On September 22, the Leninsky District Court in Yekaterinburg began hearing a lawsuit filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office seeking to transfer to the state assets linked to the Corporation STS group of businessmen Artem Bikov and Aleksei Bobrov. One of the main assets named in the case is Oblkommunenergo, described as the largest коммунal utility company in the Urals.
The prosecutors had already demanded on September 10 that the companies and shares be taken from the defendants. At the preliminary hearing, the agency asked for closed proceedings, citing tax-control materials and account-transaction records covered by banking secrecy. Company representatives objected, arguing that the case was of public importance, but the court sided with the prosecution.
Shortly before the hearing, security officers arrived at Oblkommunenergo’s head office, conducted searches and seized documents. According to E1.RU, the company’s operations were halted and employees were sent home. One staff member told the outlet that investigators needed access to documents and computers and that, in his account, no violence was used. Armed special forces stood at the entrance and blocked employees and journalists from entering.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Bikov and Bobrov used ties to officials in the Sverdlovsk region to gain control of former assets of the state enterprise Oblkommunenergo, then expanded the business across the Kurgan, Sverdlovsk and Tyumen regions, Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The lawsuit says that instead of modernizing infrastructure, the group’s structures raised tariffs and relied on state subsidies. The agency also claims that more than 12 billion rubles were moved abroad through sham loan agreements.
The suit lists 14 individuals and 20 legal entities as defendants, including acting Sverdlovsk Vice Governor Oleg Chemezov. His bank accounts were frozen as an interim measure. In a comment to E1.RU, he said the freeze had also affected the accounts of Irina Chemezova, who is involved in the case as a third party.
At the same time, Irina Chemezova is under investigation in a separate large-scale fraud case. On September 18, she was placed under house arrest until November 1. According to 66.ru and Ural.Mash, the allegations may be linked to grants from the regional tourism department for the Tava glamping project on Lake Tavatuy. She had previously said she received grants of 4.2 million and 10.7 million rubles. Oblkommunenergo says the privatization and later transactions were lawful, involved independent auditors, and that a similar prosecution lawsuit in 2016 was rejected by the regional arbitration court.