ST. PETERSBURG, May 15 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Petrogradsky District Court of St. Petersburg has collected 15 million rubles ($240,000) from a co-owner of Russian Internet retailer Ulmart Dmitry Kostygin in favor of Globex bank, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.
The court also granted the bank’s claims against Ulmart, Ulmart Development and Ulmart Food Shopping Company and recovered 412.6 million rubles in total from the firms.
The plaintiff claimed that Kostygin and Ulmart failed to enforcing obligations under a surety agreement signed in January 2017.
Currently, Kostygin also stands charged with large-scale credit fraud.
According to case papers, the businessman acting as the Board Chairman of Ulmart provided false information on the company’s financial position to Sberbank for signing a loan agreement. In April, Sberbank transferred 1 billion rubles ($17.3 million at the current exchange rate) to the company’s account. The accused allegedly managed the money in his discretion.
The defendant pleaded not guilty, his lawyer Konstantin Dobrynin told RAPSI earlier.
Earlier, the Smolninsky District Court of St. Petersburg granted an application by Sberbank seeking to invalidate the contract concluded between Kostygin and businessman Oleg Morozov, on the basis of which a bankruptcy petition was filed against Ulmart.
In February 2015, Ulmart received a 250-million–ruble credit from Kostygin for a year. In early 2016, Kostygin assigned his right to claim a debt to Morozov. The businessman in turn filed a bankruptcy petition against Ulmart with a commercial court because the company did not pay the debt.
Moreover, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg collected 653 million rubles ($11.3 million) in debt from Kostygin in favor of VTB bank.
Ulmart group of companies is the largest Russian private Internet holding focusing on e-commerce segment. The company’s distribution network consists of over 400 sales outlets across more than 240 Russian cities and towns.