A strange thing: how will the Bakalchuk conflict end and what will happen to Wildberries?

Vladislav and Wildberries marketplace section Tatiana Bakalchukov has been attracting the attention of both glamorous and business publications for several weeks. What's going on there? Asks the columnist of the magazine "Profile" Igor Trifonov.

At first, there was a public rinsing of dirty laundry, the involvement of high-ranking officials in the conflict, multibillion-dollar losses and serious damage to business reputation were discussed. Then there were victims: two dead, seven injured, including two police officers. What now?

The Wildberries business originated in 2002. According to the official version, English teacher Tatyana Bakalchuk preferred to order clothes for herself and her husband, a well-known Moscow businessman, in foreign stores, but there was no stability in receiving orders, and if things did not fit, it was difficult to return them. This is how the idea of creating a chain store arose, the distinctive feature of which would be convenience for the buyer. My husband gave me a starting capital of $ 700, and Tatiana started from scratch.

It was then that the first stumbling block was laid in the coming grand conflict. The company was registered for Tatiana, while both spouses became founders, but Vladislav took one hundredth of the shares. Later it will turn into one percent. This percentage legally provided the husband with a priority right to claim everything in case of any problems. Then and now in family businesses this practice is common.

According to the Family Code, all property and all loans acquired during an official marriage are divided in half between the spouses upon separation, despite the formal "one percent". In the vast majority of cases, such disputes are resolved amicably: one simply renounces claims to the property of the second. In the case of Wild Berries, this did not happen, which in itself may be a precedent (in any case, today many family law lawyers cite this story as an example of a legislative gap).

In 2004, the couple had their first child, Vladislav began to help his wife during maternity leave and actually took over part of the Wildberries development activities. At the same time, he sold his main business and focused on working in a new project, formally remaining the owner of one hundredth of a share. Affiliated companies gradually appeared around the main company, and now the shares of the spouses were distributed differently in them. For example, the construction of warehouses in Russia and the CIS is carried out by WB Development, a company wholly owned by Vladislav.

Through joint efforts, a small online store has grown to a popular marketplace, which was called the "Russian Amazon." The company's net profit in 2020 reached 2.1 billion rubles, and the number of employees exceeded 25 thousand. And here lies the second stumbling block.

In fact, Wildberries has turned into a financial and logistics empire with extensive international connections, stable authority and well-established work. You can find any kind of goods: from a wire for charging gadgets and a modest gold ring to a set of expensive furniture and jewelry sets. Money can also be any — both in terms of amounts and currency names: financial flows are diverse. And with a large volume of supplies, customs and tax procedures have been greatly simplified. And we must understand that the battle in the family is not for a marketplace focused on customer convenience, but for this empire, in which the online store is only the tip of the iceberg.

Divorce and maiden name

In July 2024, Tatyana Bakalchuk announced her upcoming divorce from her husband and, at the same time, the merger of Wildberries with the Russ Outdoor business group. In the new company, Wild Berries retains 65% of the shares. This decision looked legally flawless: the Bakalchukes were not divorced, and the sole decision of the CEO of the company and at the same time the owner of the 99% share was legal. The transaction itself raises questions: from a financial point of view, it is unprofitable for the marketplace and its owner. In a few months, Tatiana has become twice as poor: according to American Forbes estimates, her assets have decreased from $ 7.9 billion to $ 4.1 billion (both due to the merger and due to the fall in the ruble exchange rate).

There is a lot of talk about the motives for divorce, but two topics prevail: the inappropriate behavior of the spouse in the family and his actions within the Wildberries business, which can be called unethical and jeopardizing the purity of the company. Actually, some people call the process of merging with Russ a forced measure to protect (by force and legal) from the consequences of a number of operations conducted by Vladislav Bakalchuk. There is no official data confirming this version — primarily due to the fact that they constitute a commercial secret, that is, a secret specially protected by law. At the same time, it is noted that Vladislav carried out operations behind his wife's back, carefully concealing their very fact. And the dismissal of two top managers of Wildberries was led by the fact that they did not inform their CEO about what was happening, although they were obliged to do so.

The conflict arose on such a foundation: Vladislav Bakalchuk considers the merger unprofitable, causing damage, including to their seven children, and (in accordance with the law) requires a revision of the shares, which will lead to the cancellation of the transaction. Legally, his position is flawed: even if the court decides on a different distribution of shares, this will happen when the merger has already taken place.

