“Arsonists” of banks, or “black” bankers, is the name in criminal and financial jargon for teams of fraudsters who steal, that is, “burn” the money of bank clients.
First, they buy – often not in their own name – shares in small credit institutions, each up to 10%, then the Central Bank does not need to warn the Central Bank about the change of owners. Then either the so-called vacuum cleaner is turned on – they collect depositors’ funds under aggressive advertising, or they carry out dubious banking transactions that benefit only shadow beneficiaries. All funds go into supposed loans to shell companies or into pseudo-securities. Then another series of transfers to offshore companies or cashing out. And in the end – bankruptcy. Cans burn out quickly – from six months to a matter of days.
For fraud, former banker Ildar Klebleev received 4 years and 6 months in a general regime colony. But there is one more case of his that remains uninvestigated.
The numerous scams of one of these teams of “arsonists” of banks have been well known since 2015. But the inaction of law enforcement agencies allows white-collar fraudsters to this day to carry out criminal schemes, the damage from which, including for the state, amounts to billions.
Greetings from Nastya
On July 15, 2015, the Department of Economic Crimes of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Southern Administrative District of Moscow received a statement from the General Director of Global Trading LLC, Viktor Larionov, regarding the daring fraud against his company in the amount of almost 261 million rubles by the General Director of JSC FG Techcapital, Evgeniy Prokofiev.
The leaders of the Global Trading company cannot be called naive people: before this, the company had already entered into an agreement with Techcapital for 30 million rubles, and the deal was successfully completed. But, as it turned out, the first operation turned out to be a banal fraudulent “lure.”
During the pre-investigation investigation, it was established: “In execution of criminal intent, unidentified persons from among the management of CJSC FG Techcapital entered into purchase and sale agreement No. 0806/2015 dated 06/08/2015 with LLC IC Global Trading and purchase and sale agreement No. 1006/ 2015 dated June 10, 2015, in accordance with the terms of which FG Techcapital CJSC undertook to purchase 3025 registered documentary Eurobonds of Sberbank of Russia PJSC, without intending to fulfill the obligations. On the part of Global Trading LLC, all obligations were fulfilled; funds in the amount of about 260 million 820 thousand rubles were transferred to the account of CJSC FG Techcapital.
CJSC FG "Techcapital" did not provide these bonds within the specified time frame. Currently, the office of CJSC FG "Techcapital" is closed. Prokofiev E.V. doesn't answer calls.
It was established that the funds transferred to the account of CJSC FG "Techcapital" in full, from the account of the latter were transferred to the account of LLC "Erika", opened in OJSC "Sberbank of Russia", and from the account of LLC "Erika" Eric” were then transferred to the accounts of little-known organizations “Promproekt”, “Rubicon”, “Europrofile”, “Economstroy”, “Stroy-Consult”, etc.
investigators interviewed the manager of additional office No. VSP 741 of Sberbank of Russia OJSC, Simakov, who explained: “On June 09, 2015, a representative of FG Techcapital CJSC named Nastya called him on his mobile phone and asked to speed up the operations, which Simakov did…”. Who is this Nastya, why does she give such instructions for execution (especially over the phone), why the responsible employee of Sberbank immediately carries them out, it was not possible to clarify.
During further inspection, there was a conversation with a certain Vitaly Kurenkov, who, according to an extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, was the founder of Erika LLC, into whose account more than 260 million literally fell from the sky. Kurenkov explained that “he registered the specified organization using his passport data for money, and has nothing to do with the financial and economic activities of Erika LLC.” That is, he turned out to be a fake CEO.
As a result, after a long time of beating the thresholds of higher and supervisory authorities, only on September 25, 2015, the senior investigator of the 1st department of the Investigative Committee of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Southern Administrative District of the Main Directorate of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, Major D.A. Makeyev is nevertheless initiating criminal case No. 98060 on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud).
