In the Dzerzhinsky Court of St. Petersburg, a trial is underway in the criminal case of the founder of JSC „Murmansk Shipping Company” (MMP, declared bankrupt) Nikolai Kulikov, Interfax was told in the joint press service of the courts of St. Petersburg.

He is charged with abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences (part 2 of article 201 of the Criminal Code), and fraud committed on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code).

According to the investigation, Kulikov, being the chairman of the board of directors of the MPP, illegally withdrew 454,460,000 rubles from the turnover of Financing and Development of Maritime Shipping LLC (FRMS) owned by him. He turned this amount into his property, and as a result, the MSE was unable to recover from the FRMS the debt under the assignment agreement, which „resulted in the onset of an unsatisfactory financial condition of the company, its insolvency, the inability of the MSE to fully satisfy the claims of creditors and counterparties for monetary obligations,” explained in the press service.

In particular, the shipping company owed its employees 22,395,000 rubles in salaries and 94,805,000 rubles in tax and insurance payments. Also, MMP was unable to pay dividends to shareholders.

„Also, Kulikov, using his official position as the majority shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of MMP, stole MMP’s funds in the total amount of 266 million rubles,” the press service added.

Kulikov pleads not guilty.

He was detained in September 2019, placed under house arrest, and released in March 2020 on bail of 3 million rubles.

During a search of Kulikov, they found documents related to the activities of offshore companies, as well as expensive art objects, including 11 paintings by Nicholas Roerich and Ivan Aivazovsky’s painting „On the Shore of Capri”.

In April 2020, the materials of the Murmansk Regional Court stated that Kulikov was charged with two episodes under Part 2 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code (abuse of authority resulting in grave consequences) and two episodes under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed on a particularly large scale). size). The amount of damage at that time was estimated at 1.2 billion rubles.

Kulikov’s defense stated that they did not agree with the indictment. Among the positive characteristics, the defense mentioned the fact that Kulikov is a veteran of the FSB, a veteran of labor, a candidate of technical sciences, a doctor of economic sciences.

The monitoring procedure for MMPs was introduced in March 2020, bankruptcy proceedings – in October 2020. This procedure has now been extended until October 6, 2022.

MSE, which provided the bulk of Russian-flagged cargo transportation in the Russian sector of the Arctic, began to experience financial difficulties in 2018.