The court seized the assets of the manufacturer of numbers for cars

On October 9, the Meshchansk court of Moscow satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office and banned the activities of the association with the participation of the Polish company Utal, its leaders and Russian businessman Alexei Shvechikhin, the court also turned into the state’s income shares in Russian companies engaged in the manufacture of car numbers.

The supervisory authority motivated the demands by the fact that Utal after 2022 publicly took a pro-Ukrainian position, supported the authorities of this country and sent funds, including 100,000 zlotys for the purchase of military equipment and 20,000 zlotys per month, two sources familiar with the contents of the claim told RBC. The lawsuit also refers to the cooperation of the company with the Foundation of Friends of Ukraine, said the interlocutors of RBC.

Among the defendants in the lawsuit were Polish citizens Jacek Stefan Wojciechowski and Jacek Jaroslaw Shustak, as well as Russian Alexei Shvechikhin. The prosecutor’s office demanded to turn into federal ownership the shares in the authorized capital of the companies: “Typography No. 2” (51% of Utal Sp. z o.o. and 49% of Shvechikhin’s shares), “Production and Technical Company Rusiani” (100% of Shvechikhin’s shares), “Press-T” (51% of Shvechikhin’s shares), “Continent” (100% of Shvechikhin’s shares), “Metallic” (50%) of Natalia Shvechikhina and Vadim Repnikov.

According to sources, the Prosecutor General’s Office considered that Shvechikhin ensured the safety and capitalization of assets in Russia and the withdrawal of funds abroad. The statement of claim claimed that in 2022-2025 he traveled to Serbia, the Netherlands, Armenia and Kazakhstan and transferred from 10 thousand to 30 thousand euros in cash, and Tipography No. 2 LLC and Press-T LLC in 2022-2024 transferred more than 1.6 million euros to Utal under the guise of payment for goods.

According to the supervisory authority, these companies produce registration plates for vehicles and special equipment, supply products of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other state structures, and the amount of their contracts over the past ten years exceeds 1.6 billion rubles, RBC interlocutors say. Their total capitalization, according to the Federal Tax Service, is more than 601 million rubles, annual revenue is 614 million rubles, net profit is 108 million rubles.

RBC sent a request to UTAL.

UTAL was founded in 1991. Since then, it has become a world leader in the production of license plates, as well as system solutions related to their production and distribution. In 2022, the company produced 20 million license plates.