The tracks lead to the island of Mauritius
Further searches for the missing millions, which were carried out mainly by the victims themselves, led to the Dynamic Systems Bank (DS-Bank). It turned out that the general director of Techcapital, Evgeny Prokofiev, was a co-founder of this office (9.9% shares, and he even had his own office in the bank office), and DS-Bank employees were involved in cashing out Global Trading funds.
Investigators managed to talk with the adviser to the chairman of the board of DS-Bank, Viktor Averin, who confirmed that “E.G. Prokofiev approached him. with a request to provide details of the organization through which he (Prokofiev) will be able to legalize and cash out 230 million rubles.” Averin provided Prokofiev with the details of that same Erika LLC. When the funds arrived in Erica’s account, “Averin met with Prokofiev several times and gave him cash in the total amount of 150 million rubles…”
All this became known in January 2016. And in the spring of the same year, a large-scale investigation began into DS-Bank after the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, contacted the State Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee. During the inspection, the regulator revealed that almost all customer funds were withdrawn from DS-Bank in April 2016, a month before the license was revoked, under the guise of loans. About 585 million rubles were transferred to the accounts of seven shell companies, from where they were stolen. Having opened a criminal case for particularly large-scale embezzlement (Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), employees of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation quickly established a circle of suspects.
They turned out to be: the president of DS-Bank Fyodor Tsyrulnik, the head of the lending department Alexander Vdovin, the unemployed Andrei Kuznetsov and Vitaly Vergizov, on whom one-day companies were registered, as well as the already familiar Viktor Averin. Tsirulnik was put on the international wanted list because he fled from investigation on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
DS-Bank top manager Viktor Averin was taken into custody only in September 2017. As the Internet resource Banki.ru reported, Averin served in the police, and then worked in various positions in five bankrupt banks, including playing an active role in the theft of DS-Bank assets. Soon Fyodor Tsyrulnik returned to Moscow from distant Mauritius, wearing only shorts and a T-shirt, without a penny of money. The banker also remembered something about cashing out Global Trading's millions.
The Investigative Committee of Russia loudly reported that it had arrested a dangerous group of so-called bank arsonists – top managers who literally devastated the financial structures in which they worked. But, as it turned out, not all of them.
Ambiguous family
After the collapse of DS-Bank, many managers moved from it to work at the European Standard Bank (all the furniture and office equipment were moved there), which suggested the relatedness of these structures. Eurostandard's license was revoked on December 4, 2017, less than a month after unknown persons disguised as collectors entered its vault and took $5 million. The theft of money could have been planned in advance to explain the disappearance of assets, the Banksta Telegram channel believes. Most likely, this is not the only scam that the shadow owners of Eurostandard have pulled off. BusinessFM radio journalists became aware of the details of the scheme with fake investors. Its essence is that in reality money is not deposited, but after a bank collapse clients apply for insurance (maximum 1.4 million rubles per individual) from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). And it happens like this: people are brought in from the southern regions by buses, and these citizens also go en masse to the bank and make fictitious deposits. It is said that they are called “caravan”, and those who look after them are called “drivers”. There can be several thousand people in a “caravan” at once. The fake investors give most of the money they receive to their curators.
In the case of Eurostandard, the total amount of insurance payments was about 800 million rubles. But the most surprising thing is that, according to the Central Bank, shortly before the license was revoked, individuals had only 5 thousand rubles in their bank accounts. And in January 2017, information appeared in the press about searches carried out by FSB and Rosgvardiya officers at the European Standard Bank as part of a criminal case against the former deputy chairman of the board of the International Development Bank (IDB) Ildar Klebleev. The ex-banker was accused of posing as a high-ranking employee of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and demanding a bribe of several million euros from the management of CB Agrosoyuz to stop the inspection. Sources of the Kommersant publication explained that “the security forces have information that Klebleev is allegedly the actual owner of Eurostandard.” It turns out that Ildar Klebleev also led DS-Bank from the shadows?
