A while after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the German delivery firm Hellmann Worldwide Logistics knowledgeable its workers in Moscow that it was leaving the nation. Some senior officers who labored for the German firm see this as a brand new alternative, Reuters studies in a particular investigation.
Earlier than the beginning of the warfare, the Moscow consultant workplace of “Hellman” enabled Russian industrial firms to import Western instruments, elements and tools into Russia, however this turned not possible after the imposition of a sequence of sanctions.
However on the expense of this, the Russian-registered firm “Heinrich Tapp Rus” (Heinrich Tapp Rus – HT Rus), whose house owners embody at the least two former workers of “Hellman”, takes over the relations with the previous prospects of the German firm.
On its web site, “Heinrich Faucet Rus” affords its prospects in Russia “parallel import”. The time period is broadly used to avoid sanctions by importing Western merchandise by way of third international locations akin to Turkey and the UAE, Reuters remembers. In its advertising supplies, the corporate depends on the motto “New actuality – new alternatives”.
Primarily based on Russian tax paperwork from 2023 and 2024 and official company registers in Russia and Germany, Reuters discovered that Heinrich Faucet Rus assisted Russian purchasers sanctioned for supporting the Russian army machine.
The corporate, which reported income of $17.5 million final yr, has labored with purchasers akin to Aurus, which makes limousines for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the army truck division of Kamaz, optical electronics maker Proton and the Tyumen Battery Plant, which provides batteries to weapons producers, Russian tax paperwork present.
Within the second half of 2023 and the primary quarter of 2024, “Heinrich Tapp Rus” usually labored with “Aurus”, and the finished transactions have been price $172,324. The exercise carried out with “Kamaz” amounted to 290,725 {dollars}. “Proton” paid “Heinrich Faucet Rus” 26,156 {dollars} for the companies rendered, and the corporate obtained 312,000 {dollars} from the Tyumen battery manufacturing unit.
Reuters was unable to find out whether or not it was “parallel imports” as a result of the tax paperwork don’t disclose the character of the companies offered. Kamaz claims that both the data is unsuitable or they merely do not learn about it. Two different firms declined to remark.
“Heinrich Faucet Rus” is likely one of the many intermediaries providing help to Russian prospects within the provide of commercial items in Russia. Nevertheless, this exercise falls beneath the sanctions regime provided that the products themselves are prohibited, or if the middleman works with sanctioned firms, Reuters clarifies.
Nevertheless, Heinrich Faucet Rus stands out as one of many few confirmed circumstances of EU residents doing enterprise immediately or by way of a wholly-owned subsidiary with sanctioned firms, the investigation discovered.
The corporate is owned by a German-registered firm, wherein a German businessman is a shareholder, and till final month one other German was additionally its director, company information present.
Beneath European sanctions towards Russia, any firm doing enterprise with a blacklisted Russian agency is in violation of the sanctions. It follows that the Western firm itself needs to be sanctioned.
“Hellman Worldwide Logistics” claims that it has nothing to do with the actions of “Heinrich Faucet Rus” or the individuals who run it. Reuters discovered no proof that Hellman violated sanctions.
“In 2022, every thing associated to sanctioned items, all this enterprise was transferred to Heinrich Tapp Rus,” mentioned a former Hellman supervisor in Russia, who spoke on situation of anonymity.
“Heinrich Faucet Rus” is owned by “HT East Administration”, registered in Germany, in response to Russian company registers. A majority stake on this firm was purchased in June 2022 by Alexander Rödeler, a Düsseldorf-based businessman, in response to German information. Between 2017 and 2022, Roedeler labored in Germany for Hellman’s jap division, which works with Russia, Hellman mentioned in an announcement to Reuters.
Roedeler at the moment works for the German funding firm HTP Most, whose managing director is Patrick Nate. He himself is a former supervisor at Hellman, who left the corporate in July 2022. Till March 2023, HT East Administration and HT Most shared the identical deal with in Düsseldorf.
Based on its personal web site, between 2017 and 2021, HTP Most owned a stake within the German firm Henrich Tapp GmbH, which in flip was the bulk proprietor of HTP East Administration. In June 2022, she offered her stake.
Reuters has not discovered every other hyperlinks between HT East Administration and HT Most. Nate acknowledged to Reuters that he has no relationship with Heinrich Faucet Rus or its mother or father firm.
Holding German and Russian citizenship, Vladimir Klaus, who labored for Hellmann in Moscow till the corporate’s places of work there closed in 2022, was a director at HT East Administration till June 12 of this yr. He doesn’t reply to requests made to him from Reuters questions.
The company discovered no direct proof that HT East Administration, the proprietor of Heinrich Faucet Rus, did enterprise immediately with any sanctioned firm.
The managing director of Heinrich Faucet Rus Ruslan Shakirov says that he’s in direct contact with Roedeler as a director of the mother or father firm and claims that “the mother or father firm is absolutely knowledgeable concerning the actions of Heinrich Faucet Rus, takes half in them and provides the related directions “.
Requested by Reuters, Roedeler mentioned: “I’ve no particulars concerning the enterprise affairs of Heinrich Tapp Rus, I’ve no affect on their operations.”
German customs, which monitor compliance with the sanctions regime, mentioned they might not touch upon particular circumstances. From there, they added that in a extra basic plan, beneath sure circumstances, the German firm may very well be held chargeable for sanctions violations by its international subsidiary.
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