Topaz JV Administrator Inna Linnik: The plant was sold, but the owners do not register with the Public Services Agency
During a press conference held on Thursday, she reported that in October 2024, the majority shareholder of Topaz, which owns over 97% of the company's shares, the United Engine Corporation (UEC, Russia), sold its block of shares during an auction for 538 million Russian rubles (approximately 5 million euros) to Turkish citizen Yüksel Maxim Onur. In the spring of 2025, Weisman Oscar and Elena Organ (the company's former lawyer) came to the plant with papers from the new owner. They presented the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Directors, a letter from the majority shareholder, a power of attorney from Yuksel Maksim Onur to Elena Organ to represent his interests, as well as the appointment of Oskar Weisman as Deputy General Director. At the same time, Inna Linnik is still the administrator of the enterprise in the Public Services Agency. On May 2, 2025, she was not allowed onto the plant premises, despite the fact that, by law, it is the administrator who is responsible for everything that happens at the enterprise: finances, assets, staff, etc. According to Inna Linnik, the new management fired over 100 employees (there were 140 in total), continues to accumulate debts on wages, taxes, utility bills, and “legal responsibility lies with the current administrator, who is not even allowed onto the premises,” she noted. The Topaz plant, which belonged to UEC, ceased operations at the end of February 2022, when it became impossible to fulfill obligations under the concluded contracts. Over the course of 3 years, debts accumulated, primarily on wages, however, according to Inna Linnik, an agreement was concluded with the staff and the debts were gradually repaid, primarily by renting out premises. The situation worsened when, at the beginning of the same 2022, 3 Moldovan banks refused to service Topaz, due to the fact that its main shareholder was included in the sanctions list. Inna Linnik believes that the shareholder - UEC - could have supported the enterprise, but there was no opportunity to do so. And in conditions when the enterprise does not have any active accounts in banks, but has the opportunity to rent out premises, assignment agreements were used, when the tenant paid the rent to those to whom the plant owed. The legality of this procedure was checked and confirmed by the tax inspectorate, which conducted a total audit of the enterprise in 2024 for the previous 5 years and did not reveal any serious violations. Since May 2, 2025, when Inna Linnik was not allowed into the plant, she has been taking daily extracts from the Public Services Agency, which still indicate that she is the administrator. "I want to make sure that the company clearly defines who runs it, who is responsible for its obligations, who signs the documents and is responsible for what happens there," said Inna Linnic. Answering the question whether she or, according to her information, anyone at the plant met with the new owner, Yuksel Maxim Onur, she said that, according to her information, no one has seen him. She also expressed the opinion that the new shareholder cannot change the administrator, since, on the one hand, he must be present in person, must indicate the effective beneficiary and not be on the sanctions lists. Answering the question of the InfoMarket agency, how much Topaz's assets are valued, she said that the book value alone is 400 million lei, the company also has 3.5 hectares of land practically in the center of Chisinau, while the amount of debt is only about 39 million lei. In conclusion, she added that she intends to protect the rights of the dismissed team in court. Topaz is a company that was part of the military-industrial complex of the USSR. It is a high-tech production facility, in particular, it produced microelectronics for aircraft engines. According to Inna Linnik, at the beginning of 2022, the company had a contract for the entire year, but since February it has become impossible to fulfill contractual obligations. //08.05.2025 – InfoMarket.
