Trefilov, Georgy Yuryevich

Childhood and Youth

Georgy Trefilov was born on June 1, 1971 in a family of public servants. He graduated from secondary school number 689 in 1988, after which he entered the faculty of "Special Engineering" MSTU . Bauman. In 1992, Trefilov interrupts his studies and decides to start entrepreneurship ^{[6] [7]} .

Work at MARCH

In 1992, George Trefilov, together with his classmate Dmitry Oktyabrsky, opened Marta LLC and organized the production of household and kitchen furniture. Subsequently, the company changes the scope of activity, but the name remains the same - "MARTA" (Intersectoral Alternative Russian Trade Association) ^[8] .

In 2001, after the financial crisis, Trefilov acquired a sub-franchise of the Dutch supermarket chain “ SPAR ” ^[9] from the Russian franchisee “Spar Retail” ^[10] and opened the first supermarket. Over the next 3 years, MARTA Holding will open 22 more supermarkets, and retail is becoming the main activity of the company. After some time, Trefilov’s collaboration with SPAR breaks up. The reason was “serious disagreement” with the Dutch partner ^[11] .

In 2004, George Trefilov at the Moscow German-Russian Economic Summit in the presence of the President of Russia and the Federal Chancellor of Germany signed a framework agreement with the REWE Group on the creation of a joint venture and the development of a supermarket chain of the international brand Billa ^[12] .

Since 2006, the Holding "MARTA" together with the GC "Vremya" create OJSC "RTM" , in which until March 2008 Trefilov was Chairman of the Board of Directors. RTM became a public company, having passed an IPO in 2007 ^[13] .

Bankruptcy

Since the beginning of 2008, the Marta Holding and other Trefilov-controlled companies have experienced a non-payment crisis ^{[14] [15]} . According to analysts, the cause of the crisis was Trefilov’s policy of aggressive regional expansion ^{[16] [17]} , which led the MARTA Holding to a sharp increase in its debt burden ^{[18] [19] [20]} .

Since the fall of 2008, a general crisis of the Holding’s structures has begun. Lender banks ( Alfa-Bank , BTF, Sberbank , Svyaz-Bank , Surgutneftegazbank, Rus-Bank , etc.) filed claims for the recovery of more than 1.9 billion rubles. personally to Trefilov, as he was the guarantor of these loans) ^{[21] [22]} . Trefilov tried to keep the shares of RTM OJSC and at the same time use the same shares as a bank pledge; the loan received from this operation extinguished the claims on Marta Finance bonds. For this purpose, the shares were transferred to E. Vyrypaev. Vyrypaev, in turn, sold them to KIT Finance , and sent the money to Trefilov, who used them to settle accounts with bondholders. The subsequent public scandal ^[23] between Vyrypayev and Trefilov about the ownership of this block of shares led to a sharp drop in the value of shares, after which OJSC RTM was declared bankrupt ^[24] .

Criminal prosecution

In 2009-2010, criminal cases were instituted against Trefilov under part 1 of article 166 of the Criminal Code and part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code. On November 15, 2010, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia issued an official statement on the absentee charge against George Trefilov of fraudulent actions ^[25] . According to the statement and the charges against him, Trefilov stole the funds of several companies. Trefilov also provided banks, with security for loans issued to him, guarantees in the form of a pledge of property, however, this property was already pledged many times by Trefilov earlier, or was not his property at all. So, in particular, Business Group LLC, a part of Marta and a Trefilov-controlled enterprise, received loans of more than 1.3 billion rubles from six banks, including Sberbank. secured by the same trading equipment of supermarkets operating under the BILLA brand. A few months before he was charged, Trefilov fled from law enforcement in the UK ^[26] .

In 2010, Trefilov was put on the international wanted list, remuneration was announced for information about his whereabouts and assistance in the search. The Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation demanded that the UK extradite Trefilov ^[27] .

On November 16, 2012 Trefilov won a court in London on his extradition to Russia, but in March 2013 he was arrested at London's Gatwick Airport ^{[2] [28]} , upon entering the UK, for using a fake passport and ID card. In May 2013, a court in the city of Lewis sentenced George Trefilov to 1.5 years probation for using false documents ^{[29] [30]} .

