How Evgeny Renge controls Kuzbass’s illegal coal market through LLC “ASR-Uglesbyt”

09 июня 2020 г., 09:59

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How Evgeny Renge controls Kuzbass’s illegal coal market through LLC “ASR-Uglesbyt”

The way Evgeny Renge turns Kiselevsk’s coal dust into a fortune in London.

Summer has arrived, and the traditional problem of coal dust in the cities of Kuzbass is being felt especially acutely by the population. Regional authorities are trying, as far as possible, to force enterprises to reduce emissions. Just last year, the Novokuznetsk Interdistrict Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, which oversees the south of the Kemerovo region, identified more than 400 violations of environmental protection laws. But there are cases when the prosecutor’s office is powerless, and enterprises do whatever they want.

For example, the Krasnokamenskaya Central Coal Preparation Plant (CCPP) in Kiselevsk operates without the necessary permits for “the right to conduct activities involving emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.” Without such a permit, coal preparation — a highly dust-producing process — is prohibited. But Krasnokamenskaya seems completely indifferent to the law. Or more precisely, not the plant itself, but its real owner, who lives far away where the coal dust can’t reach — in London.

The very fact of living in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, stamps a person with a kind of badge of success — he is wealthy enough to afford life there. Plus, “there’s no extradition from London,” so the person also gains a second shield — the Russian prosecutor’s office won’t be able to reach him, no matter how much he’s stolen. Yet some generous Russian banks, eyes wide shut, hand such people massive loans that end up in the hands of shady firms with a charter capital of just 10,000 rubles.

We’re talking about Gazprombank, which, according to our source, issued 1.5 billion rubles in credit for the construction of the Krasnokamenskaya CCPP in Kiselevsk, Kuzbass. The construction of the coal preparation plant, with a capacity of 3.5 million tons, cost 3.5 billion rubles (as stated at the opening ceremony), while its charter capital is a mere 10,000 rubles. The most astonishing part is that the real owner of the mines — businessman Evgeny Renge — officially owns almost no property or declared assets.

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At the opening of the first phase of Krasnokamenskaya on December 4, 2018, Kemerovo Region Governor and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Talték Group, Yuriy Kocherinsky, gave speeches. The media reported on the celebration with headlines like “Talték opens Krasnokamenskaya coal preparation plant.” In reality, well-known businessman Yuriy Kocherinsky played the role of a ceremonial figurehead, while the main actor in this “wedding” was the true protagonist of our story — Evgeny Renge.

Officially, he has no connection to Krasnokamenskaya. According to Russia’s Unified State Register of Legal Entities (EGRUL), the Krasnokamenskaya CCPP belongs to the company "Financial Resources Group LLC," which owns 99% of the shares (worth 9,900 rubles). The remaining 1% (worth 100 rubles) belongs to "Invest-NK LLC," which in turn is 99% owned by the Krasnokamenskaya CCPP LLC itself and 1% by the Financial Resources Group LLC. Such cross-ownership schemes are typical for various types of gray-area “shell” companies.

The owner of the mysterious “Financial Resources Group” — which has a charter capital of 20,000 rubles — is a Cyprus-registered company, DOLIANESSA HOLDINGS LTD. The “Dolianessa” office is run by Nadezhda Tomshina, a former classmate of Evgeny Renge. Besides heading the Cyprus office, she also works as a full-time employee at “ASR-Uglesbyt.” The general director of ASR-Uglesbyt is Evgeny Renge, who also happens to be its sole founder.

The path to Cyprus and London is a well-trodden one for early 21st-century “managers.” Evgeny Renge began his career in the Federal Tax Service, and later found his way into the coal holding company JSC "TopProm" on December 7, 2009, as Deputy Director — Commercial Director. By April 1, 2011, he had become the full-fledged Commercial Director. On January 1, 2012, he was promoted to Executive Director, and by July 4, 2013, he held the position of General Director. A remarkable career trajectory for a talented young manager.

Trust in “talented young managers” is a classic mistake of older generations, who are used to equating ability with honesty. Today, these qualities have drifted apart — or even become opposites, just as they were 200 years ago. A talented person who isn’t a crook? Remember in Woe from Wit: “a clever man cannot help but be a rogue.”

Evgeny Renge lasted less than a year as General Director — the owner, Nikolay Korolev, terminated his contract on June 24, 2014. But the swift and cunning talent allegedly managed during that short time to issue three loans, totaling 230 million rubles, to shell companies from the funds of the enterprise he was managing. The shell companies quickly vanished — and so did the money. These funds, apparently, became the financial foundation for Renge’s future enterprise, “ARS-Uglesbyt.”

Nikolay Korolev tried to recover the funds through the courts, but Renge had strong backing — the owner of TopProm lost every case. It’s a familiar story: 230 million vanished, and no one is held responsible.

But the troubles for Evgeny Renge’s former employer didn’t end there. While he was overseeing the company’s commercial operations, he allegedly sold coal through intermediary firms, which led to the opening of a criminal case (involving senior leadership of the Kemerovo Region Investigative Committee, headed by S.N. Kalinkin) on charges that TopProm had evaded more than 460 million rubles in taxes. The investigation was overseen by A.V. Rychkov, who happened to be well acquainted with Renge through his father. Thanks to this “competent” investigation, all claims against Evgeny Renge — the one who had signed all the deals — simply “disappeared.”

