SENTENCE IMPOSED ON INITIATOR OF SHAM MEETINGS OF TOAZ SHAREHOLDERS ENTERS INTO FORCE

At its session held on 29.11.2017, the Samara Regional Court supported the sentence passed by the Krasnoglinsky District Court in Samara on convicting E. Sedykin of crimes in violation of Part 1, Art. 327 (Forgery, Fabrication or Sale of Falsified Documents), Part 1, Art. 170.1 (Falsifying the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities), Part 3, Art. 30 and Part 4, Art. 159 (Attempt at Serious Fraud) of the Criminal Code or the Russian Federation.

The investigation revealed that Sedykin, as a Togliattiazot’s minority shareholder (i.e. a shareholder whose proportion of shares is too small to confer any power to exert control or influence over corporate action), seeking personal gain and not being duly authorised, arranged and held a number of sham, so-called “general meetings of shareholders of JSC Togliattiazot” which elected the sham “board of directors” of the Company and passed resolutions on distribution of Togliattiazot’s net profit as well as some other illegal resolutions. Based on such illegal resolutions, alterations were made to the Uniform State Register of Legal Entities regarding early termination of powers of the company’s effective executive body and appointing an illegal person as CEO. Also, based on “the resolution by the illegal general meeting of shareholders of JSC Togliattiazot” to pay remuneration to the members of the sham “Board” including E. Sedykin, A. Chelyshev and some others, these individuals required that Togliattiazot pay them a remuneration of 10% of the Company’s net profit. The Commercial Arbitration Court of Samara Region found those claims illegal.

E. Sedykin thereby attempted to seize control over Togliattiazot, but his illegal actions were stopped by the company’s staff. The offender was then charged with a criminal offence and sentenced by the Krasnoglinsky District Court in Samara.

Having considered the criminal case file at the appellate court session, the Samara Regional Court supported the 4-year suspended prison sentence passed on Sedykin, the accused, by the court of first instance. The sentence against Sedykin has entered into force.