Владимир Баранчиков – Tough Business (страница 7)

– In Chechnya, my fuel cannot be lost, – and sentenced the buyer – a brave young officer of one of the special services – to compensation for losses.

– We will have to sell the apartment… – the debtor declared in his heart. To finish with this story, I will briefly tell you how events unfolded further. Having suffered, the officer wrote a statement to the prosecutor’s office about extortion, and thereby made the second wrong step. The prosecutor’s office tried in vain to reach the defendant, who was rarely on the spot and often abroad. Having felt the situation, the businessman realized the mistake, withdrew the application and then worked with our company on special conditions – repelled debts.

In the last days of December, Gorchakov calls me from the refinery and nervously asks where to apply for a license? I mean, to which country – Latvia, Belarus or somewhere else. I had no answer, the question was not discussed and hung in the air, at the management level (of course, with our participation), was not discussed and was not resolved.

– And where are Khazir and Oleg?!

– I don’t know…

And I shouldn’t have known. Actually, it was not uncommon for our leaders to mysteriously disappear when they were really needed – just like this time. I remember there was a conversation with Oleg Borisovich about the purchase price of diesel fuel for Latvia, the idea of the price from Konechim was about one hundred and sixty dollars per ton, but reliable. This option was rejected, and nothing new was invented. After the New Year holidays, an instruction was received from the bosses – prepare a contract for diesel fuel for Belarus, we will give the details of the supplier’s company later. And look for buyers in the same place.

The main principle was violated here – first step is the buyer, and then the destination country. Having issued a license for the sale of a mythical merchant in Belarus and giving up Latvia, where everything was transparent and reliable, we ourselves, figuratively speaking, threw a noose around our neck. I must admit that I could not find buyers from the Slavic brothers, no matter how hard I tried. It is difficult to find a black cat in a dark room, that is, the demand for diesel fuel, especially when it is not there – Belarus has its own two oil refineries – in Mozyr and Novopolotsk. As a result, at the command from above, the details of the shipment were changed more than once, as I learned later – from some intermediary, and the delivery itself was made without prepayment under unclear guarantees, the fuel was drained at oil depots in Gomel and Rechitsa. This problematic contract also became mine. I tried to sell diesel fuel on the spot to another consumer, but our contractors rudely stopped these attempts and threatened me on the phone, something about the integrity of my head. I immediately called Khazir Daudovich and explained the situation face to face. Ten minutes later, my rude interlocutor from Gomel apologized profoundly and expressed the opinion that I misunderstood him. In general, someone created a problem, and now I have to figure it out: this was within the competence of my salary. But the main disadvantage is that the style of work has been changed, money has been withdrawn from circulation, and precious time and mutual understanding are being lost.

The day after tomorrow I was already in Gomel. As expected, the buyer company consisted of local young guys, and absolutely did not correspond to the level of purchase. Their office consisted of a large room of thirty square meters, a couple of computers, a large TV, and a rented Volga-3102 car with a driver, that’s all the assets. Yes, two young girls in short dresses also came, they asked for money, which means liabilities. An intermediary also came, but I did not contact him because of mutual rejection. I asked the director when he would pay, but he said that they had no money now. To clarify, we went to the Gomel oil depot, to which these businessmen stuck, to the boss. We walked around the offices, I asked around the clerks there, and it became clear that the oil depot had almost paid off with these guys. Having improved the moment, I tete-a-tete in the boss’s office offered to pay us directly, but what he wisely replied:

– You will leave, but I will live here.

As a result, an addendum was born to the contract on the terms of payment, where Belarusians paid us the debt with interest for the delay. With this I returned to St. Petersburg. The counter was turned on.

During my business trip, my colleagues didn’t waste any time. Sergey put on a mysterious look and said that he and Oleg Borisovich had made a mighty contract for diesel fuel in the amount of ten thousand tons with delivery to Moldova. It was incorrect for me to ask questions, but gradually it turned out that everything was cool, the price was between 191 and 192 dollars, payment upon delivery to the Chadyr-Lunga station, and there is a guarantor for payment.

– I’d like to see this guarantor, – I thought.