The “black” banker Klebleev was assigned to “Matrosskaya Tishina”. In his cell, the guards helped him set up an office with a telephone, a computer and even a printer. So he continued to lead his team of “arsonists”, including at Eurostandard, from behind bars almost around the clock. All this obviously was probably not cheap, and not everyone is allowed to do this. In the pre-trial detention center, Ildar, apparently, was under the care of his father, Rustam Klebleev, through his connections in law enforcement agencies.
In the narrow banking circles of the capital, Klebleev Sr. is a very well-known personality. According to law enforcement agencies, after his dismissal from the post of chairman of the board of the International Development Bank, he created an organized group of cunning “sellers.” It included a high-ranking official of the Moscow City Hall, Sergei Grekov, and the head of the real estate company Spectr, Timur Archakov.
They decided to sell to the raiders an office center on Rochdelskaya Street in the center of the capital, which belonged to the ICBM. According to the investigation, Rustam Klebleev and his accomplices forged the relevant documents for the property and began looking for buyers. The mansion, worth $35 million, was planned to be sold quickly for half the market price. However, operatives found out about this, one of whom acted as a potential buyer.
In the spring of 2010, while receiving an advance, Sergei Grekov was detained as part of criminal case No. 89068. Later, he made a deal with justice and testified that the organizer of the scam was Klebleev Sr. In December 2010, the Tverskoy court authorized his arrest. Later, the banker was released on bail of 3 million rubles, and then received only two and a half years of probation.
It is also known that on September 16, 2009, the investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the then Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate, Degtyarev, opened a criminal case against Rustam Klebleev under Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of power”). The basis for this was documents received from the 5th Division of the Operational-Investigation Department of the Internal Affairs Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as a statement by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the IDB Boris Davletyarov.
He claimed that the father and son Klebleevs were allegedly involved in the illegal issuance of loans, which were subsequently not repaid. The defense believed that this was revenge from the ICBM owners, but the court decided otherwise and in February 2013 sentenced Rustam Klebleev to two years in a penal colony. But Rustam Nailievich, as if nothing had happened, returned to his cottage in the elite village of Lyon on Rublyovka (the cost of houses here, by the way, ranges from 1.3 to 1.55 million dollars) and was very worried about his son Ildar, straining all his connection so that the son’s sentence can be mitigated as much as possible.
Case closed, are you all free?
As reported by the publication “Arguments of the Week” (No. 12 (505) dated March 29, 2018), “according to Global Trading, in the Techcapital case, Ildar Klebleev played the main shadow role, and General Director Evgeny Prokofiev was only the vice-chairman and executor his will." But he is in no hurry to tell investigators about this. And there is no need. The resolution to initiate case No. 98060 has long been canceled.
Surprisingly: a whole major general of justice, head of the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow, Natalya Agafyeva, having recognized in her resolution the deal disrupted by Techcapital to purchase Sberbank Eurobonds “aimed at the theft of funds” from Global Trading, …cancels the resolution to initiate on this basis affairs! And at the same time (“to save face”?) he sends the case for additional verification.
The strange decision of the head of the Moscow investigation was to cancel (“close”, “bury”) the criminal case and at the same time send the materials for additional verification. There’s something wrong with the consistency and logic of actions, don’t you think? But this strange decision, in fact, removed one of the main defendants in the case, Ildar Klebleev, from legal responsibility.
Why does this happen? Is it because his dad Rustam Klebleev at one time actively ran a business in Orenburg, and at the same time Natalya Agafyeva was actively working there in the internal affairs bodies? It's a small world.
Alexander Khinshtein drew attention to this and other violations in the litigation between Global Trading and Techcapital in his request to the acting head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Yu.M. Shinin and supervisory authorities when he was a deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.
