By Tassilo Hummel, Anton Zverev and Maria Tsvetkova
PARIS (Reuters) – Quickly after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, freight shipper Hellmann Worldwide Logistics knowledgeable employees at its Moscow enterprise it was pulling out of Russia. Some individuals who had labored for the German firm noticed a possibility.
Earlier than the battle, Hellmann’s Moscow workplace had helped Russian industrial corporations ship to Russia instruments, components and tools from the West however, after the invasion, such shipments had been closely restricted by worldwide sanctions. As an alternative, a Russian-registered agency referred to as Heinrich Tapp Rus (HT Rus) - whose house owners on the time included no less than two former Hellmann staff – took over the connection with lots of Hellmann’s previous purchasers.
HT Rus’s web site provides purchasers in Russia “parallel imports”, a time period extensively used to explain transport items through third international locations similar to Turkey or the United Arab Emirates to get round Western sanctions. In its advertising and marketing materials, the agency adopted a company motto: “New reality – new opportunity.”
Utilizing Russian tax paperwork for 2023 and 2024, and official company registries in Russia and Germany, Reuters discovered that HT Rus has been offering companies to Russian purchasers positioned below worldwide sanctions for supporting the Kremlin’s battle machine.
The agency, which reported revenues of about $17.5 million final yr, has been working with Russian prospects together with: Aurus, the agency that makes Vladimir Putin’s limousines; subsidiaries of Kamaz, a maker of Russian army vans; and Tyumen Battery Manufacturing unit, a provider of batteries for an arms producer, the Russian tax paperwork confirmed.
Reuters was not capable of decide if HT Rus was providing “parallel import” companies to these corporations, as a result of the tax paperwork didn’t reveal the character of the companies offered.
Kamaz mentioned the data within the tax paperwork was both unsuitable, or that they had no information of it, however didn’t present particular particulars. Aurus and Tyumen Battery Manufacturing unit didn’t reply to requests for remark.
HT Rus is one in all many intermediaries providing prospects assist with skirting Western sanctions and utilizing shipments through third international locations to supply industrial items to Russia. That exercise is barely a sanctions violation if the products are coated by sanctions, or the middleman works with sanctioned entities. HT Rus stands out as a result of only a few instances have emerged publicly the place European Union residents have been discovered doing enterprise, instantly or through a completely owned subsidiary, with sanctioned entities, a Reuters evaluation of sanction violation instances confirmed.
HT Rus is owned by a German-registered agency that has a German businessman as its shareholder and, till final month, had one other German as a director, company data present.
Underneath U.S. and EU legal guidelines governing sanctions on Russia, any firm that does enterprise with a Russian agency on a world blacklist is violating sanctions. For a Western agency proved to have influenced the sanctions-busting exercise, that would lead to being sanctioned itself – making it onerous to do enterprise – or in being prosecuted.
Hellmann Worldwide Logistics mentioned it has nothing to do with the actions of HT Rus or the individuals who run it. Reuters discovered no proof Hellmann violated sanctions.
“In 2022, everything that was sanctioned goods … this whole business was transferred to Heinrich Tapp,” mentioned a former Hellmann govt in Russia, who spoke to Reuters on situation of anonymity given the sensitivity of the matter.
HT Rus is wholly owned by a German-registered agency referred to as HT East Administration, in response to Russian company data as of June 28 this yr. A majority stake in HT East was purchased in June 2022 by Alexander Roedeler, a businessman primarily based in Dusseldorf, in response to Germany’s company register.
Between 2017 and 2022, Roedeler labored in Germany for Hellmann’s japanese Europe unit that handled Russia, in response to a Hellmann assertion offered to Reuters.
Roedeler now works for German funding group HTP Most, whose managing director is Patrick Nathe, in response to the agency’s web site. Nathe is a German former Hellmann supervisor who left the corporate in July 2022. Till March 2023, HT East Administration and HTP Most had the identical Duesseldorf handle listed in Germany’s company register. HTP Most, in response to its personal web site, between 2017 and 2021 held a stake in a German agency referred to as Henrich Tapp GmbH, which was the bulk proprietor of HT East Administration till German company data confirmed in June 2022 it divested the holding.
Reuters discovered no different company or different relationship between HTP Most and HT East Administration. Nathe advised Reuters he was not concerned in HT Rus or its mother or father firm.
