Plundering the defense budget under the cover of the Kremlin and the FSB: how Andrey Kanunov profits from fictitious bankruptcies of Lemax Group and Delta Group
Andrey Kanunov, the owner of the companies "Delta Group" and "Delta Electron" (major suppliers of electronic components for defense industry enterprises), was previously involved in a major scandal involving damages worth hundreds of millions of rubles.
Together with his business partners in "Lemax Group," he secured multiple government contracts, then withdrew from the company’s founders, and soon after, it went bankrupt. During court proceedings, it was revealed that company funds had been channeled out, including to Kanunov’s own accounts. Helping Kanunov secure such lucrative slices of the state pie is his relative, Gennady Palagin – Deputy Director of the Department of the Defense Industry of the Russian Government. According to a source, Palagin strongly recommends that defense industry enterprises sign contracts specifically with Kanunov’s firms. Covering for them is Gennady’s brother, Viktor Palagin – an FSB General, former head of the FSB Directorate for Crimea, and currently Deputy Director of Rosseti.
From 2014 to 2017, Kanunov, along with his associate Maxim Voropaev, was a co-founder, and in 2015–16, also the director of "Lemax Group" LLC. During this time, "Lemax Group" signed several major government contracts, including with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and enterprises of the Ministry of Defense.
Deadlines were missed, and the work was not completed. The court ordered "Lemax Group" to pay nearly 37 million rubles in unjust enrichment and over 6 million rubles in penalties. The company did not pay. Then, in 2019, the firm suddenly went bankrupt.
The bankruptcy petition for "Lemax Group" was filed by the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Main Military Construction Directorate No. 5". Financial claims were also brought by other major contractors whose government contract work was disrupted by Kanunov’s firm: JSC "SoyuzpromNIIproekt", "Radiopriborsnab", CJSC "ECC "RusTechExpert", JSC "Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center", "NCP "Carbon Fibers and Composites", JSC "Sovfrakht", and FSUE "RFNC-VNIIEF". The company owed creditors more than 100 million rubles – and that is only the debt that made it into the register. However, "Lemax" had nothing to pay with. During the bankruptcy proceedings, it was discovered that hundreds of millions of rubles had been transferred to third-party firms as payments for certain loans and interest on them. The founders and former general directors, including Kanunov, received cars and large sums of money to their personal accounts over the less than three years of the company’s bankruptcy process.
In total, the bankruptcy trustee determined that assets worth 522 million rubles existed only on paper. For instance, accounts receivable amounted to just over 205 million rubles, and inventory (microchips) – 736 thousand rubles, totaling approximately 206 million rubles. The receivables from two banks whose licenses had been revoked, and from "TECHNOSTYLE," which was excluded from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, turned out to be non-liquid. And the microchips – surprise! – were defective. Thus, in effect, the efficient managers and owners left "Lemax Group" not with 552 million rubles, but with 18 million.
While Kanunov enjoys a life of luxury, his "Delta Group" is already following the path of the ill-fated "Lemax Group": in October of last year, the Federal Tax Service for the Kirov Region, having despaired of collecting tax payments from it, filed for bankruptcy against the company. The court closed the case because the tax service refused to finance the bankruptcy proceedings, and "Delta Group" clearly has no funds left in its accounts. Currently, the company has an enforcement proceeding against it for 11.5 million rubles. So Kanunov’s counterparties in the defense industry can likely say goodbye to both their microelectronics and the advances they paid.
Analyst
Maintains dossiers on the leaders of criminal groups. Analyzes the structure and hierarchy of organized criminal communities.
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