Byakov Yury Aleksandrovich

Byakov Yury Aleksandrovich

Biography

Yuri Byakov was born in 1971 in Moscow.

Graduated from Moscow State Industrial University with a degree in Management, has an Executive MBA diploma from the State University of the Higher School of Economics.

In 1995, he took the position of Marketing Director at the Russian representative office of the Irish corporation Computer Support Services.

In 1998, Yuri Byakov and his colleagues jointly created the Banking Automation Center. The organization was engaged in the supply of complex solutions in the field of office automation. Until 2002, Byakov served as chief accountant of this company. Then he headed it for two years. At this time, Banking Automation Center changed its direction of activity and began to focus on comprehensive IT projects. In 2004, Byakov bought shares from partners and became the largest co-owner of the company.

Yuri Byakov said that by 2008 the company's turnover increased to $140 million^[1]. In the same year, the organization was renamed to "Automated Systems and Technologies of Russia," "Asteros."

Byakov was chairman of the board, president of the Asteros group. He was engaged in the development of relations with strategic clients, control over the largest corporate projects of the group.

In 2014, in an interview with TAdviser, Yuri Byakov talked about the current state of affairs in the Asteros group and plans, including the prospect of further delving into the construction segment.

According to Asteros itself, at the end of 2016, the group's revenue was 21.4 billion. And in rubles 2018, the company was declared bankrupt (more). here As the company explained then, Asteros historically worked in the "heavy" infrastructure construction market with long stages of implementation and long-term financing.

The specifics of the projects, as well as the untimely execution of payments by some customers at the beginning of 2018, caused restrictions on the company's operating activities and created risks of fulfilling obligations, Asteros said in Asteros[2].

2022: Asteros founder Yuri Byakov has not repaid huge debts. Creditors led by Sberbank hunt for his property

Once a major integrator, IT contractor for the Olympics Sochi in and the 2018 FIFA World Cup "" Asteros was declared bankrupt in 2018, but litigation in this regard is still ongoing. As TAdviser found out, as of the beginning of 2022, Asteros creditors are still trying to return the money, and, having not fully satisfied their financial requirements from the company itself, they also nominated them to the main shareholder of Asteros Yuri Byakov. In 2021, the Arbitration Court Moscow declared him bankrupt, introduced a procedure for the sale of property against him. Moreover, in addition to Russia the bankruptcy case, Byakov is also in and. Britain Israel

Yuri Byakov is the majority shareholder of Asteros JSC, he owns 52% of the company's shares. Such data are mentioned in one of the numerous court decisions related to the bankruptcies of Asteros and Byakov^[3]. He was also the president of the Asteros group.

A source familiar with the company's activities before its bankruptcy told TAdviser that in 2017, when it became clear that Asteros would have difficulties paying off everyone to whom it owed, Yuri Byakov quickly "disappeared from the radar," and the employees did not manage to get in touch with him, including his personal assistant. According to the interlocutor of TAdviser, there was talk in the company about Byakov's real estate in Britain, and that he had left for this country. Former employees of Asteros, with whom TAdviser spoke in January 2022, do not know about the current whereabouts of Byakov.

According to the Russian Agency for Legal and Judicial Information (RAPSI) for January 2019, companies and individuals sent applications to the Moscow Arbitration Court to include a debt to them in the amount of about 33 billion rubles in the register of Asteros claims. The largest of them was Sberbank, which by that time had declared a demand of 3.6 billion rubles^[4]. It follows from court documents that Asteros took loans for large sums from Sberbank in 2017.

In February 2019, a debt restructuring procedure was introduced against Yuri Byakov himself, and by a decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court of February 1, 2021, he was declared bankrupt, and a six-month property sale procedure was introduced against him^[5]The court approved Denis Panchenko as the financial manager at that time. The representative of the financial manager later filed a petition to extend the procedure for the sale of property for six months.

Largest lenders

The creditor, according to whose application a court case was opened on the bankruptcy of Yuri Byakov, was Sberbank, follows from the messages of the financial manager. As mentioned, Sberbank is the largest creditor of all who demand money from Byakov. At the time of Biakov's bankruptcy in February 2021, the largest creditors in terms of claims in the debtor's register of creditors indicated^[6]:

• Sberbank - 2 456 588 624 rubles;
• "Bank Дом.РФ" - 1 917 120 520 rubles;
• JSCB "Peresvet" - more than 1 295 179 070 rubles;
• VTB Factoring - 782 150 100 rubles;
• MTS-Bank - 353 436 991 rubles;
• "Marvell CT" - 336 834 416 rubles;
• KB LOKO-Bank - more than 251 916 623 rubles;
• Zarya Invest - more than 249 388 716 rubles.

