Loss was suffered at Ventspils City Court on Monday when insolvency application for a/s Kālija parks was dismissed. The security company TM security, the one dragged into political scandals, had submitted the application. And now this may subject the company’s officials to the criminal liability. According to information that is available to Pietiek, corresponding application regarding the commencement of criminal proceedings has been already sent for investigation to Ventspils Police.

Under the judgment of Ventspils City Court that is available to Pietiek, the application of TM security is declared to be deliberately false. According to Section 214 of the Criminal Law those responsible may be subject to the imprisonment for a term of up to two years.

Security firm TM security – the one dragged into the political scandals – was defeated in the court by a/s Kālija parks, when the security firm tried to recover more than 2 million lats from the Ventspils transit company. Lion’s share of this sum is made by the contractual penalty in the amount of 1,84 million lats. On Monday, December 19, Ventspils City Court dismissed the insolvency application for a/s Kālija parks, submitted by TM security. The judgment is final and is not subject to appeal.

According to the judgment, the court declared the insolvency application, submitted by TM security, as being “deliberately false”. The company Kālija parks wishes to use this court judgment for further fight against the scandalous security firm, referring to the extortion of money, when insolvency proceeding in the dispute at issue was tried to be illegally used.

Section 214 of the Criminal Law “Submission of a False Application for Insolvency” stipulates that for a person who submits such application for insolvency wherein false information has been provided or there has been concealment of information, if due to the application the insolvency proceedings may be announced or was announced (knowingly untrue insolvency proceedings application), the applicable sentence is deprivation of liberty for a term not exceeding two years or community service, or a fine not exceeding eighty times the minimum monthly wage, with or without deprivation of the right to engage in entrepreneurial activity for a term of not less than two years and not exceeding five years.

When dismissing the insolvency application, submitted by TM security, Ventspils City Court in the judgment stated that “the applicant has used insolvency proceeding in order to recover the debt, but this does not conform to the objective and purpose of the insolvency proceeding”. “The court considers that the application has been in a deliberately false manner submitted, because the applicant had already initially known that there is a dispute regarding the rights. This may be proved both by the debtor objections that were submitted by the applicant itself, and by the fact that even before the submission of the application for insolvency the applicant was informed about the commencement of proceedings before Kurzeme Regional Court. The court noted that such circumstances fully convince that the other contractual party does not recognise the obligations and dispute them. Despite that, this did not stop the applicant to submit the application for insolvency to the court,” says the judgment of 19 February. In the judgment Ventspils City Court refers to the civil action brought to Kurzeme Regional Court on 29 September by a/s Kālija parks against TM security and several other persons, including the sworn attorney Mārtiņš Kvēps where the legitimacy of the claims made by the security firm has been disputed.

As Pietiek had already reported, the owner of security firm TM security, Mārtiņš Tenbergs, over the last couple of months was trying to obtain the power over politicians, but in the political and business corridors he has positioned himself as the “gray cardinal” of those six independent deputies that have split from the Zatlers’ Reform Party. Pietiek had already informed about the methods that are being applied by TM security in its activity when trying to take over companies using the indebtedness caused by doubtful agreements. Information that has not been officially confirmed indicates that representatives of a/s Kālija parks have delivered to law enforcement authorities some record of conversation with Tenbergs, which this autumn took place in one of the Old Town restaurants. In the conversation the owner of TM security offered Kālija parks to pay the compromise sum, which was more than 10 times smaller than the one which the firm later on wanted to recover, by initiating the insolvency proceeding. Additionally to this money Tenbergs had requested “to give some extra money as a tip to be used for some very expensive hotel”.

The contract at dispute between a/s Kālija parks and TM security was signed on 29 April 2010 allegedly for one day in order to influence the shareholders’ meeting which on that day took place, by not letting the change of power in Kālija parks happen, when company would slip away from the hands of the so-called opponent of Lembergs – Oļegs Stepanovs. The same has already happened with AS Ventbunkers, which was continued to be guarded by TM security using force for several months even after the control was lost, not letting that the new representatives of majority shareholders enter the company. At present the Chairperson of the Supervisory Boards of both Kālija parks and Ventbunkers is the Swiss attorney Rudolf Meroni who represents one of the four mutually conflicting parties in the so-called Ventspils transit war. Sources related to Ventspils transit business had explained to Pietiek that TM security managed to conclude “at the last moment” the contract with Kālija parks, when it was clear that the ones who hire the security firm would have no possibility to pay for the services from the companies over which the control had been at that moment lost. In other words – the contract served for pumping out money from the company.

