It seems that the investigation involved in the criminal case of banker Alexander Grigoriev cannot yet find enough evidence of his involvement in the withdrawal of a fantastic sum of $50 billion from Russia. Information about Grigoriev’s organization of a “cash business” was circulated by the press service of the police department in November last year .
A CASE WITHOUT VICTIMS?
In July of the year before last, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, after checking the Rostov bank Doninvest, acquired by Grigoriev several months ago, made its first claims against the bank, prohibiting it from attracting new depositors, and three months later Doninvest’s license was revoked.
In February of the following year, a letter was received from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia with a request to review the materials to determine whether there were signs of deliberate bankruptcy and other facts of abuse in the activities of the bank’s management and owners.
At the beginning of October of the same 2015, ex-chairmen of the board Alla Kalitvanskaya and her deputy Svetlana Gulenkova were arrested. Soon Grigory Kulesha was also “taken” - the same one who, according to the banker’s defense, brought together Alexander Grigoriev and Kalitvanskaya at one time. That is, it turned out to be a kind of pyramid, the peak of which was the detention of Grigoriev himself.
DID YOU STOLEN FROM YOURSELF?
Here's what is known from open sources. Alexander Grigoriev is a native of the Novgorod region, has two higher educations (the first in the specialty "law" with a diploma from St. Petersburg State University - the former Leningrad State University, the second - "State and Municipal Administration", received at the All-Russian Correspondence University of Finance and Economics).
In business since the early 2000s, when he became one of the founders of the Yakut construction company SU-888 - very successful, by the way: according to Kommersant, its revenue for 2014, for example, amounted to 1 billion rubles.
And in 2012, Alexander Grigoriev decided, as his friends and partners say, to expand his commercial horizons and plunged into the banking sector.
Alexander Yuryevich has always been a very active and purposeful businessman: he achieved success in one field and immediately moved on to something new, says the businessman’s colleague in the banking department, the former head of a number of large financial structures in the Rostov region, Alexander Narovilov. - Sometimes - at your own peril and risk, trying to figure everything out as you go. In some ways he can even be called gullible - if such an expression is applicable to a large entrepreneur. And as it turns out now, he didn’t always succeed. But his eyes were burning, he wanted dynamics all the time. So I went into the banking business, which, I must admit, I didn’t particularly understand. That is probably why he made certain mistakes that led to disastrous results. To be honest, as a specialist, I don’t see anything in his case that could indicate intentional damage to the same Doninvest: the bank had to be saved, it was sinking, the task was not easy, but Grigoriev decided to take on it.
According to Alexander Grigoriev, he fully paid for the authorized capital of Doninvest, representing a group of individuals, says the businessman’s lawyer Sergei Akhundzyanov. - At the time of the acquisition of the bank (the first ten days of July 2014), operations to attract deposits from individuals were suspended (instruction of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for the Southern Federal District dated February 2014), so the institution needed an investor and replenishment of its correspondent account to continue making current payments and excluding default to residents of the region. Grigoriev’s achievement is his agreement with representatives of the previous owner in the form of a moratorium on the withdrawal of funds invested by the businessman, as well as their assistance in repaying previously overdue payments from structures affiliated with the previous owner.
It is for this reason, the lawyer notes, that the entire top management of Doninvest, who was under its previous owner, was not fired and retained their jobs in the bank, which is socially significant for the region. And an analysis of its financial and economic activities showed that the bank began to fulfill previously overdue obligations that had previously hung on it like a dead weight and for this reason were classified as “problem” debt, but it was required to “freeze” its own funds to form reserves up to 100 percent of issued loans.
With the arrival of Grigoriev, all this began to change for the better, new clients of the bank appeared, turnover increased, a plan for the rehabilitation of the Bank and replenishment of its authorized capital by another 170 million rubles was presented to the Central Bank. to the 350 million previously paid by the businessman,” the lawyer continues. - But the regulator tightened its requirements exactly three weeks after the new owner arrived at the bank (instruction dated July 24, 2014), adding additional reserves for partially repaid loans and extending the ban on attracting funds from individuals to the Bank’s deposits. Already on October 9, the credit institution’s license was revoked and a temporary administration was appointed. In fact, it turns out that after three months of Grigoriev’s attempts to save the bank with his own funds and the efforts of the old management, it was not possible to agree on a financial recovery plan with the Central Bank, but he was also accused of involvement in the bank’s loss of its liquidity as a result of operations carried out by the management - in other words, in theft and embezzlement of own funds in one’s own (!) financial structure.
TO THE ROSTOV COURT - WITH A BAG ON THE HEAD, TO MOSCOW - IN THE “STOLYPINSKY” CAR
On the day of his arrest, Alexander Grigoriev was taken from Moscow to Rostov-on-Don, where the Leninsky District Court decided to arrest him - despite the fact that he offered to pay bail in the amount of damage caused.
They took him to court with a bag over his head, he was handcuffed for a day (even during interrogation), he was not even allowed to rest, and in addition, he was refused to take the medications my client needed, taking into account his state of health and the presence of a number of chronic diseases “, notes another defender, Valery Sadych. - I consider all this a violation of not only Russian, but also international legislation, in particular the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment. The corresponding complaint was sent to the prosecutor of the Rostov region.
