Founder of one of the largest gold mining companies arrested in Russia for embezzlement
The Tverskoy Court of Moscow on December 25 arrested one of the founders and the former general director of the Petropavlovsk company Pavel Maslovsky on charges of embezzlement. This was announced by the press secretary of the court Olga Bondareva.
The arrest took place on the birthday of a 64-year-old businessman. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation clarified that Maslovsky was arrested in the case of embezzlement of the assets of his enterprise in the amount of more than 95 million rubles. He is charged with Article 160 of the Criminal Code (embezzlement or embezzlement committed on an especially large scale, up to ten years in prison).
The press service of Petropavlovsk on Thursday declined to comment and reminded that Maslovsky no longer works in the group. They recalled that in the summer of 2020, the company's shareholders meeting initiated an independent investigation of a number of transactions over the past three years, while Maslovsky was CEO.
Maslovsky left the post of CEO of the Petropavlovsk company he founded in August 2020. This was preceded by the purchase of a 22.37% stake in Petropavlovsk PLC by the owner of the Yuzhuralzoloto gold miner, Konstantin Strukov, with whom Maslov began to disagree. The criminal prosecution of Maslovskrgo began several months after his dismissal. According to sources familiar with the situation, this happened as a result of a corporate conflict between the top managers of Petropavlovsk and the general directors of the mines.
Maslovsky founded Petropavlovsk in 1994. In 2011, he became a member of the Federation Council from the Amur Region, but in 2014 he resigned ahead of schedule. Maslovsky is included in the list of 200 richest Russians according to Forbes. The magazine estimates his fortune at $ 450 million.
Petropavlovsk PLC (Petropavlovsk) is a large integrated gold producer in Russia with JORC resources of 21.03 million ounces of gold, including reserves of 8.46 million ounces of gold. Following an IPO on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2002, Petropavlovsk was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 2009, becoming a premium listed company on the FTSE 250, FTSE 350 and FTSE All Share indices.
The Company's shares are also traded on the Moscow Exchange and are part of the flagship RTS /MOEX index. The main operating mines of Petropavlovsk (Pioneer, Malomir and Albyn) are located in the Amur Region in the Russian Far East. Since the start of production in 1994, Petropavlovsk has produced a total of about 8.1 million ounces of gold and has extensive experience in the development, expansion and optimization of assets.