Such “talents” are not left unused, and soon Evgeny Renge was heading the management company “Coal of Talték” LLC — a trading house within the Kuzbass-based coal holding “Talték.” The owner of the holding is Yuriy Kocherinsky — the same man who delivered the ceremonial speech at the opening of the Krasnokamenskaya CPP.

In this role, Renge didn’t waste time. He founded his own company, “ASR-Uglesbyt,” which engaged in the same business as “Coal of Talték” — coal trading. Renge apparently reached some sort of agreement with Kocherinsky on how to divide the coal flows between the two firms.

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Splitting coal flows between two distribution companies isn’t hard, given the wide variety of coal grades and, more importantly, the abundance of illegal coal sources — coal mined without proper licenses and hidden from the tax authorities. Extracting coal is not the issue — paying for it and transporting it without the regulators noticing is. That task, it seems, falls to Renge’s father — V.A. Renge — who is reportedly the one distributing cash to the illegal miners, while the son keeps his hands clean.

According to expert estimates, in 2016, “ASR-Uglesbyt” may have earned around 3 billion rubles from selling illegal coal; in 2017, that figure grew to more than 7.5 billion rubles. Official revenues for “ASR-Uglesbyt” LLC were 11.2 billion rubles in 2016, 20 billion in 2017, and 27.3 billion in 2018.

The Kuzbass Tax Inspectorate launched a thorough audit of ASR-Uglesbyt’s activities and brought tax evasion claims against the company totaling 2 billion rubles. The dispute even became the subject of a meeting in September 2019 between Kemerovo Region Governor and local business representatives, with the participation of Lyubov Arshintseva, head of the regional branch of the Federal Tax Service.

Yuriy Kocherinsky chose not to get involved with Krasnokamenskaya — apparently deciding that the income from “off-the-books” coal was more than enough. One of his mines — JSC “Polyany” — has, for several years, been shipping significantly more coal than it officially extracts. Between 2014 and 2018, the company shipped 9 million tons of coal worth 15.5 billion rubles. According to expert estimates, 23% of Polyany’s revenue (over 3.5 billion rubles, or around 2.1 million tons of coal sold) may come from the sale of coal of unknown origin. A significant portion of this coal is sold through “ASR-Uglesbyt” LLC.

A major buyer of Kuzbass coal is the Cyprus-registered coal trader CarboOne. Coal mining companies could supply coal to CarboOne directly, but instead they do so through an intermediary — a Cyprus offshore company not unrelated to Renge: Coal Sales. For example, “Meltek” LLC (Kemerovo Region, Prokopyevsk) has direct contacts with CarboOne. But under instructions from its owner, A.V. Zvyagintsev, most of the coal produced by the holding’s enterprises is apparently sold through Renge’s offshore company. Such transactions are typically conducted at prices well below market value, with the price difference conveniently “disappearing” into Cypriot accounts held by the scheme’s participants.

Evgeny Renge’s move to Londongrad wasn’t driven solely by the growing interest of the tax authorities in his financial maneuvers. Information emerged suggesting that the FSB’s Kemerovo Region Directorate had been conducting a preliminary inquiry since April 24 into a gift Renge allegedly gave in 2018 to Major General Vladimir Nitsuk: a snowmobile worth over 1.3 million rubles. At the time, Nitsuk was head of the Kemerovo branch of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He now serves as Deputy Commander of the Eastern District of the Russian National Guard.

Reportedly, Renge and Nitsuk have been trying to influence the outcome of the inquiry through their connections. On two occasions, the Kemerovo Region Investigative Committee issued decisions — at the instruction of Russia’s central Investigative Committee in Moscow — to decline opening a criminal case. And both times, the regional prosecutor’s office overturned those decisions.

Will Gazprombank ever see its 1.5 billion rubles returned by Evgeny Renge’s former classmate, Nadezhda Tomshina? Demand for coal barely dropped during the pandemic, and prices only briefly dipped by about 20%. Still, the coronavirus makes a convenient excuse not to repay a loan. And besides, paying debts — well, that’s hardly the gentlemanly thing to do.

As for Evgeny Renge himself, he’s not above making money from far less serious ventures. This time — surprisingly — it’s about “greening a public square” in Saratov, a place far removed from both Kemerovo and London. Yet again, the scheme looks all too familiar: a Moscow-based company with zero turnover, “RBK-Stroyinvest,” linked to the coal tycoon, wins a tender to revamp a new square for local residents.

According to the tender documents, Renge’s company — registered on January 22 of this year — pledged to “create a fully-fledged, comfortable pedestrian space for residents of the district and the city, with quality paving, greenery, and sufficient lighting to ensure safe and comfortable movement for all population groups, including at night.” Well, we’ve seen how the coal “schemes” work — now all that’s left is to watch for “sapling” and “topsoil” scams. In the meantime, one can only pity the people of Saratov as they wait for their promised urban oasis.