The court seized the shares of the Kaliningrad port from State Duma deputy Andrey Kolesnik

The court confiscated from State Duma deputy Andrey Kolesnik a 52% stake in Kaliningrad Sea Trade Port JSC (KMTP), one of the largest companies engaged in loading and unloading ships. According to investigators, the deputy became the director of the company and received an income of more than 369 million rubles illegally. This is reported in press service court.

The Kaliningrad court received a lawsuit filed by the Deputy Prosecutor General in the name of the deputy, as well as in the name of his wife Lysenko M.V. and her mother Lysenko N.I. According to the decision of the court, the shares belonging to the deputy (28,500 shares), as well as the shares of his wife’s mother (23,250 shares) were recovered to the state’s income. The amount of illegal income amounted to 369,238,856 rubles.

According to the lawsuit, Andrei Kolesnik acquired in 2001-2002 28.5% of the company’s shares, which he issued to the Molk and Futshtok companies controlled by him, and then in October 2006 he re-registered them in his name under a sale and purchase agreement, which allowed him to become director of the JSC. In order to disguise commercial activities, the deputy introduced his relatives and friends to the board of directors of the port, and transferred the shares under a management agreement to trusted persons. So in April 2013, he signed an agreement on the transfer of 28.5% of the shares of KMTP to the trust management of V. B. Muravyov, a personal driver he knew from his service in the Armed Forces.

Since March 2011 Andrey Kolesnik has held government positions, including being a member of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma and the State Duma of the Russian Federation. Since that time, he has acquired assets and profited from the transport and port industries, in which he made legislative decisions as a deputy.

The case on the recovery of the deputy’s share was a continuation of the proceedings of the Prosecutor General’s Office with other shareholders of the joint-stock company. In March 2023, the Kaliningrad Regional Arbitration Court seized a 46.5% stake in KMTP under the control of Dmitry Purim, co-owner of Sovfrakht. The prosecutor’s office demanded to recover shares in the state’s income, substantiating the claim by the fact that the port is of strategic importance for ensuring the defense and security of the state and, at the same time, is controlled by a group of persons with a foreign investor. In May, the court satisfied the plaintiff’s claims in full, but the decision has not yet entered into force, as it was challenged in the appellate instance.

Polina Motyzlevskaya