1.2 Billion UMK Heist ! Inside the Alleged Plot By Albert Avdolyan to Steal from UMK

Albert Avdolyan, an oligarch, and his associates, who may have been involved in a credit fund withdrawal scheme also known as UMK Heist from the Hydrometallurgical Plant, faced legal challenges. The lender’s claim for 1.2 billion rubles was denied. Despite this setback, companies linked to Avdolyan continue their efforts to access the register of the bankrupt enterprise, from which substantial funds disappeared.

Oligarch Suspected of UMK Heist Using “Dummy” to Buy Fertilizer Plant, Leaving Behind Billions in Debt

Avdolyan, in 2018, bought the Stavropol OJSC Hydrometallurgical Plant (GMZ) for the production of fertilizers. Affiliated CJSC Southern Energy Company went to him, which supplies heat and electricity to the city of Lermontov, as well as Intermix Met LLC. At the same time, assets were bought not in Avdolyan’s name but through proxies. Four years later, the asset was sold.

The Kommersant newspaper in 2022 announced the deal, citing the oligarch himself, that “the enterprise was lifted from ruins and nothing threatens it.” However, our analysis of the situation around these assets suggests a different picture. In fact, valuable property might have been transferred to new legal entities, leaving GMZ and YUEK with debts worth billions of rubles. Notably, among the new creditors of these legal entities, individuals close to Avdolyan emerged.

In June 2024, the Moscow arbitration refused to include Almaz Capital in the register of creditors of YUEK CJSC, which acted as a guarantor under the GMZ loan agreement, with claims amounting to 1.2 billion rubles. However, part of the amount, 218 million rubles, was still paid through the sale of the assets of the bankrupt GMZ, although questions remain regarding the origin of these debts.

In 2011, GMZ borrowed 1.6 billion rubles from Sberbank under a non-revolving credit line scheme, with CJSC Southern Energy Company (CJSC YUEK) acting as a guarantor for the loan. Later, this debt was transferred to Sberbank’s subsidiary, SBK Plus LLC.

In November 2018, SBK Plus LLC entered into an agreement to assign the claim rights for the remaining debt amount of 1.4 billion rubles to Almaz Capital LLC. During the same period, Avdolyan’s team became involved in the capital of GMZ and related firms. Courts have repeatedly established that both Almaz Capital and CJSC YUEK share the same ultimate beneficiary: Albert Alikovich Avdolyan.

In December 2022, Almaz Capital sent a pre-trial claim to YUEK, demanding payment of the debt on the GMZ loan, which amounted to more than 1.48 billion rubles. When the payment was not made, Almaz Capital took the matter to court, uncovering some intriguing details.

Court materials revealed that YUEK shares were currently part of the bankruptcy estates of Sergey Matveevich Chuck and Sergey Makhov, former owners prior to Avdolyan’s involvement. These shares were returned to the bankruptcy estate by court decisions in bankruptcy cases of these individuals at the request of their creditors.

The judges noted that YUEK’s surety on GMZ’s debts was economically unjustified, pointing to inappropriate spending of funds. Both the lender and the guarantor were under the control of Makhov and Chuck until 2018. The loan was ostensibly taken to finance the technical re-equipment of GMZ, but the work was never carried out, leading to the plant’s bankruptcy in 2019.

The court stated that “there is no evidence of the targeted spending of funds on the loan in the case file,” and emphasized that “if the shareholders of YUEK CJSC had deliberately pursued goals aimed at the development and modernization of GMZ OJSC, at the real implementation of technical re-equipment measures, and as a result, at increasing profits, then GMZ OJSC would not have suffered bankruptcy, its solvency remained at a high level.”

The court concluded that the loan and surety agreements were used for “the illegal withdrawal of credit funds, without any intention to return them to the bank.”

Among other things, the creditor was reminded of the omission of the statute of limitations.

Moreover, in a court decision of June 2024, it was stated that CJSC YUEK is still controlled by A.A. Avdolyan and cannot be interested in the application for missing the statute of limitations. There is reason to believe that this action pursues unfair goals to increase debt to the controlled company. In simpler terms, it suggests that one pocket of the same coat is driving another pocket into debt to control the bankruptcy process.

Oligarch’s Company Changes Hands, Leaving Trail of Suspicious Activity

Almaz Capital, a company linked to oligarch Avdolyan, has undergone a series of ownership changes raising concerns about potential asset stripping.

Key Points:

• Almaz Capital switched hands multiple times, involving:
  • SBK Plus LLC
  • N1 Capital LLC (Alexander Oseikin)
  • Seris LLC (Alexei Bykov)
• Bykov’s connections raise suspicion:
  • Linked to AENP LLC (now N.A. Popov CIPE LLC) involved in past financial disputes.
  • AENP previously connected to Eldar Osmanov, a relative of Avdolyan, facing legal issues.
• Offshore company Sparkel City Invest LTD, linked to Avdolyan, also appears in the GMZ deal.
• Almaz Capital ultimately ends up with Daria Kusheva, who also acquired Almaz Innovations LLC from another Avdolyan associate, Eprem Exuzyan.
• Exuzyan is linked to Seris LLC, which financed the purchase of GMZ debts using funds from BBR Bank, another entity tied to Avdolyan.
• Seris LLC was created just weeks before the debt purchase, raising questions about its legitimacy.
• Nadezhda Kudravets, co-founder of Avdolyan’s foundation, is also connected to Seris, further strengthening suspicion of an orchestrated scheme.

Overall, the complex ownership changes and connections to other entities under legal scrutiny suggest a potential attempt to siphon assets from GMZ and shield them from creditors.

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