However, the subsequent transfer back to Moscow turned out to be, perhaps, no better than detention in a pre-trial detention center in Rostov, the lawyer continues.
According to information received from Grigoriev, they were transported for more than nine days in a carriage, popularly called a “Stolypin” carriage. Grigoriev was placed in a compartment cell along with fifteen other escorts - despite the fact that such a cell is designed for a maximum of six people (for a stage lasting more than four hours), says Valery Sadych.
“During the transfer, an operational development of a provocative nature was carried out,” said Sergei Loginov (editor’s note, lawyer). “Grigory Kulesha was transported in a special car at the same time as Grigoryev and another accused, Denis Volchkov.” This, the lawyer believes, was done deliberately with the aim of organizing a “chance meeting” of the accused at the stage. The businessman's defender suggests that this operation had very specific goals... The reaction of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the transport prosecutor's office to these complaints and statements is not yet known at the moment, however, in the judicial practice of Russia there are precedents when the conditions for transporting prisoners in our country were actually officially recognized torture,” writes the Kommersant newspaper.
“DESTRUCTION OF THE BUSINESS CLIMATE”
And yet, personally, it is completely unclear to me why it was necessary to take Grigoriev to Moscow at all, if all the episodes relate to Doninvest and the investigation should be carried out at the place where the crime was committed - the businessman’s defender is surprised. “During more than four months of his detention, essentially nothing happened. Today no one remembers the very “$50 billion” that was so pathetically announced after the arrest of the entrepreneur. And the man sits - contrary to the position of the leadership of our state that “according to economic conditions, placement in custody should be used as a last resort, and bail, a written undertaking not to leave, house arrest should be used.”
This, the lawyer explained, is about the speech of Russian President Vladimir Putin with his annual message to the Federal Assembly, in which he emphasized the following:
“In 2014, investigative authorities initiated almost 200 thousand criminal cases on so-called economic charges. 46 thousand out of 200 thousand reached the court, another 15 thousand cases fell apart in court. It turns out that if you consider that only 15 percent of cases ended in a verdict. At the same time, the absolute majority, about 80 percent, 83 percent of entrepreneurs against whom criminal cases were filed, lost their business completely or partially. That is, they were put under pressure, robbed and released. And this, of course, is not what we need in terms of the business climate. This is a direct destruction of the business climate. “I ask the investigative authorities and the prosecutor’s office to pay special attention to this.” But probably not everyone has paid attention to this yet.
During the investigation, Alexander Grigoriev’s defense sent about two hundred complaints and statements to various authorities regarding violations of the law, says lawyer Sergei Akhundzyanov. “But sometimes completely incomprehensible things happen with these requests - as if the authorities no longer know what to do with them and how to respond to them. Thus, in response to a complaint in the interests of Grigoriev from my colleague, lawyer Sergei Loginov, the prosecutor of the department for consideration of citizens’ appeals of the prosecutor’s office of the Rostov region replied that “the appeal was sent to the prosecutor’s office of the city of Shakhty, Rostov region,” to which neither our client nor Doninvest had anything to do has at all. And two weeks later, the deputy prosecutor of the city of Shakhty sent the appeal back to the prosecutor's office of the Rostov region. We are still waiting for a response from the regional prosecutor. These are the miracles.
According to the entrepreneur’s defense, Alexander Grigoriev simply crossed someone’s path and they are trying to bring him to justice for “other people’s sins.”
If we draw analogies with the case of another large bank, the situation is diametrically opposite, says lawyer Sergei Akhundzyanov. - The owner sold the bank, and a few months later his license was revoked. However, it was not the new owner of the bank who was arrested, as law enforcement agencies did with Grigoriev, but the previous one. In the DonInvest case - it is not clear for what reason - the blame is placed on the new owner. The investigation does not notice the “exploits” of the previous owners at all, identifying the new owner Grigoriev as guilty of stealing money. I hope that further investigation will clear up all the banking and financial intricacies of this regional bank, which has joined the ranks of credit institutions that fell under the “bank sweep,” the lawyer sums up.
The purpose of criminal proceedings is to protect the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and organizations that have suffered from crimes, which, first of all, includes compensation for the harm caused. According to investigators, entrepreneur Grigoriev is charged with theft of 107.6 million rubles. His defense has repeatedly proposed, both to the investigation and in the courts of the first, appellate and cassation instances, to apply bail to Grigoriev in the specified amount, which would fully cover the harm allegedly caused by him. However, it seems that for some reason law enforcement agencies are not yet interested in the issue of compensation for harm in full.
02.03.2016
“Criminal prosecution cannot be turned into a tool in showdowns or corporate disputes,” Vladimir Putin recently said. When will our law enforcement agencies listen to the president?
