Petropavlovsk arrest followed director request for FSB probe3 Feb 2021 00:18
Co-founder was detained after letter to Russian security service regarding son’s real estate deal
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Neil Hume, Natural Resources Editor YESTERDAY
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The fraud charges faced by Petropavlovsk co-founder Pavel Maslovskiy came after one of the company’s non-executive directors asked Russia’s FSB to investigate a property deal, according to a document seen by the Financial Times.
Maxim Kharin, the boardroom nominee of rival Russian gold miner and the group’s biggest shareholder UGC, filed an application with the country’s top domestic security service on December 15 requesting that it investigate a Petropavlovsk subsidiary’s 2018 purchase of an office building from Mr Maslovskiy’s son.
In his complaint, Mr Kharin alleged that Alexey Maslovskiy had sold the building to Pokrovsky Rudnik, a Petropavlovsk subsidiary, for an inflated price of Rbs218.4m ($2.9m), or Rbs97,832 per square metre. He went on to ask the FSB “to initiate a criminal case if there are grounds for it and bring the culprit to justice”.
“According to open sources of information, the average cost of real estate in the town of Blagoveshensk is significantly lower. With this in mind, there is reason to believe that this deal may have been concluded at an inflated price, which may have had a negative impact on the interests of the company and its shareholders,” the application said.
On December 24 — the day before his birthday — Mr Maslovskiy was arrested in Moscow and charged with embezzlement. His arrest was quashed at a hearing in Moscow on Monday but Mr Maslovskiy will remain in detention pending a hearing.
Mr Kharin’s complaint to the FSB marks the latest twist in a bitter corporate battle that has pitched Mr Maslovskiy and his supporters against Konstantin Strukov, the billionaire owner of UGC.
Petropavlovsk, a FTSE 250 company with a market value of almost £1.1bn, is one of Russia’s biggest gold producers. It was plunged into turmoil in June after Mr Maslovskiy was ousted as chief executive by UGC and a group of other shareholders.
Mr Maslovskiy claims UGC, which bought 24 per cent of Petropavlovsk last year, orchestrated his defenestration. He also accused Mr Strukov of trying to take control of the company without paying a takeover premium and has asked regulators in the UK and Russia to investigate.