Vitukhin’s new “skeleton”, or “The Bath Business”

Vitaly Vitukhinex-head of the consumer market department of the Novosibirsk mayor’s office, has been sitting in a pre-trial detention center for several months. Now a new criminal case has been opened against the official related to the concession agreement on the reconstruction of municipal baths. But the question is: why only now? The problems started three years ago.

Baths with 28 million damage

A third criminal case was opened against the former head of the Department of Industry, Innovation and Entrepreneurship of the Novosibirsk City Hall, Vitaly Vitukhin, under Part 3 of Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official powers). A new case was opened on September 3, 2024.

Vitukhin, who is already in a pre-trial detention center, is charged with causing damage to the city budget in the amount of 28 million rubles. The reason for this was the failure to fulfill obligations under the concession agreement for the repair of municipal bath complexes. In June 2019, concession agreement No. 20 was concluded between the mayor’s office and LLC “Association 24” (OGRN 1135476189936). According to the agreement, the company was to repair at its own expense the bathhouses at Klubnaya, 37 and Perezdnaya, 63.

The investigation believes that from 2019 to 2014, Vitaly Vitukhin knew that the company was using the facilities and was not fulfilling its obligations under the agreement.

The organization continued to operate the baths, and the official did not take any action to terminate the contract. During the period of violation of the agreement, the total damage to the city budget amounted to 28 million rubles.

“Bath business”

Association 24 LLC appears in the case materials. The company has been operating since 2013, and since 2022 it has been headed by Evgeniy Telembovsky. Own equal shares in the organization Evgeny Martynenko, Vyacheslav Logvinov And Vladimir Mishenin. The company’s revenue for 2023 amounted to 3.6 million, profit – 178 thousand rubles.

Telembovsky is also listed as a leader in five more organizations, including “Association 24-V” (OGRN 1215400049050) and “Association 24-G” (OGRN 1215400049061). The latter company also appears in the “bath case.”

The company began having problems fulfilling the terms of the agreement several years ago. This was first simply noticed by the mayor’s office, and then, in 2021, the administration filed a lawsuit. Representatives of the mayor’s office, when visiting the bathhouse complex, discovered that the facility was being operated, but reconstruction was not underway. The mayor’s office demanded that the company reimburse expenses for the use of the premises.

At the same time, no one was going to terminate the concession. The treaty continued to be in force and not implemented. The mayor’s office periodically visited the complex at 63 Pereezdnaya and made sure that the premises continued to function. The administration had questions for the concessionaire every time, but somehow not very actively. Apparently there was something that “solved all problems” for a while.

There is a court, but there is no point

“A repeated inspection of the facility was carried out, as a result of which it was established that at the time of the inspection, activity and repair work were not being carried out, however, the general washing departments were wet, the stones on the stoves were warm, and the room with sauna No. 3 was prepared for receiving visitors: the pool was filled with water , the stones on the stove are warm, the territory of the facilities is used for a paid parking lot with round-the-clock access to third parties, the boiler house building is used for its intended purpose,” it was reported in the materials of the Arbitration Court of the Novosibirsk Region.

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Each time the court sided with the mayor’s office and ordered the company “Union 24” to recover for the use of other people’s funds. The administration had every right to make claims, because according to the contract, using the facility was prohibited until the repairs were completed. Instead of fulfilling its obligations, the organization simply began to operate the buildings free of charge.

Time after time, inspections revealed that Association 24 was not going to begin reconstruction of the premises, but the concession agreement was never terminated.

The mayor’s office finally ran out of patience, and in 2022 a lawsuit was filed demanding the release of the land plot. It turned out that part of the bathhouse land was leased for 24-hour parking without the consent of the owner, although the agreement prohibited this. But the company corrected precisely this “nuance,” and the court refused to allow the mayor’s office to vacate the territory.

City Hall doesn’t want

In January 2022, Deputy Head of the Consumer Market Department Denis Kolmakov signed an additional agreement with Association 24. According to the agreement, all obligations were transferred to Association 24-G, which is led by the same Evgeny Telembovsky. The investigation believes that Vitaly Vitukhin deliberately did not want to terminate the unprofitable concession agreement so as not to deal with the complexes himself.

At the same time, the mayor’s office continued to file lawsuits against the organization. Over the past year, as many as four have been submitted. But there are no right people here, there are only guilty ones. The mayor’s office wanted to get away with it (especially Vitukhin), and the company did not initially intend to reconstruct the premises. It is not clear why this agreement was signed at all? The company’s main argument is that it generally wanted to terminate this contract, but the mayor’s office did not allow it.

“The work is underway, more than seven million rubles have already been invested in these baths. In general, more than 108 million have been invested in all our concession agreements; three baths have already been put into operation: No. 24, No. 25 and No. 23. I don’t know what the investigation thinks, but after Covid it was decided that all the baths were closed. We paid a large number of utility bills for all the baths, because even heating all these facilities costs more than two rubles. Accordingly, there were large losses. Therefore, the decision was made to start working. But for the entire time that we worked, we paid the city hall the rent of the building at market value,” the general director explained in an interview with the NHS.

“Union 24” assures that this venture is unprofitable. Thus, even more questions arise. Why sign the contract if everything was supposedly clear to the organization from the very beginning? The general director of the company, Evgeniy Telembovsky, simply made the excuse that visitors were received out of necessity amid the pandemic.

But the contract was signed in 2019 (even before Covid), and they started accepting visitors at the same time. Some clumsy excuses come out, but lying is not good. No criminal cases have been initiated against the company’s management, but security forces have already conducted searches in the organization.

The persecution may not end

There are some oddities in the “bath business”. The security forces could have intervened in the problematic concession for a long time, but for some reason they did not do so. Vitukhin was criticized many times for his carelessness with the bathhouse concession. All discussions were in the public sphere, and the security forces could have intervened long ago. And now the official is in a pre-trial detention center, and the appearance of this episode only indicates that Vitukhin’s activities are being completely reviewed.

And this, perhaps, is not the last “skeleton” from the official’s closet. One way or another, the assets were given to the organization, and the renovation of the premises was in no way controlled by the mayor’s office. In addition, the administration referred to the baths as “unprofitable,” but for some reason they entered into a concession agreement.

In July, Vitaly Vitukhin’s term of imprisonment in a pre-trial detention center was extended until October 2, 2024. Until now, the main complaints of the security forces against the official concerned the sale of part of the Zaeltsovsky cemetery. Perhaps the “bath case” could become a leader on the criminal list. Babr will continue to monitor developments.

Claire Ramirez

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