“At the end of October last year, law enforcement agencies announced the disclosure of a high-profile case involving the withdrawal of about 50 billion dollars from the country through the so-called Moldovan scheme. In Moscow, under the escort of video cameras, the alleged organizer of the “largest financial scam of our time,” banker Alexander Grigoriev, was arrested, according to investigators. True, just a month later it became clear that all these revealing television reports and articles “about the main cashier of the country” were not true. As a result, the banker was notorious throughout Russia; he has been in a pre-trial detention center for almost six months. The newspaper “Top Secret” tried to find out what forces are interested in an exemplary reprisal against the banker Grigoriev.
On October 30, 2015, employees of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (GUEBiPK. - Ed.), together with special forces soldiers, entered the Sfera shopping center, which is located on Novy Arbat in the center of Moscow. Having entered the restaurant, the operatives headed to the table where, as many media outlets would later tell, businessman Alexander Grigoriev was having lunch. The detention was harsh, although he did not offer any resistance. On the same day, Grigoriev was taken, accompanied by operatives, to Rostov-on-Don.
As reported in the news, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspect the former co-owner of the Russian Land Bank and the Zapadny Bank, Alexander Grigoriev, “of creating an international criminal group of 500 people.” It was reported that at least 20 domestic banks were involved in the criminal scheme, including those with state participation, with the help of which, using the “Moldavian scheme”, the criminal community illegally “withdrew” almost 50 billion dollars from the Russian Federation. The hot news was immediately confidently picked up and developed by many Russian media. But the first inconsistencies in this high-profile case appeared already in the Rostov court, where the businessman was brought, handcuffed and with a black bag on his head, to choose a preventive measure in the form of arrest.
In the Leninsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don, it turned out that criminal case No. 2015717105, in which Alexander Grigoriev was detained, was initiated by the investigative unit of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Rostov Region on the fact that Doninvest Bank issued non-repayable loans in the amount of 107 million rubles. As Top Secret was able to find out, there is no mention of any billions of dollars transferred abroad under the “Moldovan scheme” in the documents. Grigoriev, categorically denying the accusation against him, nevertheless offered to pay bail in the amount of the damage charged to him - 107 million rubles, in order to be under house arrest during the investigation - in fact, in the same isolation, but in acceptable living conditions. But the judge did not respond to this proposal.
We do not set ourselves the task of whitewashing Alexander Grigoriev, who is in a pre-trial detention center, but we will talk about what we believe are serious inconsistencies in his case. The specialists in the financial sector with whom we were able to talk have a complete feeling that the people who actually organized the transfer of Russian money abroad urgently needed a person who could be blamed for the entire financial scam of the last two decades.
However, first things first.
Someone else's scheme
The first mention of a criminal scheme to withdraw tens of billions of dollars from Russia occurred several years ago. The “Moldavian scheme” was analyzed most thoroughly in 2014 by Novaya Gazeta journalists. And we must pay tribute - we coped with this task with dignity. But we managed to find serious flaws in their research.
So. How did the “Moldovan scheme” work? Two offshore foreign companies (often from the UK, New Zealand or Belize - Ed.) entered into loan agreements with each other for various large amounts - from 100 to almost 900 million dollars. According to Moldovan investigators, these agreements have always been fictitious. The “guarantor” under the agreements was always a citizen of Moldova. Usually this is a simple villager who, for a small fee, provided his passport to complete the transaction. Why was he needed? This made it possible to use Moldovan jurisdiction in the event of economic disputes. The "guarantor", in turn, was obliged to provide "guarantors". These, as Novaya Gazeta journalists established, were Russian “one-day companies.”
When the time came to pay under the loan agreement, the debtor informed the borrower each time that I recognized the debt, but, unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to fulfill my obligations. After this, the borrower went to a Moldovan court, which issued a court order to forcefully collect the debt. The court decision was transferred to the bailiffs of Moldova, who had accounts in the Chisinau Moldindconbank. Correspondent accounts of Russian banks were opened there, in which “guarantor companies” were serviced. According to documents from the Anti-Money Laundering Service of Moldova, which were at the disposal of journalists, from 2011 to 2014, almost 700 billion rubles were forcibly collected on the basis of court decisions of the Moldovan Themis and the official interstate agreement between Russia and Moldova. The money was written off from the accounts of approximately one hundred Russian companies through 21 Russian banks. The collected funds were converted into foreign currency and transferred to the accounts of foreign companies in the same Moldindconbank or in the Latvian Trasta Komercbanka.
The leader in terms of the volume of dubious transactions, according to Novaya Gazeta journalists, was the Russian Land Bank (RZB), and then the Zapadny Bank. The materials of the criminal case of Moldovan law enforcement agencies, which fell into the hands of Russian journalists, say that from 2012 to 2014, the volume of cash transactions between RZB and Moldindconbank amounted to 152.5 billion rubles (about 4.5 billion dollars). The co-owner of both banks (less than 20% of shares - Ed.) was Alexander Grigoriev.
Grigoriev is a new person in the banking business. His main activity is construction and development. The Yakut construction company SU-888, where he was the main shareholder, participated and often won state tenders. According to the businessman himself in an interview with Novaya Gazeta journalists, his company often had to take out loans. And when Elena Baturina began to sell off her assets in 2012, he received an offer to purchase the Russian Land Bank that belonged to her.