German-Russian twin nationwide Vladimir Klaus, who labored for Hellman in Moscow till it closed its workplaces there, was a director of HT East Administration till June 12 this yr, when German company data present he ceased to have that position. Klaus didn’t reply to Reuters questions earlier than or after he stopped being a director.
Reuters didn’t discover proof that HT Rus’ proprietor, HT East Administration, did enterprise instantly with any sanctioned firm.
The managing director of HT Rus, Ruslan Shakirov, mentioned he dealt instantly with Roedeler as the present director of the German mother or father firm. The mother or father firm “is fully informed about the company’s (HT Rus) activities, takes part and gives corresponding instructions.”
Contacted by Reuters, Roedeler mentioned: “I have no knowledge of the details of Heinrich Tapp Rus’ business activities, nor do I have any influence whatsoever on its operations.”
German customs, which oversees sanctions enforcement, mentioned it couldn’t touch upon particular instances. Talking usually, it mentioned in some circumstances, a German firm could possibly be held legally chargeable for sanctions violations by its international subsidiary.
It’s prohibited for EU-based mother or father corporations to make use of their Russian subsidiaries to avoid sanctions, for example by delegating to them selections that run counter to the sanctions or by approving such selections by the Russian subsidiary, in response to the European Fee’s steerage on Russia sanctions.
SANCTIONED CLIENTS
Reuters was capable of set up the Russian purchasers HT Rus labored with by reviewing paperwork the corporate filed with the Russian tax authorities, the place they have to account for all their revenues and establish the supply.
The paperwork relate to the second and the fourth quarters of 2023, and the primary quarter of 2024. The paperwork don’t disclose what companies HT Rus rendered to its purchasers.
Over these three intervals HT Rus offered companies, value $172,324 to Aurus, a Russian state-owned agency that manufactures the posh sedan of the identical identify. Reuters couldn’t set up what these companies had been.
Since 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin began utilizing the limousine as a substitute of his typical Mercedes, and he gifted two of the vehicles to North Korean chief Kim Jong Un this yr. The 2 leaders took turns to drive one another in an Aurus limousine when Putin visited North Korea final month.
Aurus was included on a U.S. sanctions checklist in February on the grounds its mother or father firm is important for the nationwide protection and safety of Russia. The sanctions designation implies that any firm doing enterprise with the agency is liable to itself be positioned below U.S. sanctions, which might freeze the agency out of the worldwide banking system, discouraging companions from doing enterprise with it for worry of themselves being sanctioned.
Seven of the transactions between Aurus and HT Rus, value $3,773, happened after the date the sanctions had been imposed, the paperwork confirmed.
HT Rus offered companies to a worth of $290,725 to 2 subsidiaries and one three way partnership of Kamaz, Russia’s largest truck maker, in response to the paperwork. Right here too, Reuters couldn’t set up what these companies had been.
The three entities all manufacture or provide Kamaz truck components. The U.S. authorities sanctioned the truck maker in June 2022, noting its automobiles had been noticed carrying Russian troopers and missiles throughout the invasion of Ukraine. Kamaz was added to an EU sanctions blacklist in the identical month.
One other HT Rus buyer, AO Proton, a maker of optical digital tools, was positioned below U.S. sanctions in Could 2023. It paid Heinrich Tapp $26,156 after the sanctions had been imposed, the paperwork confirmed. Reuters doesn’t know what companies HT Rus offered AO Proton, which didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In December 2023, the governor of Russia’s Oryol area, the place Proton has a manufacturing unit, awarded the agency’s boss, Vyacheslav Menshov, a medal to acknowledge his “help in the Special Military Operation” – the time period Russian officers use to explain the battle in Ukraine.
Shakirov, the HT Rus managing director, didn’t reply to a request for touch upon this. Menshov, reached through his agency, didn’t reply to questions concerning the award.
HT Rus offered $312,000 value of companies – what they had been, Reuters couldn’t set up – to a agency referred to as Tyumen Battery Manufacturing unit, in response to the paperwork, of which about $70,000 was after the battery producer was positioned below U.S. sanctions in Dec. 2023. The agency provides batteries to no less than one arms maker, in response to its web site. Tyumen Battery Manufacturing unit didn’t reply to a request for remark.
The U.S. Treasury Division, which oversees U.S. sanctions, declined to remark.
Requested by Reuters concerning the agency doing enterprise with sanctioned corporations, Shakirov declined to remark as a result of he mentioned he couldn’t recall all the corporate’s prospects.
“We have lots of customers, we have lots of suppliers, which ship via us,” he mentioned.
