As follows from the database of the Fourteenth Arbitration Court of Appeals (Vologda Region), at the end of 2023 the court twice taken into account Appeal of City Invest Bank against the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Novgorod Region in case No. A44-1127/2019.
As far as we remember, this case has been ongoing since 2019 and the Novgorod arbitration decided It was decided to order City Invest Bank to immediately pay 2 billion rubles to the creditors of JSC Deka (Novgorod region, Nikola kvass producer), since, according to the court, the bank deliberately bankrupted the facility and transferred its financial flows through its loyal management. As a result of the newly created legal entity, Deka stalled, laying off its staff and leaving creditors penniless.
socialbites.ca already said He stated that the dispute regarding this case culminated in the seizure of the bank’s correspondent account by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The amount of 2 billion rubles is unaffordable for City Invest Bank – it is comparable to the size of its capital and is difficult to pay off immediately.
As sources familiar with the progress of the appeal in Vologda told socialbites.ca, shareholders of City Invest Bank hired the law firm “Shepel, Pantin and Partners” to represent their interests there. At the end of December, the appeals court met and delivered what the bank needed. solution – “overturned the decision of the first instance court and refused to hold the bank responsible.”
“And if until now the bank had only in-house lawyers, then on December 18, Evgeny Pantin, the partner of the office they kept, came to the meeting and spoke for about ten minutes,” say socialbites.ca’s interlocutors. . — He limited himself to an opening statement, but that was enough for the court to decide About cancellation “Recovery of 2 billion rubles from the bank.”
socialbites.ca’s interlocutors concluded that Deka’s creditors did not see representatives of Shepel, Pantin and Partners neither before nor after that.
Commenting on socialbites.ca’s participation in the law firm process, Vladimir Shepel said that “the position of City Invest Bank in the bankruptcy case of Deka JSC” is legal and justified (…) AB Shepel, Pantin and Partners “Professionally treats clients in bankruptcy cases “(…) The Bureau decided to intervene in the case at the appeal stage. Our legal position is based on the fact that banks have special legal capacity in the financial services market.”
shepel family
Next to Mr. Shepel’s photo on the “Shepel, Pantin and Partners” website aforementionedHe said he “understands the decision-making mechanisms in government bodies.” And this is explained by his biography – his family is one of the most famous in the Vologda region.
Vladimir Vladimirovich Shepel is the son of the former chairman of the Vologda Regional Court and its partial namesake Vladimir Stepanovich Shepel. Before becoming a lawyer, Vladimir Shepel Jr., like his father, held senior positions in the Vologda region, and his last place of work was the head of the investigative department of the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Shepel Jr. He built almost his entire career in the power structures of the Vologda region, and at the same time his father worked in the Vologda district court, first as a judge, then as a deputy, and then as president. In 1996, Shepel Jr. started working as an investigator in the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Vologda Region and rose to the post of head of the Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs when his father presided over the court.
However, according to local media in 2011, Shepel Jr.’s career in the Vologda region ended abruptly: removed He was dismissed from his post as Regional Director of the Ministry of Internal Affairs by Presidential decree “after numerous complaints”. It is not stated what these are; Neither Shepel Jr. nor his father commented on the matter. Vladimir Shepel Jr. was transferred to the post of head of the Investigation Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kuzbass, but in another region his career stalled without the support of his father: for several years he did not receive a single promotion, and in 2017 he was dismissed.
However, both the former head of the Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Vologda Region and his father are often mentioned both in the Vologda regional media and on social networks, and their reputations are controversial. In particular, Vladimir Shepel Sr. as the judge. spoke The idea of giving lawyers civil servant status, which contradicts the fundamental principle of their independence, has caused outrage in the legal community.
But the most controversial story of the Shepel family is connected with Vladimir Gennadyevich Shepel, the former manager of Yaroslavl FC Shinnik, who in 2009 was sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzlement, already the third Vladimir Shepel. Local media called them relatives. MK Vologda, To the Point, Cherepovetskaya Istina and other regional media wrote about this.
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The former head of Shinnik did not serve the appointed term and appeared She was released early due to the fact that the Vologda judge Vladimir Shepel not only had to make excuses for a possible relationship with a former prisoner, but also had to refute rumors about her patronage after her early release, calling them “speculation”.
One way or another, the name of the convict’s father was Gennady Stepanovich Shepel, that is, his surname matches with the judge’s surname. One of the Vologda journalists, who did not manage to get an interview with judge Vladimir Shepel, asked openly on his page. social network all the questions accumulated for the judge: who is the relationship between the convicted director of FC Shinnik and the former chairman of the Vologda Regional Court; How ethical it is for a son to work in the regional Ministry of Internal Affairs while remaining president of the regional court, etc. However, he did not receive an answer to these either.
It is unlikely that the assistance provided by the Shepel family to the shareholders of City Invest Bank in the Vologda Fourteenth Arbitration Court of Appeals will fundamentally change the overall picture of Deka’s bankruptcy. socialbites.ca has in its possession the decisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Novgorod Region on the participation of Sergei Kamzin and Boris Bashkovich, members of the board of directors of City Invest Bank, accused in the criminal case of deliberate bankruptcy of the facility. and, as socialbites.ca sources said, bankers put him on the federal wanted list.
Moreover, this is not the only criminal case against bankers: previously on Lenta.ru reportedSergey Kamzin and another major shareholder of the bank, Leonid Shorsher, were placed on the federal wanted list in another criminal case – the bankruptcy of Crip Techno LLC (supplier of semiconductors for the Ministry of Defense and Rosatom).
The plan here is similar: an attempt to gain control of a major supplier through an artificial bankruptcy procedure. Messrs. Kamzin and Schorscher have been living abroad for a long time as defendants in criminal cases. They received Maltese citizenship in advance within the scope of the “golden passport” program. However, Vladimir Shepel is confident that despite this, “there are no legal grounds to hold the bank and/or its employees to any liability in connection with the bankruptcy of Deka JSC,” and the Fourteenth Arbitration Court of Appeals ruled on this issue. similar results.” Deka’s bankruptcy trustee Maxim Lagoda also told socialbites.ca that the company and creditors will continue to try to bring the shareholders of City Invest Bank to justice, because the Deka factory and its Nikola brand are the distinguishing feature of Deka. The Novgorod region abandoned the market as a result of the actions of bankers, depriving the region of jobs and taxes, while those who initiated the bankruptcy fled abroad with impunity.