“We considered that the bank could successfully combine with the construction business, and agreed to buy a minority stake,” Alexander Grigoriev answered journalists’ questions.
Note that we are talking about 2012. And according to reports from Moldovan investigators, the first “dubious” bank transactions began in 2011. That is, at the time a new shareholder joined the bank, the “scheme” had already been working for a year.
Having changed owners, RZB opened correspondent accounts in the Moldovan Moldindconbank. A general agreement was signed between the RZB and the Moldovan credit institution, within the framework of which interbank transactions for the sale of currency were carried out. Grigoriev never denied this. Correspondent accounts in foreign banks are common practice and are not a crime. “We were trying to make money, and these completely legal operations did not raise any questions for anyone, including the supervisory authorities at that time,” said the entrepreneur.
And here is an important clarification: during the year, an interbank currency exchange took place between the Russian Land Bank and a bank from Moldova. As experts say, this cannot be done without close control from the Central Bank of Russia, and if any suspicions arise, then without representatives of financial intelligence - Rosfinmonitoring.
In May 2013, Grigoriev resigned from the shareholders of RZB. And only a year later, in the spring of 2014, the Central Bank took away the license of the Russian Land Bank and filed an application for bankruptcy with the arbitration court. In it, representatives of the regulator indicated that the volume of questionable transactions of the RZB in 2013 amounted to 15 billion rubles. While in the documents of Moldovan law enforcement officers we are talking about amounts that are tens of times larger.
Buy a bank with a hole in its balance sheet
At the end of 2013, entrepreneur Grigoriev acquired a minority stake in the new bank, Zapadny. It is also being investigated by Novaya Gazeta as a financial organization that had a correspondent account in the Moldovan Moldindconbank. For reference, we note that according to financial terminology, a minority shareholder is an individual or legal entity whose size of shares does not allow him to directly participate in the management of the company. Such a shareholding is called “non-controlling”.
“Zapadny” belonged to professional financier Dmitry Leus. And, as we learned, before the sale of the bank there was a “hole” of several billion rubles in its balance sheet. We have already said that Grigoriev is a person new to the banking business, and, as it turns out later, he practically did not understand it. A well-known entrepreneur, ex-State Duma deputy Vladimir Semago, at the invitation of Alexander Grigoriev and on his recommendation to the board of directors, managed to work at Zapadny Bank for only three weeks. First, he was appointed president, and two days before the license was revoked, in the spring of 2014, he became chairman of the board of directors of Zapadny.
“Grigoriev cannot be compared with such bison of the banking market as the owner of Globex and Russian Credit, Anatoly Motylev, who is now - unknown where,” says Vladimir Semago, “Top Secret”. - Not with Boris Bulochnik, the owner of Master Bank, whose location is also unknown today. This also includes Andrei Borodin with the Bank of Moscow and Sergei Pugachev, who headed Mezhprombank, who are now actively sought by law enforcement officers. But these are precisely the people who have passports, freely crossed the border and painlessly left for the West. Grigoriev was a newcomer compared to them.”
Grigoriev's inexperience will very soon bear fruit. A few months later, in April 2014, the Central Bank will take away the license from Zapadny Bank.
“Zapadny did not have a single debt, they had no outstanding mandatory payments, that is, on all those points on which the Central Bank usually revokes a license, the bank had no questions,” Vladimir Semago shares his impressions. - Moreover, their correspondent accounts continued to receive income, even after the license was revoked. From 900 million to 1 billion rubles - that was the order of the numbers. The entire temporary administration lived on this money.”
After the license was revoked from Zapadny, Vladimir Semago tried to prove to the Central Bank that the “hole” in the bank’s capital had formed under the previous owner, Dmitry Leus. Did Grigoriev know about the lack of capital before purchasing the bank's shares? Semago is sure that he knew, but did not suspect the real scale of the disaster. Moreover, Grigoriev did not have his own financiers. After purchasing a stake in Zapadny, the old team continued to handle all operational activities. Could a novice financier, without his own team, who bought a “non-controlling” stake in a troubled bank, send billions of dollars to Moldova in a few months?
“Bank Zapadny was controlled by the Central Bank online,” says Semago. - All movements of funds across accounts were visible. But the Central Bank’s position is as follows: “We are not law enforcement agencies. From a banking point of view, all movements of funds and transactions could be legal.”
The “Moldavian scheme” was closed by those people who controlled it all this time, a source working in the banking sector tells Top Secret. - Every person, company or bank can open an account in any country in the world. You are embarrassed by the transfer of suspiciously large amounts from one account to another, but there are many regulatory authorities for this. Where have they been looking all these years? The whole scheme, if you can even call it that, is 100 percent legal in parts, and there is nothing to attach to it. But when too much noise arose and the decision was made to close this topic, a person was needed on whom it could all be blamed. And Grigoriev turned out to be the ideal candidate.”
Let us note another obvious oddity. During the almost five months that the investigation lasts, no one has officially charged Grigoriev, who has been sitting in a pre-trial detention center all this time, with withdrawing money abroad, especially as part of an organized group.
