Carrying out raids with Patrushev's backing: the method employed by Rosselkhozbank's chief Boris Listov to seize flourishing agricultural enterprises through options, as illustrated by the Ekoniva case

Carrying out raids with Patrushev's backing: the method employed by Rosselkhozbank's chief Boris Listov to seize flourishing agricultural enterprises through options, as illustrated by the Ekoniva case

A few years back, Rosselkhozbank chairman Boris Listov was at the center of a major scandal, facing allegations of corporate raiding, business coercion, and dubious financial practices.

This publication examines in detail Listov’s figure, his career, and the allegations that have been directed at the leadership of one of Russia’s largest state-owned banks.

A loud and large-scale scandal is brewing in the media around alleged schemes and corporate raiding involving one of Russia’s крупнейших banks, RSHB (Rosselkhozbank), headed by Boris Listov and reportedly protected by Patrushev.

What exactly is at stake, and what is known about Listov, who has been accused of laundering dirty money? Is Rosselkhozbank under his leadership engaged in extortion?

Brief background on Listov

Fifty-four-year-old Boris Pavlovich is originally from the Leningrad region. By training he is an accountant and auditor, having studied at the St. Petersburg University of Economics and Finance. He also holds a law degree from the Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy and has a PhD in Economics.

In 2007, he was elected to the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, where he represented the legislative body of the Jewish Autonomous Region. Listov also served on the Federation Council Committee on Local Self-Government, Financial Markets, and Monetary Circulation. This sphere remained central to his career until nearly the end of 2009.

Since the autumn of 2009, Boris Pavlovich served as a member of the Management Board and First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of JSC Rosselkhozbank. In 2018, he became Chairman of the Management Board and a member of the Supervisory Board of the bank. In other words, from that time he has been the head of RSHB.

Boris Listov has long been a sanctioned figure.

On February 19 of last year, Ukraine added Listov to its personal sanctions lists.

The grounds for imposing sanctions were Listov’s commercial activities in sectors of the economy that “provide a substantial source of revenue for the government of the Russian Federation following the full-scale conflict in Ukraine.” Accordingly, he is considered responsible for providing material or financial support to actions that undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.

Rosselkhozbank: general background

Joint Stock Company Rosselkhozbank is one of the largest banks in the Russian Federation and has existed for nearly a quarter of a century.

As noted above, Boris Listov is the head and Chairman of the Management Board of this bank, whose charter capital amounts to 523 billion rubles.

According to SPARK-Interfax data, JSC Rosselkhozbank has been involved in 29,071 court cases, including 4,028 as a defendant. There are also 6,995 enforcement proceedings on record.

According to data from the Rusprofile information resource, these controversial figures are significantly higher. In particular, the bank is already listed in 36,524 court cases totaling — just consider it — 1.7 trillion rubles.

In addition, there are 13,760 enforcement proceedings related to contractual obligations.

As for sanctions, Rosselkhozbank came under them back in June of last year. It was then that this credit institution was disconnected from the international SWIFT payment system.

Sanctions against this bank were imposed by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Japan.

Rosselkhozbank under Patrushev’s patronage and with the help of raider Listov may become Russia’s main corporate raider

The bank’s leadership recently showed its true “face” in the case of LLC Ekoniva-APK Holding. The company was denied by a court the termination of an agreement that would have allowed the creditor — RSHB — to buy out stakes in the company’s structures at nominal value. In simple terms, this means that Russia’s largest agricultural enterprise could end up in different hands.

This high-profile situation is even more surprising given that Ekoniva had been a thriving enterprise with ambitious development plans. Yet in April, reports emerged that external management by Rosselkhozbank might be introduced.

The holding’s CEO, Stefan Matthias Dürr, denied the possibility of RSHB imposing external administration and continues to hope for a settlement with the bank’s leadership. However, the bank itself appears uninterested in any agreement and is steadily moving toward its apparent goal — obtaining full control over the agroholding.

It is worth recalling who leads RSHB and who is responsible for what is described as an essentially raider-style policy at Russia’s largest agricultural bank. The Chairman of the Management Board is Boris Listov. The head of the Supervisory Board is Dmitriy Patrushev (son of Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Security Council). In this context, observers suggest the roles of who executes and who provides political cover are self-evident.

The scandal surrounding Ekoniva-APK Holding is presented as a clear example of what Rosselkhozbank can do to any successful business that places its trust in it.

Specifically, one condition for extending the loans granted by Listov’s bank to the holding was the signing of options granting the right to acquire equity stakes in the company itself.

In effect, the once-successful enterprise of Mr. Dürr appears to have fallen into a trap set by the bank. In theory, any company that takes out a loan from RSHB could find itself in a similarly difficult position.

One might wonder whether Mr. Listov and Mr. Patrushev fear that such public scandals could trigger a mass outflow of clients. Apparently not. The benefits of such arrangements, critics suggest, outweigh any potential reputational risks.

Is Rosselkhozbank under Listov engaged in extortion?

A closer look at the situation reveals that the stake of the key owner of the holding Ecozem-Agrar AG is currently encumbered by the bank. A claim to shares in Ekoniva-APK has been made by RSHB-Finance LLC. The nominal value of Ecozem-Agrar AG’s stake is just over 5 million rubles, whereas its market value is many times higher — about 1.8 billion rubles. The disparity speaks for itself.

In essence, if Mr. Dürr was effectively forced to sign an agreement to sell Ekoniva-APK shares at nominal value, this begins to resemble extortion by Rosselkhozbank under the leadership of Boris Listov. But how should one interpret an important detail: this is a state-owned bank. Or does that fact no longer carry any real significance?

The situation appears extremely serious, yet even more striking is the apparent lack of attention from law enforcement and fiscal authorities. Do they simply not notice — or are they aware but choosing silence and non-intervention as the preferred course?

To be continued.