In 2019, together with his accomplices, he was convicted under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – fraud on an especially large scale, committed by an organized group of persons by prior conspiracy. The fraud consisted of theft and illegal resale of ToAZ export products. Makhlai and his accomplices were ordered to pay compensation to the victims – 77.3 billion rubles. ToAZ and 10.3 billion rubles. “Uralchem”. Makhlai did not pay anything, and therefore in August 2021 he was declared bankrupt, and his property, including a stake in ToAZ, was foreclosed on.
On February 8, an auction was held, which was won by one of Uralchem’s structures.
Now Makhlai and his offshore companies, who acted as nominal owners of the shares, are trying to challenge the sale. A rather murky combination was developed for this purpose. A certain “investor from the UAE” showed up, with whom Makhlai’s offshore structures allegedly entered into an agreement at the end of December to sell ToAZ shares.
The bidder for the purchase of the shares was the Cypriot company Nitrogeno United Group (NUG), which allegedly agreed to raise financing from the Arab-Indonesian fund Bright East. At the same time, the Krasnodar-based United Nitrogen Group LLC, which has the same name as NUG, announced its intention to challenge the results of the auction. However, neither NUG nor OAS have any business history. From the data of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities it follows that the OAS, until 2021 inclusive, did not conduct business activities and submitted a zero balance sheet.
Interestingly, the beneficiary of both companies is a certain Leonid Bondar. In 2020, Bondar was released from a 7-year sentence in a colony, where he ended up after being sentenced under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy). As the court found, Bondar and his accomplices were engaged in the production of counterfeit bank bills and illegally enriched themselves by cashing them for several tens of millions of rubles.
In other words, only after being released from prison, Bondar went to buy ToAZ shares with the financial support of the Arab-Indonesian fund. This is exactly the incredible version that Makhlai is promoting now.
Another version looks much more plausible: Makhlai found a swindler skilled in fraud, convicted under the same article as him, and offered him the role of a fictitious buyer of ToAZ shares. Although Makhlai’s bid looks frankly weak, he has no others.
“ВЧК ОГПУ”