Doninvest of oligarch Paramonov
Let's return to the criminal case of the theft of a multimillion-dollar sum from the Rostov bank Doninvest, in which businessman Grigoriev was arrested in Moscow and quickly transported to Rostov-on-Don. The history of Doninvest Bank until 2012 was closely connected with the financial and industrial group of the same name by Rostov entrepreneur Mikhail Paramonov, founder of the scandalously bankrupt automaker TagAZ.
Paramonov’s rise took place in the now distant 1990s and, by a strange coincidence, coincided with his acquaintance with the then governor of the Rostov region, Vladimir Chub. Doninvest Bank, part of Paramonov’s financial and industrial group, became an authorized bank of the regional administration, acquiring and lending to hundreds of enterprises. In general, I lived large.
Credit institutions did not ignore the Taganrog Automobile Plant, which was part of the Doninvest group. Banks literally lined up to lend money to TagAZ. The problems began in the summer of 2010, when Vasily Golubev unexpectedly became the new head of the Rostov region.
From that moment on, the affairs of the entire Doninvest group went downhill. Immediately 12 creditor banks demanded the return of 24 billion rubles issued to TagAZ.
Paramonov himself settled in his own mansion on an island in the lower reaches of the French River Seine.
After the bankruptcy of TagAZ, Doninvest Bank, which miraculously avoided bankruptcy then, began to experience problems. The new regional administration stopped cooperating with him. In the spring of 2014, as the newspaper “Top Secret” learned, the chairman of the board of Doninvest, Alla Kalitvanskaya, came to Moscow in the hope of finding salvation for the bank in the amount of 120 million rubles. It was this amount that the bank was obliged to urgently issue to its depositors and friendly companies. This information was known to many in the capital's banking circles, since the bank itself was also being sold. Everywhere there was a refusal in one form or another. The only one Alla Kalitvanskaya managed to hook was the vice-president for investments of Zapadny Bank Grigory Kulesha, whom Grigoriev trusted very much. Alexander Grigoriev himself, according to his friends with whom we were able to communicate, still does not understand how the board of Zapadny Bank could agree to issue an interbank loan of 120 million rubles to Doninvest. After all, an inspection by specialists showed that Doninvest is a risky borrower with a poor balance sheet. However, the vice-president of Zapadny, Grigory Kulesha, who has known Kalitvanskaya for a long time, managed to convince the board members and shareholders, including Grigoriev.
Let's make a small digression here. Grigory Kulesha is another person involved in the criminal case, which Rostov investigators began to investigate. Before getting a job at Zapadny, he held the position of deputy head of the Vnesheconombank subsidiary VEB-invest. The head of VEB-invest, Alexey Shulepov, became famous for the fact that he managed, in secret from the head office, to take the Andryushkinskoye gold ore deposit worth about a billion rubles out of the control of the state corporation. After the initiation of the criminal case, Kulesha was one of the first to be interrogated. Having told the investigation everything that it wanted to know about the activities of Alexei Shulepov, Kulesha managed to escape from the high-profile “golden case”. Alexey Shulepov was less fortunate. While under recognizance not to leave the place, he hid from investigation abroad and was put on the international wanted list.
But let's return to the Rostov bank. A week after Doninvest issued a loan of 120 million rubles under the personal guarantee of Grigoriev, according to our sources, Kalitvanskaya again asked to meet him and began to say that all the money had gone and they were missing another 60-80 million rubles. This is necessary to save the bank. In exchange, Kalitvanskaya offered to transfer part of the authorized capital of Doninvest to Grigoriev for this amount. But buying a troubled bank was not Grigoriev’s goal. He just wanted to get back the money he invested in Zapadny Bank. Kalitvanskaya organized a meeting for him with the real owner of Doninvest, Mikhail Paramonov, who lives in France and was allegedly ready to meet to resolve all controversial issues.
Grigoriev’s meeting with Paramonov took place in the same spring of 2014 in one of the restaurants in Paris. Alla Kalitvanskaya was also present. As we learned, Paramonov immediately said that he was not interested in any debts or claims of creditors. He is not going to take any action to repay the 120 million loan using funds from his companies.
Grigoriev, according to our interlocutors, was left with no choice but to take the situation into his own hands and try to straighten it out. It was Grigory Kulesha’s personal participation in organizing an operation to save the fate of that same interbank loan, returned with his help in April 2014 to Zapadny Bank, that convinced Alexander Grigoriev that Doninvest would be able to satisfy the regulator’s requirements and that Kulesha correctly saw in him, as financiers say, an undervalued asset.
But a few months later, despite the entrepreneur’s desperate attempts to “pull” the bank out of a deep crisis, the regulator revoked Doninvest’s license. The reasons, according to eyewitnesses of the events with whom we were able to communicate, and according to the position of the Central Bank itself, were long-standing problems: a financial gap and a conflict with the Southern regional branch of the Central Bank over unfulfilled instructions of the regulator.
