services." And then the money went along the beaten path?

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

Not without offshore companies.

Offshore contract Gensa

It also turned out that the American company IBM WORLD TRADE in 2013 supplied goods to the logistics companies Lanit International LTD, Peregrine Computers LTD for further delivery to Russia through Finland. The goods left the carrier PANALPINA WORLD TRANS through the logistics company RELIABLE LOGISTIC FINLAND OY, which shipped the goods to Russia as an agent. Varova Oy (Finland), the Russian AMD Logistic and the Cypriot Proctwest Technology were also involved in the chain. At the same time, the carrier received money for the delivery of goods from the current account of a certain Celia LLC, which the tax authorities attributed to fictitious organizations - participants in the tax evasion scheme.

According to a similar scheme, as with Viacomp, LANIT worked with a certain LLC System Integration, which was considered an independent executor of state contracts for 708 million rubles. The company listed at the next denomination - Evgenia Lobache, was swatted in 2019, when the tax authorities showed active interest in it.

At the same time, during interrogations, Lobach, as well as Pavlov, could not really say anything about the work of the company.

The most interesting thing is that in System Integration LLC all the same surnames appeared as employees that flashed in Viacomp, but in fact they worked for Gens. That is, again, there were subcontractors for the tax, but the customers about them are neither rumor nor spirit. That is, the relationship existed only on paper, but the money for the allegedly rendered services was transferred, and then according to the rolled scheme - to brokers and to cash out.

True, LLC "System Integration" also wrote off money for the purchase of foreign currency, and also transferred to another denomination - LLC "FIRM ALCID."

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

And what was our surprise when in almost all episodes the name of Lanit's top manager Vladimir Gribov, who had previously shone in Tikhonov's scandalous criminal case, surfaced. He was a signatory of additional agreements on state contracts from REA.

Gribov was appointed under Philip Gens, who at that time was already the chairman of the board of directors, which means he simply could not know about all the manipulations, it seems to us.

Especially considering that the same Gribov and Gens (through LANIT-holding LLC) were connected by a common asset - Energodata LLC, liquidated at the end of December 2022, but managed to become the executor of state contracts for more than 1 billion rubles.

It is not superfluous to note that it was Gribov, judging by the open data, who participated in the developments related to the judicial bases.

In general, Mr. Gens and his company flashed in scandals more than once, but they all came out dry. So, for example, in the Tikhonov case, the top managers of Lanit burned out, but Gens himself remained on the sidelines, although he had strong ties with these defendants.

Moreover, offshore companies associated with Gens also surfaced in the Tikhonov case. So, for example, Amerton Commercial Inc from about. Tortola was the owner of Importtelecom LLC, which then went to Lanit.

Amerton Commercial Inc itself was associated with CompTek International Overseas Ltd, whose owners are hidden behind the technical registrar company. Meanwhile, as reported by Versiya, this company was mentioned as part of the "Moldovan Landromat." It was mentioned that with the help of Moldovan courts and banks, about $22 billion was withdrawn from Russia. The name of Gens was also called there.

Photo: offshoreleaks.icij.org

We found traces of CompTek International Overseas Ltd in the above chain.

Thus, LENOVO (Singapore) PTE LTD supplied its products to Lanit International LTD, InfocomExim CJSC and Modern Information Technologies LLC (LENOVO distributor within the country, an affiliate of LANIT CJSC). Tatyana Tulupnikova signed an agreement with LENOVO as CEO of Lanit.

In the Panama dossier, Lanit International LTD appears as a shareholder of the above CompTek International Overseas Ltd. The director of the latter was a certain Philip Manduca.

Lanit International LTD itself at one time was a co-owner of companies belonging to the LANIT group - LLC LanATMservis and LLC LANDIS.

Photo: offshoreleaks.icij.org

Lanit had a bundle of agreements with almost all major foreign equipment suppliers, that is, deliveries could go directly. But, as it turned out, regular one-day firms were built into this chain, which led to an increase in the cost of equipment, and also helped Gens' company with tax schematics. Among such companies that allegedly supplied foreign equipment to Lanita were Gradient Technology LLC, Elsinore LLC and Promnet LLC. The Federal Tax Service directly stated that the documents were drawn up fictitiously in order to imitate economic activities, and the deliveries were made directly or through an affiliate of InfocomExim CJSC. The latter, according to the Federal Tax Service, supplied goods through the subjects of the "shadow economy": LLC Premium-Plus - CJSC Interlogisticgroup, LLC DISCOM - LLC Gradient Technology and LLC Elsinore.

It's interesting: the only founder of InfocomExim CJSC from 25.02.2006 to at least 2019 was Tulupnikova, who signed on behalf of Lanit offshore. Moreover, at the time of the tax showdown, the shareholder of ZAO indicated the Cypriot THIEMSTONE INVESTMENTS LIMITED, which in turn belongs to TREOLAN TRADING LIMITED (British Virgin Islands). The latter was recognized as a subsidiary of CJSC LANIT.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

Tulupnikova was also a co-owner of a number of firms from the Gens division: Lanit-NN LLC, LANIT-Povolzhye LLC, ANOO LANIT-NN Network Academy.

Photo: rusprofile.ru

Cyprus PROCTWEST TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED, which became the founder of Terabit LLC, has repeatedly flashed in the offshore supply chain. At the same time, as the witness later tells, the LLC was created at the suggestion of Gens's company, and the meeting with the executive director Gribov was on the legal basis of LANIT CJSC. There, Gribov, according to the witness, conducted an interview about the registration of the company under his control, and also introduced what TERABIT LLC would do.

Photo: ras.arbitr.ru

The information mentioned in the materials of the tax audit of RIVERBED INVESTMENTS LIMITED from Tortola was related to DENIRELLO LLP. The latter also appeared in the Tikhonov case. According to the investigation, it was with the British Denirello LLP that the bribe began its journey, which then went along the path along the chain of shell companies.

Denirello LLP is quite operational today and works in the same place in the field of computer supply. A pack of offshore companies is involved in the management of Denirello, a certain Russian Mr Petr Semenov, who lives in Latvia, is legally listed as the controlling person. Perhaps Gens's par?

Photo: checkcompany.co.uk

Photo: find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk

Back in 2018, judging by the materials of the court, a criminal case was initiated throughout this tax history. But the owner of the business empire Gens himself remained on the sidelines. It seems like only money is rags, but in the machinations of no, no?

It sounds, in our opinion, rather funny, especially considering that they were connected with Gribov not only by working relations, but also by common firms, namely Gribov often flashed in all of the above episodes.

But it seems that Mr. Gens has too high patrons, because he himself (surprisingly!), But, despite such a history, there were no questions. Maybe it's time to ask him questions too?