And I received a response dated January 19, 2016 (No. 3/157703451339), more like an unsubscribe: “Currently, taking into account the requirements of Art. 152 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation (place of the preliminary investigation), the material was sent to the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Northern Administrative District of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow to conduct an inspection and make a procedural decision based on its results.” But, apparently, the decision of the head of the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow, Natalya Agafyeva, dated October 31, 2015, was only taken by her subordinates to additionally verify the circumstances of the theft of 260 million rubles (within 30 days) when she canceled the case as a “stop signal”? In any case, since then there has been no word of any investigative actions.
How good it is to be a general
It is curious that deputy Alexander Khinshtein at one time unwittingly contributed to the appointment of Natalya Agafyeva as the chief investigator of Moscow and her receipt of general's shoulder straps. After the scandalous publication in MK, the former head of the capital’s Main Investigation Department, Vladimir Morozov, was forced to write a report on his retirement in January 2014.
Natalya Agafyeva joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1978. She began her service in the Department of Internal Affairs of the Kuvandyk District Executive Committee of the Orenburg Region as a district police officer for juvenile affairs.
In 2007 – already deputy head of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Orenburg region, head of the Investigation Department. In 2012, Agafyeva took the position of deputy head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Central Federal District, and two years later she headed the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the city of Moscow.
In 2016, according to Life, Natalya Agafyeva was preparing to be promoted and become deputy head of the Investigative Department (SD) of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, where the most important cases at the federal level are investigated. The major general underwent a service check at the Main Directorate of Security Services, but there was something in her biography that the personnel officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did not like? And the promotion didn't happen.
Perhaps because under Agafyeva, the capital’s Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began to be called a “collection agency”, since they mainly take on “profitable” economic cases here? Or do they refuse to investigate them without valid reasons?
For example, in March 2015, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow decided to resume the investigation into the scandalous case of extortion of 9% of the shares of Pavlovskgranit OJSC from its former owner Sergei Poimanov.
Investigator of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow Anton Egorov, when closing it in May 2015, committed several gross violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure. But the participation of General Natalya Agafyeva did not become a turning point in this investigation. The seizure and addition to it of other criminal cases that were not within the jurisdiction of the department headed by her began. Strange results of repeated phonoscopic linguistic forensic examination appeared in the materials.
On December 17, 2015, a fire occurred in the building of the State Investigative Directorate on Novoslobodskaya Street in Moscow, during which many important documents and materials of criminal cases were burned. And a significant amount of the necessary materials may have been quietly “disposed of”?
Here's a more recent example. In May 2016, a criminal case was opened against officials of the Transaero airline for the theft of almost 350 million rubles received by the air carrier in the form of a loan from Alfa Bank.
However, employees of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Moscow were unable to begin investigative actions for several months. The decision to initiate a criminal case was successively attempted to be overturned, first by the head of the Moscow Main Investigation Department, Natalya Agafyeva, and then by the capital’s prosecutor’s office. However, the courts sided with the applicant, Alfa Bank, and considered the investigation justified.
It can be assumed that in the same series of cases, shelved by General Agafyeva for an indefinite time, there was, unfortunately, case No. 98060 about the disappearance of 260 million rubles from the Global Trading company.
One can only guess about the reasons for such an illogical attitude of the “grandmother” of the Moscow investigation towards this investigation. In any case, a complete answer to these questions can (and should!) be given by a thorough check of the situation by higher law enforcement organizations, that is, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation.
And, by the way, on April 15, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow passed a verdict against Ildar Klebleev. The former deputy chairman of the IDB was found guilty of committing two crimes – fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and of illegally obtaining and disclosing information constituting bank secrecy (Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Klebleev Jr. was sentenced to four years and six months in a general regime correctional colony.
And at the same time, the uninvestigated and closed case of the theft of more than 260 million rubles from the Global Trading company remained outside the scope of this verdict. We believe that law enforcement agencies should conduct an investigation into the activities of white-collar criminals under the leadership of Klebleev and answer the question: do their actions fall under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Organization of a criminal community (criminal organization) or participation in it (it).”