After the initiation of a criminal case for fraud, Alla Kalitvanskaya and her deputy were taken into custody, and then, according to inexplicable logic, a potential investor of the bank (the transaction to purchase shares of the bank, according to published documents, was never completed. - Ed.) - Grigoriev, who was just beginning to receive documentary information about Doninvest’s past activities.
Word and deed
In February, at a meeting with the chairmen of Russian courts, President Vladimir Putin once again called for preventing abuse of law and creating conditions for the safe operation of business. “Criminal prosecution cannot be turned into a tool in showdowns or corporate disputes,” the president said, noting that it is necessary to “put a barrier in the way of those who use criminal prosecution as a cudgel to take away property from the rightful owners.”
This is not the first time the head of state has returned to this issue, and this only says one thing: local officials and security forces are in no hurry to change their usual way of life. This is confirmed by the so-called night of the long buckets, when the capital's authorities demolished 104 shopping pavilions near metro stations, despite the fact that the owners, for the most part, had all the necessary property documents in hand. The authorities of the Krasnodar region are demolishing the constructed apartment buildings, recognizing them as unauthorized construction. And this despite the fact that people who have invested their last savings in housing also have in their hands all the property documents signed by the same Krasnodar officials.
Russian pre-trial detention centers are overcrowded with entrepreneurs taken, essentially, hostage under Article 159 of the Criminal Code, so widely used and beloved by investigative authorities - “Fraud.” Businessmen, and there are many thousands of them, sit under investigation for years, and if they get out, they come out deprived of their business, and most importantly, their health. Real criminals, as practice shows, always have the opportunity to freely take refuge abroad, since the watchful eye of law enforcement officers looks in a completely different direction.
Authors:
Hearings in the criminal case regarding the bankruptcy of Doninvest Bank continue to be held in the Leninsky District Court of the city of Rostov-on-Don. The defendant is Alexander Grigoriev, who can safely be called the victim in this case. Why? Because he has not the slightest relation to what was imputed to him by the investigation. Initially, Grigoriev not only intended to purchase Doninvest Bank from its owner Mikhail Paramonov, but also invested more than 350 million rubles in the future purchase, without yet concluding a deal. Even before the sale, the bank's position was seriously undermined and required serious material injections. How can a person who was fraudulently sold a bankrupt bank be accused of fraud, and all the money that was invested in this bank turned out to be misappropriated by the swindlers?
The sale of Doninvest Bank turned out to be a necessary measure for its management and owner Mikhail Paramonov. Firms controlled and owned by Paramonov owed Doninvest more than a billion rubles, and having a lot of instructions from the supervisory authority, the bank had to undergo the following inspection. The risk that the truth about the withdrawal of funds from the bank by Paramonov and his proxies (Kalitvanskaya and Gulenkova, the chairman of the bank’s board and her deputy) was too high. Wanting to avoid liability, Paramonov and the company began to look for a buyer. By some coincidence, they were able to establish contact with Grigory Kulesha, who turned out to be familiar with entrepreneur Alexander Grigoriev. It was he who assured Grigoriev that the purchase of Doninvest would be useful, because the bank was very promising. Grigoriev had no doubts after such admonitions, and he made a deal.
A planned inspection by a commission of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation found that the bank had lost liquidity and was almost out of cash. In the fall of 2014, Doninvest lost its license. As soon as an investigation into this fact began, which was carried out by the Rostov Ministry of Internal Affairs, the same management of the bank, the chairman of the board Kalitvanskaya and the deputy chairman Gulenkova, were arrested. The authorities understood what exactly was happening in the bank. Later, the case was transferred to the investigator of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Nikolaev, and from that moment everything went wrong. It is not known what Nikolaev was motivated by, but he decided to present himself as a defendant in the criminal case regarding the bankruptcy of Doninvest. Alexander Yuryevich Grigoriev. It could only be that someone was interested in such a turn of events. When it comes to a billion rubles, there is practically nothing unattainable. In addition, the arrest of Grigoriev himself was presented as an incredible sensation. The media trumpeted the information that Grigoriev is the largest casher who managed to withdraw 50 billion dollars from the country! Naturally, all this is groundless and unproven. But this method of misinformation justified the intentions of its customers - Grigoriev was discussed for a long time as a criminal and a cash-dealer, and the investigation and the court are biased towards the businessman.
After the transaction for the sale of Doninvest Bank, Alexander Grigoriev was in Moscow and visited Rostov-on-Don occasionally. Grigory Kulesha reported to the new owner about all matters in the bank, and in his reports the situation in the structure was very rosy. During this time, Paramonov and the bank’s management, with the help and direct participation of the same Grigory Kulesha, carried out a “refinancing” behind Grigoriev’s back. The old debtor organizations of Paramonov and the management of Doninvest were replaced with new ones. Moreover, the new ones turned out to be one-day companies that not only did not provide collateral, but in fact did not even conduct real activities. It is important that between Paramonov and Grigoriev, in light of the transaction for the sale and purchase of the bank, an agreement was concluded that regulated the obligations of the parties and the procedure for the transfer of the bank to the ownership of Alexander Grigoriev. By the way, he fully fulfilled his part of the agreement, which cannot be said about Paramonov
Moreover, it becomes clear that Paramonov and his associates did not intend to fulfill what was written in the memorandum, and instead transferred Grigoriev’s 350 million to the accounts of their companies. All debts remained transferred to the shoulders of Alexander Yuryevich Grigoriev, and he lost his own money. Paramonov turned out to be clean.
