The court refused to dismiss the case for the recovery of Rolf’s assets in favor of the state

The Moskovsky District Court of St. Petersburg rejected the defendant’s motion to terminate the proceedings business about the recovery of the assets of the Rolf car dealer in favor of the state, a correspondent reported “Interfax”. The claim for recovery of funds was filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office on December 27, 2023.

In January “Kommersant” became knownthat a claim for the recovery of shares for the state’s benefit was filed by Deputy Prosecutor General Igor Tkachev. In the lawsuit, referring to the results of the prosecutor’s investigation, Mr. Tkachev indicated that, as a deputy from A Just Russia, Sergei Petrov continued to illegally own and manage the Rolf Group of Companies. To do this, he fictitiously registered the business in the name of his son Alexander, but continued to personally manage the company.

During today’s hearing, the court also rejected the defendant’s requests for assistance in collecting materials to transfer the case to the arbitration court, providing letters from Rosinfomonitoring from the case materials, as well as materials on checks against Sergei Petrov related to combining the status of a deputy and an entrepreneur. Representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that these petitions were aimed at delaying the trial.

The court granted the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office to include three volumes of materials in the case. The volumes, in particular, contain data from tax authorities, statements by Sergei Petrov about “Rolf”, made while he was in office. In addition, the court added to the case information about the flights and movements of Sergei Petrov in the status of a deputy. The plaintiff did not apply for this, Interfax notes.

Representatives of the defendant demanded that the proceedings in the case be discontinued, since Mr. Petrov had already been charged with this corruption violation in another case related to the company Delance Limited, which owned shares of JSC Rolf. In December 2023, President Vladimir Putin signed decree on the transfer of Rolf shares owned by Cypriot Delance Limited and Rolf Motors. At the same time, the Federal Property Management Agency received the right to manage the company’s shares in the authorized capital of Rolf Estate St. Petersburg and Rolf Tech.

The decision to recover the shares was made as part of the case of conspiracy between Sergei Petrov and the heads of companies controlled by him. The investigation believes that in 2014, Mr. Petrov withdrew 4 billion rubles abroad. through the sale to Rolf of shares of the Rolf Estate company at an inflated amount. The investigation claims that the real value of Rolf Estate is 200 million rubles. Investigators consider the main participant in the transaction to be former member of the board of directors of Rolf, Anatoly Cairo, the owner of all three companies involved in the transaction. From the case materials it follows that all the money ended up in his accounts. On September 1, 2023, the Cheryomushkinsky Court of Moscow sentenced him to 8.5 years in a general regime colony.

Sergei Petrov himself has been on the international wanted list since 2019. After leaving Russia, he received Austrian citizenship. Austrian authorities refused to extradite him to Russia.

Read more in the Kommersant article. “Let’s go to jail”.