AS Kālija parks is one of the largest mineral fertilizer exporters with the total transshipment capacity till up to 7.5 million tons per year. The largest consumers of products that are being exported through Kālija parks is China, India, Brazil, USA.

Here you can read the original article at pietiek.com: http://www.pietiek.com/raksti/zaudejums_tiesa__tm_security__draud_ar_kriminalprocesu

www.pietiek.com

BNN received an e-mail the other day: “Dear Sirs! To me BNN is like a tribune. A tribune that asks the questions some influential people would rather not reveal to the general public. Some of the questions asked cover the so called “transit wars”. I am deeply concerned about the upcoming “assault” of an enterprise that so far courageously held off the “Ventspils Commandant”. I would appreciate if you would kindly publish my opinion on this matter.” BNN kindly does what our reader asks.

Some people are familiar with the classic Business capture scheme of the early 90s from detective stories, some from detective serials on TV: bulky lads in wearing sportswear persistently offered their protection services for an ungodly amount of money to an owner of a small shop, or stall. And after the debt for “security services” grew equal to the value of the enterprise altogether, the “friendly” protectors claimed ownership over it and transformed from regular criminals into – respected businessmen.

This little scheme is what comes to mind when you’re reading reports in press about probable insolvency declaration of the largest mineral fertilizer transit terminal in Europe, the second in the world – “Kālija parks”. Even though the “protectors” have long since traded in their sports trousers for some expensive suits, even though the year round revenue of the “small shop” is accounted in six digit sums, even though the scales of pulling off something like this is hardly easy; you still accurately notice that familiar pattern.

Furthermore BNN reports that:

So, the lawsuit about declaring that company insolvent came from the «ТМ Security» security firm (the same «ТМ Security» that hit the spotlight in 2010 during dramatic events around “Ventbunkers”.The ones where police were forced to neutralize a number of «ТМ Security» employees, so that the owners of “Ventbunkers” would finally be able to access their administrative building).

You’d think who cares about some dispute between some millionaires, over “who” owns “what”? So what some high ranking VIP bark on and on at each other and unleash their “hounds” with guns and lawyers with their convoluted claims? …How does this involve rest of the people in Latvia?

Let’s not haste to judge. The time to put a squeeze on “Kālija parks” couldn’t have been chosen any better. The company is now engaged in negotiations with prospective partners, and the latter may prove to be sensitive to that kind of scandals. And if the contracts are not signed – instead of a false, provocative bankruptcy, a very real bankruptcy might occur. And then, about 200 employees maintaining the terminal, employees of the businesses working in cooperation with “Kālija parks” – will end up out on the street. Consequences for Ventspils will be great, for Latvia – catastrophic.

The reputation of Latvia as a reliable transit corridor could suffer the most. A country where a small security firm can effectively paralyze the work of one of the largest enterprises in its field of business, a country where raider activity has become a profitable business, a country where bulky men in masks take active part in ownership disputes – does not sound like a good place where to start your business. Transit terminals in our neighbor countries wait in line for fertilizer supplies from Russia. And why not? Russian businessmen can choose either Lithuanian or Estonian ports for transit. The story behind the reduction of freight turnover for the last decade or so in Ventspils reflects this perfectly.

The fall of one large enterprise because of some criminal showdown can cause a chain reaction. And that would cease being a problem for one city it would become a problem for the whole country. Do the people behind the “Kālija parks” bankruptcy claims understand this? I’m sure they do, even better than we do in fact! However putting the remains of a ruined transit business in their pockets is far more profitable than letting that said business to function normally, but not under their control.

As the saying goes, I suppose, “If I don’t get some – no one does!”

P.S. on behalf of BNN: according to our internal rules, our news agency does not publish the names of the authors of the articles. The information about the author is stored in our editorial.

We can add only the fact that “Kālija parks” actively challenges the existence of any debts to both «ТМ Security» and Martins Kveps in both the Regional Court of Kurzeme and the Supreme Court of Latvia. On the 14 of December the Supreme Court of Latvia will review the claims made by “Kālija parks”. «ТМ Security» on the other hand, acting like it does not notice these claims, has initiated a case at the Regional Court of Kurzeme. It also seems that judge Lucava, even having access to the judicial system database, paid no attention to the core of the problem and initiated the “Kālija parks” insolvency process. And doing so unknowingly created an obstacle. In accordance with the Latvian legislation system an insolvency process cannot be used in a case involving debt return.

Even though the employees of «ТМ Security» joined the ranks of Zatler’s Party of Reforms, even though they claim to respect Latvian laws – reality is that «ТМ Security» shows its contempt for the law quite clearly.