It is also important that when Grigory Kulesha was under arrest, during the first interrogation on September 2, 2015, he told investigators almost the whole truth. In light of the fact that investigator Nikolaev, under someone’s influence, had already taken an accusatory position regarding Grigoriev, Kulesha’s testimony was out of line. Then, impressed by promises of ten years in a maximum security colony, Kulesha made a deal with the investigation. After this, his testimony changed, so much so that he accused Grigoriev of all the crimes! Naturally, the protocol of Kulesha’s first interrogation disappeared from this criminal case. If it were not for the foresight of Grigoriev’s lawyers, it would have been impossible to clearly compare the difference between Kulesha’s words.
No matter how many questions, petitions and complaints about the actions of investigator Nikolaev Alexander Grigoriev and his defense team had, all of them either received formal replies or were simply ignored. One of the successes was that Nikolaev nevertheless ordered a financial and analytical examination. Its results were supposed to answer questions about the fact of withdrawal of funds from Doninvest, about who and where withdrew the money, if any. It’s strange, but only Nikolaev himself became familiar with the experts’ conclusions, and for some reason decided that the examination was not of interest for the investigation. The document suffered the same fate as the first interrogation protocol of Kulesha. During the year and a half that Grigoriev was in custody, the criminal case grew into 260 volumes, and all of them were transferred to the prosecutor for approval of the indictment. What a surprise it was when the prosecutor mastered all 260 volumes in just 7 days and gave the green light to the prosecution! Amazing speed!
Now the case is being heard by Judge Strokov. Strangely enough, even here things are going badly with justice: not a single one of the more than 20 petitions filed by the defendants was granted, the prosecutor’s petitions were all satisfied! And this is from the very first day of consideration of the criminal case. It is not yet entirely clear whether Judge Strokov will go into the essence of the case and whether he will get to the bottom of the truth - everything has its time. One thing leaves no doubt: the case in which the innocent Grigoriev is sent to trial without evidence of his guilt and involvement is ordered. It's easy to guess who benefits from this. After all, even the fact of how Grigoriev was kept in the Rostov pre-trial detention center directly indicates that everything was done deliberately against. While the executors in the Doninvest criminal case, Kalitvanskaya and Gulenkova, were in ordinary cells, Alexander Grigoriev was placed in a special block intended for especially dangerous murderers and terrorists. This absurd story raises a lot of questions from the very beginning.
As it became known, in relation to the co-owner of the banks "Zapadny", "Doninvest" and the Russian Land Bank, who was arrested for fraud Alexandra Grigorieva a criminal case was initiated on the fact that he organized a criminal community (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Seven alleged accomplices of the businessman became defendants in the same case. So far, all of them have been charged with several episodes of theft of funds from Bank "Doninvest" for the amount of 107 million rubles. In total, according to law enforcement, over several years, members of the group could have withdrawn about $46 billion abroad.
According to the data, the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs opened a criminal case against Mr. Grigoriev under Part 1 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of a criminal community). In addition to him, one of the owners of the Doninvest bank, Oksana Ermakova, as well as St. Petersburg businessmen Oleg Vasiliev and Anton Tarasov, became defendants in this case. As they say in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, both are well known as players in the Russian cash market. It was through the companies provided by these entrepreneurs that Mr. Grigoriev’s banks, according to law enforcement officers, withdrew the stolen money. The investigation considers four more members of the group to be ordinary members of the organized criminal group. In particular, we are talking about the former vice-president of Zapadny Bank Grigory Kulesh, ex-chairman of the board of Doninvest, who concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation. Alla Kalitvanskaya and her former deputy Svetlana Gulenkova, as well as a member of the board of directors of this credit institution Denis Volchkov. According to the data, for now, the alleged members of the organized criminal group are accused of two episodes of withdrawing funds from Doninvest Bank for a total amount of more than 107 million rubles. At the same time, most of them, previously held under arrest in the Rostov region, have already been transferred to Moscow, where employees of the investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the GUEBiPK are closely involved in them.
Be that as it may, the investigation considers Alexander Grigoriev to be the head of one of the largest organized crime groups in Russia, engaged in illegal financial, including cash-out transactions. More than 500 people participated in the group’s activities, using about 60 Russian banks, including those with the participation of state capital. Among them were, for example, "Russian Credit", "Eastcomfinance", "Transportny", Mast-Bank, Antalbank, Intercapitalbank, Russian Land Bank, "Taurus", "European Express", "Rublevsky", "Baltika", Tempbank and a number of others. Most of them have already had their licenses revoked, but some continue to operate today.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs believes that, using accounts in these financial structures, members of the group could withdraw approximately $46 billion from the country over the past few years (according to the Central Bank, at the same time, more than $75 billion were illegally withdrawn abroad), and the annual turnover of the criminal group amounted to about 1 trillion rubles.
