Court completed liquidation of BelaPAN, million-ruble debt hung on former leaders

Andrei Aliaksandrau and Dzmitry Navazhylau in the courtroom cage, center. The former was sentenced to 14 years, the latter to six. Photo: "Sputnik".

Three weeks before the anniversary, on December 23, the Economic Court of Minsk drew a line under the liquidation process of BelaPAN's founder – the eponymous CJSC – which had lasted almost two years. On this day, Judge Aliaksandr Khaneuski issued a "ruling on the completion of liquidation proceedings." Khaneuski ordered the anti-crisis manager he himself appointed on September 23, 2024 – individual entrepreneur Ruslan Kulich – to "close the debtor's bank accounts before the debtor is excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs within five working days from the date the court's decision on the completion of liquidation proceedings enters into force."

The decision could have been appealed to the appellate instance of the same court within 15 days of its adoption. There is no information that individual entrepreneur Kulich (a copy of the decision was provided only to him) exercised this right.

The liquidation of BelaPAN was announced by the Prosecutor General's Office on March 11, 2024, by a decision of the Economic Court of Minsk. The decision itself was made on February 1 of the same year. In its press release, the Prosecutor General's Office stated about allegedly revealed "repeated and gross violations of tax legislation, as well as legislation on state social insurance."

"In particular, facts of non-payment of a significant amount of debt on mandatory payments to the budget for the period from 2014 to 2021 were allowed: more than 590 thousand rubles to the social protection fund and over 417 thousand rubles to the inspection of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties of the Republic of Belarus for the Pershamaiski district of Minsk. At the same time, for a long time, no measures were taken to repay it," the supervisory body claimed.

On this basis, the prosecutor of the Pershamaiski district of the capital filed a lawsuit with the court for the liquidation of BelaPAN. "Based on the results of the case review, the court's decision fully satisfied the prosecutor's claims. The decision was not appealed or protested and entered into legal force," the statement said.

On September 23, 2024, the Economic Court of Minsk, "composed of Judge Aliaksandr Aliaksandravich Khaneuski," reviewed the application of the Minsk City Department of the Social Protection Fund (SPF) for the bankruptcy of CJSC BelaPAN. The SPF estimated its debt at 612,992 rubles 89 kopecks.

The court "concluded that there was a set of grounds for initiating bankruptcy proceedings with the application of the provisions on the bankruptcy of a liquidating debtor."

In the same decision, Khaneuski, as noted above, appointed an anti-crisis manager from the proposed candidates. Individual entrepreneur Kulich (first certified in 2017), by the way, has a rather long list of liquidation cases, including RUE "Directorate of Objects under Construction of the Ministry of Sports" (worked for 24 years). There is also the cheerful LLC "Hot Local Guys," which concealed a taxi service founded in 2022 by a Russian citizen.

Having received powers from the court, the anti-crisis manager collected creditors' claims against BelaPAN. Besides the SPF, these were named as the inspection of the Ministry of Taxes and Duties for the Pershamaiski district of Minsk and the "Belgosstrakh" branch for Minsk. Tax authorities calculated that the company owed them 521,617 rubles 97 kopecks, and insurers – 8,417 rubles 25 kopecks.

Including the pension fund, the total "debt" amounted to 1,143,028 rubles 11 kopecks (plus 400 rubles of state duty added by Judge Khaneuski).

At the same time, the anti-crisis manager concluded that "the debtor is insolvent, the insolvency is persistent and indicates the impossibility of the debtor fulfilling its obligations to creditors in full."

On December 9, 2024, a meeting of "creditors" took place, who decided "to file a lawsuit against the managers for subsidiary liability." The deadline was until February 28, 2025. The representative of the IIMD wrote a remark in the bulletin: "For, if there are grounds."

The initial deadline for the completion of the BelaPAN liquidation procedure was set for July 30, 2025.

At the meeting on December 23, 2024, the court accepted Kulich's explanations and agreed that "the debtor is unable to fulfill monetary obligations, is insolvent, and is subject to liquidation."

A Million for Two

For some reason, the approved deadlines were not met: the deadline for filing a claim for subsidiary liability shifted from February 28 to June 30, and for the liquidation procedures – from July 30 to December 30. At the same time, the representative of the IIMD again expressed a special opinion, voting for the completion of the liquidation process by October 15.

In the statement of claim, manager Kulich represented himself as CJSC BelaPAN. The defendants are Aliaksandrau and Navazhylau. The court's decision – to fully satisfy the plaintiff's claims, taking into account the allegedly "established guilty deliberate actions of the defendants." Quote: "In substantiating the claims, the plaintiff refers to the insufficiency of property to repay the register of creditors' claims, indicates that the defendants were persons influencing the debtor's activity, there is a court verdict against the defendants, and there is a direct causal link between their actions (inaction) and bankruptcy." Khaneuski's decision also refers to the verdict of the Minsk Regional Court in the "BelaPAN case" and the decree "On the Development of Entrepreneurship," specifically to paragraph 5.6, where subsidiary liability is provided in the presence of intent of the figures: "The owner of the property of an insolvent (bankrupt) legal entity, its founders (participants) or other persons, including the head of the legal entity, who have the right to give instructions binding on this legal entity or the ability to otherwise determine its actions, bear subsidiary liability in case of insufficiency of the legal entity's property only if the economic insolvency (bankruptcy) of the legal entity was caused by the guilty (intentional) actions of such persons (paragraph 5.6)."

Thus, the authorities added more than a million rubles for the two to the large fines according to the verdict of the Minsk Regional Court from 2022 (Aliaksandrau - 1,000 basic units, at that time 32,000 rubles; Navazhylau - 700 basic units, 22,400 rubles).

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