Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office has filed a lawsuit seeking to transfer the assets of Sayanskkhimplast — the country’s largest producer of PVC — to state ownership, Kommersant reported.
The lawsuit names Viktor Kruglov, the company’s de facto owner and a former lawmaker from the Irkutsk region, along with his wife, Irina; their children, Anna and Alexander; and Nikolai Melnik, a former deputy governor of the region and one-time CEO of the company.
Prosecutors accuse Kruglov of using his position to divert state assets for personal gain, shifting the plant’s production capacity into privately controlled firms and funneling profits away from the original state enterprise, which was later bankrupted.
Kruglov is also accused of using his political office to secure favorable conditions for his businesses. Prosecutors allege that after obtaining Cypriot citizenship in 2014, he moved company shares offshore and gradually transferred ownership to relatives living abroad.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kruglov reportedly abandoned plans to modernize the plant and began extracting funds under the pretext of dividend payments.
According to the lawsuit, Sayanskkhimplast is a major employer in the town of Sayansk and produces roughly 30 percent of Russia’s PVC, a material widely used in industry.