As already reported, initially a criminal case involving Alexander Grigoriev and his alleged accomplices was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). The investigation began with the detention in October last year of the ex-chairman of the board of CB Doninvest LLC by GUEBiPK officers. Alla Kalitvanskaya and her deputy Svetlana Gulenkova. According to investigators, both women were allegedly involved in withdrawing huge sums from bank accounts, as well as concluding fictitious transactions for the purchase of real estate, including in Crimea, for more than 150 million rubles. On their instructions, the investigation believes, this money was transferred from Doninvest to the accounts of nine organizations controlled by members of the criminal group. Subsequently, the funds were transferred offshore through a chain of shell companies. Later, the investigation established that the women acted in collusion with the new management of the bank. He appeared in a financial organization about six months before Doninvest’s license was revoked (he was declared bankrupt in December 2014). During the investigation, it turned out that the bank was controlled by businessman Alexander Grigoriev, who had previously acted as a co-owner of the bankrupt banks Zapadny, Transportny and the Russian Land Bank. All of them lost their licenses in 2014-2015 due to the implementation of a high-risk credit policy, the placement of funds in low-quality assets, the withdrawal of capital from Russia and the loss of their own funds. It is noteworthy that all these events took place in the banks shortly after Mr. Grigoriev became their owner.
The lawyer of the banker held in the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, Sergei Shenknekht, said that his client has not yet been charged with organizing a criminal community. As for the charges of fraud, Alexander Grigoriev does not admit his guilt. “At the moment, it is not clear on what the investigation’s accusation is based: no one notified us about the conduct or at least the appointment of financial, economic and accounting examinations,” noted lawyer Schenknecht.
According to him, in the summer of 2014, during the agony of Doninvest, his client invested 350 million rubles in the bank. “If it turns out that the hole in the bank formed before Alexander Grigoriev entered it, then we will have every reason to petition for the termination of his criminal investigation,” the defense lawyer concluded.
Oleg Rubnikovich
Aleksanr Grigoriev’s neighbor for the entire 10 days of the journey was the defendant in the same case, who tried to start a frank conversation.
Appeals in defense of businessman Alexander Grigoriev, who has been under arrest for almost five months on charges of committing particularly large-scale fraud, were received by the head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Colonel General Alexander Savenkov, and a number of other law enforcement officers. The businessman’s lawyer and he himself are demanding an investigation into the violations that, according to them, occurred during the transfer from the Rostov pre-trial detention center to Moscow.
According to the data set out in the statements, the neighbor of the co-owner of Doninvest during the entire 10 days of travel was a defendant in the same criminal case, ex-employee of CB Doninvest Denis Volchkov. As lawyer Sergei Loginov says, this is a gross violation. By law, accomplices are kept in isolation from each other to avoid collusion.
“The very fact that the accused in the same criminal case were deliberately collected in one special car, in itself indicates some kind of intent aimed at achieving goals other than moving the accused from one region to another,” the lawyer develops the idea. – And in Voronezh, Grigory Kulesha was “planted” in Grigoriev’s cell, where there were already about 60 people, whose testimony differed significantly from Grigoriev’s position.
According to available data, Kulesha is actively cooperating with the investigation and has already testified against his former partner. Grigoriev categorically denies guilt. Therefore, the defense has a clear opinion about why such violations were necessary.
“Obviously, the goal of provoking Grigoriev into a conflict with Kulesha turned out to prevail over procedural interests,” the lawyer’s complaint says. “It is possible that an additional goal was pursued: through subsequent interrogation of cellmates, to create a false witness base for Grigoriev’s “admission” to involvement in fraud and thus provide indirect evidence of his guilt in this blatant case.”
Loginov emphasizes that there have been no official confrontations with Kulesha for almost six months of the investigation. And investigators cannot yet boast of any breakthroughs in the case. The initial information that the banker was accused of withdrawing an astronomical sum of $50 billion abroad did not reach the format of a specific accusation. Now the co-owner of Doninvest is suspected of withdrawing 107 million rubles. Grigoriev categorically denies this, stating that by such actions he would cause damage primarily to himself, since he is a shareholder of the bank.
However, the unexpected proximity at the stage with the defendants in their own case is not all the complaints that the lawyer and the banker himself have about transportation.
“Grigoriev was placed in a compartment cell of a special car in which sixteen people were transported,” continues Loginov. – Although there should be no more than six escorts in the cell. There were attempts to place patients with open form of tuberculosis among healthy people. Moreover, before being placed on the train, the escorts were forced to squat, holding bags with personal belongings in their hands, while Grigoriev and several other people were chained together. If anyone raised their head to look around, to see the road in front of them, they beat them with batons.”
At the same time, according to the official instructions for convoying, more than 12 people can be placed in a carriage if the travel time is less than four hours. If the journey takes longer, the number of “passengers” in the compartment chamber should correspond to the number of sleeping places - four or six.
the site will monitor developments and report on what decisions are made after considering complaints. In addition, we are ready to provide law enforcement officers with an information platform to comment on the situation.
Let's add that earlier. However, the authorities left this information without comment.
