St. According to the joint press service of the St. Petersburg courts, St. The St. Petersburg Vyborg court arrested the former head of the Baltika brewing company Denis Sherstennikov and his former deputy Anton Rogachevsky.
The company’s former senior executives will remain in custody until December 30 this year. Sherstennikov asked Rogachevsky also chooses a preventive measure in the form of house arrest or release on bail of 1 million rubles called for The court sentenced him to house arrest. Both requests were rejected.
November 15 edition “Fontanka” St. It was reported that a search was carried out at the Baltika factory in St. Petersburg. According to media reports, the prosecutor’s office is controlling the company in connection with the planned sale of the company by the Danish company Carlsberg before the transfer of its assets to interim management.
Searches according to the newspaper report passed Some employees, both in the office and senior managers of the company, were also interviewed and documents were seized. Investigative actions are being carried out as part of a criminal investigation – initially they were initiated under the article on causing material damage, but later investigators discovered signs of fraud on a particularly large scale.
Fraud allegations
The investigation believes a number of company executives “acted in the interests of the Carlsberg Group”, damaging the company. Sherstennikov and Rogachevsky were detained, Baltika lawyer Elena Kuzmina, who was also a suspect, said left From Russia to Europe.
With versions As part of the investigation, detained senior managers transferred the rights of the Baltika brand to companies in Belarus and Kazakhstan until 2042, obtaining intellectual property rights at least in their favor. 295.6 million rubles.
As a result, the Russian enterprise lost the opportunity to export its products to these countries, as well as Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Mongolia.
Sherstennikov takes charge of Baltika from 2021 to 2023. According to information RBCFollowing the transfer of Carlsberg assets to the interim management of the Federal Property Management Agency and the change in management of the company, he moved to the post of vice president, but resigned of his own free will in mid-October. Kuzmina has also not been working at Baltika since July of this year and remained an active senior manager until Rogachevsky’s arrest.
Conflict between Russia and Carlsberg
After the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Carlsberg announced that it was withdrawing from the Russian market. In June 2023, the concern announced the signing of an agreement on the sale of Baltika.
According to Interfax, the Arnest group, which previously bought the assets of the Heineken brewery, was planning to buy the company. The transaction amount is estimated at more than 71 billion rubles.
The sale did not take place because on July 16, Vladimir Putin transferred Carlsberg’s assets under the external management of the Federal Property Management Agency – this measure preserved the property rights of the concern, but deprived it of the ability to make management decisions.
Carlsberg CEO Jacob Arup-Andersen described the actions of Russian officials as job theft.
Also in early October, the concern terminated licensing agreements with Baltika, which allowed international brands to produce and sell its products.
As Interfax reported, Carlsberg also submitted formal “notices of disagreement” to Russian authorities under three international agreements and threatened to file a lawsuit in an international court if differences were not resolved within six months.