Going for flour: a grain supplier offered a bribe to the top manager of Makfa

Vladlen Parshin started working at Makfa under the previous owners, and is referred to in the media as "Yurevich's man", implying that in recent years he has continued to represent the interests of the disgraced ex-owner in the company. In May last year, Mikhail Yurevich, a former State Duma deputy and governor of the Chelyabinsk Region, lost all his assets at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, including shares in Makfa.

AK&M agency included Parshin in the rating of the best purchasing directors in Russia in 2016 and 2017. Before joining Makfu, he managed to work in law enforcement agencies, in particular, he was deputy head of the operational investigative unit No. 4 (on combating corruption and official crimes) GU of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Chelyabinsk region.

On Friday, February 28, a court in Chelyabinsk arrested Parshin in the case of attempted bribery in the amount of 16 million rubles. "for the unhindered signing of specifications for the wheat supply contract."His detention was reported to the Investigative Committee on the morning of the same day.

As the Investigative Committee explained to Izvestia, 16 million rubles were intended for Parshin from one of the grain supplier companies for the opportunity to conclude a purchase and sale agreement with McFoy.

— Makfa is a very large company that buys grain in huge volumes. There is serious competition in the producer market, and one of these suppliers was ready to bribe the company if only Makfa would buy grain from him,, the UK explained.

At the same time, the investigators added, there is no question of selling low—quality grain for a bribe - the quality was normal. The issue was precisely to create a competitive advantage and guarantees for the conclusion of a purchase and sale agreement.

But, having agreed on a bribe, the grain supplier himself reported the impending crime to law enforcement agencies. According to the law, the bribe-giver is released from criminal liability in this case, the UK explained. Therefore, only those who were preparing to receive the money and the employees of Makfa are held accountable.

Parshin was detained during an operational experiment while transferring 1 million rubles, which was the first part of the amount. Together with him, the security forces detained two of his subordinates, the head of the grain purchase service, Ivan Tofan, and the manager of the same service (the latter, according to investigators, acted as an intermediary in the transfer of bribes).

Agro-Capital LLC became the alleged bribe-giving company, a law enforcement source told Izvestia. According to the Rusprofile database, there are currently more than a dozen companies with this name, but none of them are registered in the Chelyabinsk region.

A court in Chelyabinsk chose a preventive measure for Parshin in the form of detention.

Will the arrest affect the work of Makfa

Makfa is the largest consumer of grain, and all its suppliers, producers from large to small, are interested in stable sales and sales contracts, the ex-deputy minister told Izvestia Agriculture and Food of the Russian Federation Leonid Kholod.

— There are few companies in Russia today that can buy back large amounts of grain," he said. — Therefore, it is clear why this bribe could have appeared. I think that this situation will not affect the company's work, since it does not affect the technological processes in any way. If the company is operating now, it means they have both suppliers and sales.

Earlier, Leonid Kholod called the court's decision to nationalize Makfa's assets unprecedented for the food industry.

Georgy Ostapkovich, director of the Center for Economic Research at the Higher School of Economics, also believes that the criminal case will in no way affect either the company's work or the pasta market. According to him, the decision on nationalization was made last year, so the expert believes that the main issue in this case is corruption, not production.

Izvestia asked Makfa JSC about the impact of Parshin's detention on the company's activities.

What threatens Vladlen Parshin

— The maximum penalty for taking a particularly large bribe is 15 years in prison," Anastasia Rastorgueva, a lawyer and member of the Skolkovo Women's Association, explained to Izvestia. — And since we are talking about an attempt to receive it, and not about receiving it itself, the maximum penalty may be three quarters of this period.

She noted that if Parshin's actions were now regarded as a bribe, then before nationalization it would have been an abuse of power, with a penalty of four to ten years.

Legal entities with a sole shareholder represented by the state have more legal norms that they must comply with, Anastasia Rastorgueva added. In particular, these are norms of antimonopoly legislation.

At a minimum, such persons are no longer conditionally free to choose their suppliers, but must be guided by a special law (Federal Law No. 223 on the procurement of goods, works and services by certain types of legal entities), the lawyer said. In other words, suppliers should be selected on competitive terms.