I don’t know how Khazir Daudovich turned on the green light for this deal, I think he doubted, but he didn’t want to quarrel with Oleg Borisovich, because everything could have turned out well… This mythical profit overshadowed someone’s mind, and someone probably made a subtle calculation on this, but from which side of the transaction and to what extent? It also turned out that the refinery could not ship the goods without paying for transit through Ukraine, problems with the bank began, but they were still shipped. The result is this: we did not receive the promised money, the goods disappeared, and the intermediary disappeared along with the buyer. I don’t know how they dealt with it at the top, but we ended up owing a large sum to the supplier plant, which made further shipments difficult – our business stopped. The recent triumphants have been defeated. About five years later, a smart and personable, handsome middle-aged man named Movladi, a relative of the president, came to my office. In careful conversations (no one introduced us to each other, but I heard about his high reputation), we recalled the past, and I made it clear that I knew about the deal with Moldova and the Chadyr-Lunga station was like a sharp thorn in my memory. He, in turn, shared with me:

– I was there, but I didn’t find anything.

To relieve the tension, I said with a smile:

– I have an alibi – at that time I was in Belarus…

Undoubtedly, he was aware of our major transactions and understood what I mean.

Chapter ten. Needle penetration depth

Do you know what the expression «the inside truth» means? You know, of course, this is the truth, obtained during torture, during which the unfortunate man was driven needles under his nails, and there was no doubt that this was the bloody truth – the ultimate truth, the crystal clear truth. But this chapter is not about torture.

I didn’t know many serious companies that, as a result of adverse events, were able to return to the previous level. As an example, we can cite the fall and collapse of the Baltic Financial and Industrial Group, a powerful oil trader and concern in the North-West of Russia. As a result of the actions of competitors, its organizer and ideologist Pavel Kapysh was killed by a grenade launcher shot in his armored car on the University Embankment in St. Petersburg, and the security service could not prevent this tragedy. Our Holding was also attacked by criminal elements, the leadership kept the powder dry, successfully fought and defended our independence. The blows of fate, terrible blows, we felt in the future, but today we overcame the financial crisis, and new divisions were thrown into battle, namely the legal department and the Vice president for Trade, Mr. Amir. One day he called me and asked me to submit a draft contract. I specified which one was Russian or export, he chose the first option. Then, in the presence of a lawyer, I was asked a number of clarifying questions, which were answered. Where the delivery is, what we deliver is a mystery to me (I have already written about the competitive syndrome in our organization). The lawyer developed the contract, the vice-president approved it and submitted it to the president for consideration.

Three hours later, my intercom phone rang with the president:

– Come in. What contract did you transfer?

Explained: what they asked for, he gave.

– The contract is no good, give me an export option. And check the final edition!

– But there’s a lawyer there, – I ventured.

– A lawyer should also be taught!

That’s it! An engineer teaches a lawyer how to draw up a contract! However, I didn’t have to teach, guess why. Soon they were left without a legal department, however, as well as an insurance and travel company. Marina and Vsevolod Valentinovich still held on, but it was clear that this would not last long – the structure of the «Holding» was truncated in the process of optimization and reasonable cost savings.

One, two – and I drew a contract for ten thousand tons of oil bitumen for delivery to Ukraine, the Lutsk roofing material Plant. The technology of making roofing material is quite simple – cardboard, in fact paper, is impregnated with this bitumen and at a certain temperature, a well-known roofing material is obtained. It is clear that the plant has no money, deferred payment. In this case, the functions in the department were ordered to be divided: I am engaged in the shipments of the refinery – they know me there and do not give these contacts to others of ours, technical issues are also for me, and Sergei Nikolaevich is sent to native Ukraine to establish working relations at the plant – something he stayed in the office too long… He returned five days later with fascinating stories about visiting the restaurant, but I didn’t hear anything sensible – apparently, he thought it was wrong to share information with me. Shipments from the plant began, and in the first batch received, Lutsk found a violation of the standard for the most important parameter – the viscosity of bitumen. I figured out that the viscosity of bitumen is determined by the depth of penetration of the needle. The question arose – either we stop the shipment, or we solve quality issues by lowering the price or increasing the payment period, if this is not critical for the technology. We went the second way and offered the plant to specify the tank numbers, the weight of the cargo and the amount of deviation from GOST. And here is a letter on the letterhead of the LRZ plant with signatures and seals on my desk: a deviation of the limit parameters was detected in six railway cars…