In 2019, Asteros also tried to join the register of creditors of Byakov with a demand of more than 121.5 million rubles, from which Byakov took a loan in 2015, follows from court materials. But the Moscow Arbitration Court considered this requirement unfounded. The representative of the bankruptcy financial manager Byakov, as well as Sberbank and Bank ДОМ.РФ, also objected to the inclusion of Asteros in the register^[7].

An extensive array of court documents in the bankruptcy case of Byakov also contains information that in 2019, citizen Yekaterina Golovenko demanded that alimony for the maintenance of her son in the amount of 33.5 million rubles be included in the register of claims of creditors Yuri Byakov^[8]. However, by the time it came to the consideration of this claim in court in 2021, the representative of Ekaterina Golovenko filed a petition to clarify the requirements and submitted a calculation for the period from December 2018 to January 2019 in the amount of about 220,576 rubles of debt and 170,050 rubles of forfeit. Alimony was recognized as current payments and not included in the register of creditors' claims^[9]

Bankruptcy in the UK and Israel

The Russian court documents in the bankruptcy case of Yuri Byakov mention the existence of bankruptcy cases against him also Britain in and. Israel The decision of the Arbitration Court of Moscow December 2021 states that the bankruptcy proceedings of the debtor in Israel Russia ^[10]" are interconnected.]

And in 2020, a news note was published in Pravda that some of Byakov's assets were located in Britain, and that Sberbank had initiated a bankruptcy case in this country. According to Pravda, in February 2020, at a meeting of creditors held in London, it was decided to appoint commercial managers in the bankruptcy case - Michael Leeds and Nick Wood from Grant Thornton UK^[11].

Sberbank declined to comment on TAdviser's bankruptcy of Byakov.

In 2021, the debtor's side petitioned for the completion of bankruptcy proceedings in Russia, citing the fact that bankruptcy proceedings in the UK had been terminated against him. In their opinion, this is the basis for the termination of the bankruptcy procedure in the Russian Federation. The Moscow Arbitration Court, however, indicated that the completion of the bankruptcy procedure in the UK is not the basis for its completion in Russia^[12].

However, this is not the only argument made by Byakov's side, applying for the termination of the bankruptcy procedure: the representative of the debtor also argued that the bankruptcy procedure should be stopped due to the lack of property at Byakov.

In this regard, the bankruptcy procedure in Britain was terminated, from Russian court documents it is not obvious. Britain's Grant Thornton did not respond to TAdviser's questions about this or other bankruptcy-related questions.

Regardless of whether the debtor's assets are in Russian or foreign jurisdiction, all his identified property should be included in the bankruptcy estate, said Alexander Gorsky, a lawyer at the Dombrovitsky and Partners Moscow Bar Association, in a conversation with TAdviser. The question arises only in the order in which this property is sold.

The sale, i.e. foreclosure on this property, will take place according to the rules of the jurisdictions where it is located. The main problem is how to foreclose, get the judicial act of the country where, for example, the debtor has a real estate object, and sell this real estate object through the bailiff service of foreign jurisdiction. To do this, the bankruptcy trustee or financial manager of the debtor must apply to the local municipal court of the country where the real estate is located, with an application for foreclosure on the debtor's property, - explains Gorsky.

Foreclosure on foreign assets as part of bankruptcy, which is conducted in Russia, is possible, but collection procedures in such cases are very expensive, because to appeal to foreign courts and accompany the case, you need to hire a local law office, pay duties in local currency for preliminary collection of documents, explained TAdviser lawyer. It may be necessary to apply for the services of local investigation agencies to search for property. The mechanism for the sale of this property according to the rules of foreign jurisdiction will also be costly.