It is for this reason that on September 18, 2024 Vladislav Bakalchuk, as well as two top managers who left Wildberries (Sergey Anufriev, whose area of responsibility was logistics, delivery service and security service, and ex-chairman of the board of directors of Wildberries Bank Vladimir Bakin) arrived at the company's central office and tried to get inside. The new guards wouldn't let them in. A scuffle broke out, during which two office security guards were shot dead, seven people, including two police officers, were injured.

Bakalchuk, Bakin and Anufriev were accompanied by a group of armed men who turned out to be ethnic Chechens. According to preliminary data, they were the initiators of the conflict, which very quickly moved to the power plane, but they could not achieve their goals and retreated. The deceased office security officers were natives of Ingushetia, which added ethnic notes to this conflict and resulted in verbal battles in local (Chechen and Ingush, as well as Dagestani) segments of social networks.

By the way, at the same time, a group of opponents of the merger also tried to break into another Wildberries office — in the Iskra Park business center in the capital, but this incident passed bloodlessly and was not reflected in the operational reports.

Within an hour, the central office of the company was taken under guard by the forces of the Rosgvardiya. The participants in the conflict were detained later, in the building of the Sklifosovsky Institute of Emergency Medicine — it was there that the victims of the shootout were taken. Vladislav's supporters began to behave very sharply, trying to break into the reception department, and were detained, and then sent either into custody on a criminal case or under administrative arrest.

The criminal case was opened immediately under five articles of the Criminal Code: murder of two or more persons, attempted murder, illegal circulation of firearms, encroachment on the life of a law enforcement officer, arbitrariness. It is under the last article that the actions of Vladislav Bakalchuk and former top managers fall.

"I was just going to talk"

And then the strangeness began. The case was initiated by the investigative department for the Presnensky district of Moscow, then he was taken to the first department of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee (GSU IC) of the Russian Federation for Moscow, which is quite acceptable with such a resonance. But after a few hours, the criminal case was transferred to the central office of the TFR, which was actively involved in the work, in particular, an employee of the Central Office of the TFR went to court with a petition for arrest. Note that usually the central office is in no hurry to do the routine and takes the case after completing a huge set of procedural formalities.

The searches were conducted without court approval "due to the urgency of investigative actions" (the law allows this). Vladislav Bakalchuk was among the detainees. They were going to bring charges against him under serious articles of the Criminal Code and even prepared a petition to the court for arrest, but they did not give the paper a go. Moreover, at the moment when the courts took into custody the participants of the brawl, Bakalchuk was released without charge.

"During the interrogation, in the presence of lawyers, he outlined his version of events, according to which he did not expect the tragic development of the situation and was just going to talk," said a source in the investigation team. — His testimony was confirmed by other participants in the events: they said that Bakalchuk did not direct anything and did not give any instructions. The weapon from which the shots were fired was never found. Under such circumstances, there were no legal grounds to charge Vladislav. Yes, the members of the investigation team have doubts about the reliability of this version, but doubts will not come to the point."

On September 20, 33 people were taken into custody. Among them there is neither Bakalchuk, nor former top managers of Wildberries. And two days later, the arrested began to be released on the sly: it was not possible to formally convict them of illegal actions during interrogations, and the grounds for keeping them in custody of the investigation disappeared. In addition, the weapon from which they fired was never found, and this in this case, of course, is a key piece of evidence.

Even before the court sessions on the selection of a preventive measure, all the detainees from the Bakalchuk support group stated that they intended to go to the SMO zone and their lawyers were already preparing relevant petitions. According to the recently adopted amendments to the Criminal Code, this is the legal basis for suspending and then terminating criminal prosecution. Later the information was confirmed. The dead guards were buried at the expense of Wildberries, the company provides support to the victims.

Thus, the case of the tragedy in the business center in Rogov Lane may be suspended due to the fact that those who are subject to criminal prosecution will either not be involved in the crimes, or will enter into a contract with the Ministry of Defense.

It should be added that on September 20, the Federal Antimonopoly Service announced: the Wildberries and Russ merger deal is legal and contains no signs of violation of the law. So the conflict turned out to be meaningless: Bakalchuk failed to delay time, and even in the case of redistribution of shares, he will receive a part of what is left. That is, the empire has sailed away from him, and it will not be possible to return it — all lawyers agree on this.

The divorce procedure will take its course, the spouses will not appear in the courts, they will negotiate through the mouths of their lawyers. The marketplace itself will change its structure, remaining an online store, and its owner, who returned her maiden name Tatyana Kim, will still be considered one of the most successful women in the country.