Trefilov currently lives with his family in London ^[31] .

Persecution of process participants

On December 12, 2012, criminal proceedings were instituted against senior prosecutor Viktor Gvozdev, who allegedly received $ 50,000 from Trefilov for mitigating the criminal prosecution ^{[32] [33] [34]} . On January 24, 2014 he was found guilty and sentenced to 4 years probation, under Art. Part 4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Fraud on an especially large scale). During the investigation, he pleaded guilty ^[35] . The investigation established that Gvozdev entered into negotiations with Trefilov while being retired at that time ^[35] .

None of the versions presented by Trefilov about the involvement of other employees of the General Prosecutor's Office in the actions of V. Gvozdev, in particular the former investigator Irina Konovalova (who had been conducting a criminal case on fraud for Trefilov for several years), was not confirmed either during the investigation, nor in court ^[36] . The entire investigative part of the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation several months before Trefilov’s appeal to the Prosecutor General’s Office was already disbanded ^[36] .

Litigation with REWE Group

In 2013, a trial was ongoing in the Austrian commercial court, in which REWE accused Trefilov of falsifying and attempting to illegally use the contract, according to which REWE allegedly accepted an obligation to buy Trefilov’s Grossmart retail chain at an obviously high price ^[37] . According to representatives of REWE, Trefilov used a fake agreement to obtain bridge financing in one of the British investment funds , as well as in one of the largest Russian banks ^{[38] [39]} .

Litigation with Alfa Bank

Alfa-Bank in January 2014 appealed to the High Court of London with the Claim for the recovery of about 600 million rubles from Trefilov. debts and interest on them. In the statement of claim, the Russian bank demanded that the court's decision on the liability of the guarantor, Trefilov, be recognized for the debts of his company LLC Elekskor (a subsidiary of MARTA Holding) ^[40] .

On June 4, 2014, the High Court of London examined the case and ruled in favor of Alfa Bank ^{[40] [41] [42]}

The total amount of satisfied requirements amounted to 521.44 million rubles. (including 153.2 million rubles - accrued interest). According to the court’s decision, Trefilov must pay this amount by June 25, 2014, “while interest will be charged at the Central Bank rate of the Russian Federation (8.25%) by the date of actual repayment” ^{[43] [43]} .

Judicial standoff with Maxim Vasiliev

In 2005, there was a conflict between Trefilov and the shareholder of the Neftekhimprom concern Maxim Vasiliev, the former owner of the Prodmak supermarket chain, which ended with the initiation of a criminal case against Vasiliev himself on charges of embezzlement of $ 1.8 million from the MARTA Holding. A criminal case was opened in 2005 after an appeal to the Ministry of Internal Affairs by State Duma deputy Gudkov , to whom representatives of "MARTA" informed of an attempt to steal $ 30 million from them, in the course of the transaction on Trefilov’s acquisition of the Prodmak network from M. Vasiliev ^[44] .

According to the statement of the accused Vasiliev and his lawyers, representatives of “MARTA” extorted $ 25 million from him for a possible “termination of the criminal case” ^[45] . The investigation and the process attracted the attention of human rights defenders, including the head of the Moscow Helsinki group Alekseeva, who supported the accused. The defendants also appealed to the European Court of Human Rights .

Vasiliev was sentenced to eight years in prison ^[46] . The case was reviewed twice, and Vasiliev was released ahead of schedule.

In 2013, Maxim Vasiliev’s father turned to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General’s Office with a request to verify the evidence provided by him and to punish Trefilov and other persons who are internationally wanted, namely, former investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who, in his opinion, were involved in the organization of fraud and criminal prosecution of his son Trefilov , demanding proceedings and full rehabilitation in respect of, in his opinion, Vasiliev illegally convicted in 2009 ^[47] .

Trefilov married a second marriage since 2005 to Yulia Trefilova, has two daughters from two marriages ^{[48] [1]} .