At the same time, the presence of a bankruptcy case in foreign jurisdictions does not in any way affect the course of the bankruptcy case in the Russian Federation. A similar case was for the debtor Telman Ismailov, who, in parallel with bankruptcy in the Russian Federation, also began his bankruptcy in Britain, recalled Alexander Gorsky: regardless of how the bankruptcy case in the UK ended, the creditors declared in the Russian bankruptcy case continued to bankrupt the debtor. No cancellation of debts or non-cancellation on the basis of decisions of foreign courts to declare bankrupt occurs. The procedure for writing off or not writing off debts from an individual occurs only under the Russian bankruptcy law.

Unfair behavior

It is noteworthy that as of August 2021, according to the financial manager Byakova, the debtor still has not fulfilled the obligation to transfer all the bank cards he has. Also, he believes, information about the alienation of two real estate objects in 2016 was deliberately hidden. According to the financial manager, "the debtor behaves in bad faith and prevents the fastest and most complete satisfaction of creditors' claims and the exercise of the powers of the financial manager."^[13]

In accordance with the Russian bankruptcy law, a citizen declared insolvent, no later than one working day following the day of the decision to declare bankrupt, is obliged to transfer to the financial manager all bank cards and documents confirming the presence of deposits in credit and other institutions.

In October 2021, Denis Panchenko, at his own request, was relieved of his duties as financial manager Byakov, and by the decision of the Moscow Arbitration Court, Rinat Gaysin, a member of the Association "Eurosibirskaya Self-Regulatory Organization of Arbitration Managers," was approved as the new financial manager in the bankruptcy case.

Gaysin and the organization in which he works did not specify to TAdviser the amount of Byakov's remaining debts to creditors and did not answer other questions related to bankruptcy.

Harassment continues

It follows from court documents that in November 2021, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the application of the financial manager filed back in July to claim evidence from the Moscow divisions of the traffic police, FTS, Rosreestr and FMS about the debtor. In particular, the financial manager tried to find out which real estate and vehicles were previously registered to Byakov himself and the closest members of his family, which they were issued Russian passports and passports and a number of other information^[14]

And in January 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court received a statement from Sberbank to establish the size of creditors' claims in the amount of about 494 million rubles. It is based on a master agreement on the opening of a renewable credit facility and a loan agreement of 2017, in which Byakov and Kabest (a company within the Asteros group) acted as guarantors under loan agreements.

It remains unclear what payments the largest creditor managed to receive from the debtor. But perhaps some information about this will be contained in the report of the financial manager Byakov in the bankruptcy case. A court hearing is scheduled for February 7, 2022 to consider this report^[15]. TAdviser will continue to monitor the progress of the case.

2023: Arrest in absentia

At the end of October 2023, investigators of the Main Investigative Directorate of the State University MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS To Moscow for appealed to the Tverskoy District Court of the capital with a petition for the arrest in absentia of Yuri Byakov, the former head of the IT group "." Asteros A businessman whose structures carried out work in preparation for the Olympics Sochi in and the 2018 World Cup is charged with non-return of foreign exchange earnings from abroad on an especially large scale.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, a criminal case was initiated under Part 2 of Art. 193 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - evading the obligation to repatriate funds in foreign currency or the currency of the Russian Federation. A particularly large amount is considered to be from 150 million rubles, unreturned during the year. The maximum penalty under this article is five years in prison.

Yuri Byakov

As of 2019, the total debts of the Asteros group of companies reached 32 billion rubles. Creditors through the court obtained the arrest of property of a number of former Asteros leaders for almost 14 billion rubles, but Byakov was not among the defendants, since at the time of the proceedings he was undergoing personal bankruptcy. A businessman put on the wanted list is hiding abroad, and therefore his arrest is in absentia.

It is noted that the courts rarely choose for the defendants in such investigations, who are mainly entrepreneurs, a preventive measure in the form of detention in a pre-trial detention center. However, in the case of Byakov, Judge Marina Bagrova, according to Kommersant, will satisfy the request of the investigation, since the accused has long been on the international wanted list. According to Russian law enforcement agencies, the businessman avoided returning foreign exchange earnings to his homeland through a fake deal. Absentee arrest in this case is a prerequisite for search through Interpol and agreements on legal assistance with other states.^[16]

Recognition by the professional community

Yuri Byakov was recognized as the winner of the 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year contest in the Infrastructure and Technology nomination.

Twice entered the number of "Best Managers of Russian IT Companies" according to the magazine "IT-Business."

Notes