By the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region dated February 7, 2014 (the date of announcement of the operative part was February 4, 2014) in case No. A62-7344/2013 Open Joint Stock Company “Smolensky Bank” (JSC “Smolensky Bank”, hereinafter referred to as the Bank, OGRN 1126700000558 , TIN 6732013898, registration address: 214000, Smolensk, Tenisheva str., 6a) was declared insolvent (bankrupt) and bankruptcy proceedings were opened against him. The functions of the bankruptcy trustee of the Bank are assigned to the state corporation “Deposit Insurance Agency” (hereinafter referred to as the Agency).
By the ruling of the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region dated January 18, 2019, the period for bankruptcy proceedings against the Bank was extended by 6 months. A court hearing to consider the bankruptcy trustee’s report is scheduled for July 17, 2019.
Addresses for sending postal correspondence and creditors' claims: 127473, Moscow, 3rd Samotechny lane, 11, 127055, Moscow, st. Lesnaya, 59, building 2.
In accordance with the requirements of the Federal Law of October 26, 2002 No. 127-FZ “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)” (hereinafter referred to as the Federal Law), the Agency publishes information on the progress of bankruptcy proceedings against the Bank. The latest information on the progress of bankruptcy proceedings is included in the Unified Federal Register of Bankruptcy Information and posted on the Agency’s website on February 6, 2019.
Currently, the bankruptcy trustee is conducting settlements with the Bank's first-priority creditors, whose claims are included in the register of claims of the Bank's creditors (hereinafter referred to as the Register) in the amount of 25.00% of the amount of unsatisfied claims.
As of April 1, 2019, funds in the amount of 3,472,114 thousand rubles were allocated for settlements with first-priority creditors, whose claims are included in the Register, which is 28.03% of the amount of the established claims of these creditors.
For the period from January 1 to March 31, 2019, no new property of the Bank that was not accounted for on balance sheet accounts was identified and no write-offs were carried out.
The bankruptcy trustee, in accordance with the bidding procedure approved by the creditors' committee, conducted electronic auctions of the Bank's property (real estate, fixed assets, rights of claim against legal entities and individuals) through a public offer in the period from November 29, 2018 to March 19, 2019 Based on the results of the auction, 1 non-residential premises and rights of claim to 4 individuals were sold, purchase and sale agreements and assignment of rights of claim were concluded for a total amount of 8,912 thousand rubles.
The bankruptcy estate received funds in the amount of 2,335 thousand rubles, including a deposit in the amount of 644 thousand rubles.
Information on the progress of the sale of the Bank's property
Property included in the bankruptcy estate
Buyer's name
Book value, thousand rubles.
Estimated cost, thousand rubles.
Amount of proceeds from the sale of property, thousand rubles.
Total property, including a book value of more than 1 million rubles:
Rights of claim against an individual, decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow dated December 11, 2017 in case 2-7243/17.
IP Krasavina S.D.
not evaluated
Right of claim against an individual, KD 919084 dated 10/11/2013, Moscow
not evaluated
Right of claim against an individual, KD 919083 dated 10/11/2013, Moscow
LLC LEGAL TEAM "ATERS"
not evaluated
The right of claim against an individual (jointly with Leonid Anatolyevich Dvoretsky), decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow dated December 14, 2016 in case 2-7227/16
Zhuravlev A.A.
not evaluated
Administrative premises - 216 sq. m, address: Smolensk region, Safonovo, st. Svobody, 4/1, 1st floor, cadastral number 67:17:0010343:534, property (356 items)
Tuktarova F.N.
*)deposit is listed.
As part of the work to collect loan debt, the bankruptcy trustee filed 10,588 claims (including 35 non-property claims) in the amount of 60,889,629 thousand rubles, of which 8,308 claims were satisfied in full or in part for a total amount of 34,913 844 thousand rubles, 862 claims in the amount of 5,465,552 thousand rubles were refused, proceedings were terminated or left without consideration, the remaining claims are pending in the courts. Based on judicial acts that have entered into legal force, 11,304 enforcement proceedings were initiated in the amount of 41,159,907 thousand rubles, of which 3,874 enforcement proceedings were initiated in the amount of 23,772,423 thousand rubles. completed by acts of impossibility of collection.
Based on the results of challenging transactions that, in accordance with bankruptcy legislation, had signs of invalidity, 286 applications (including 160 of a non-property nature) were submitted to the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region for a total amount of 6,275,459 thousand rubles, of which were satisfied in full or in part 254 applications totaling 4,458,881 thousand rubles; 28 applications totaling 1,400,738 thousand rubles were rejected or proceedings were terminated; the remaining applications are pending in the courts. Based on judicial acts that have entered into legal force, 341 enforcement proceedings were initiated in the amount of 2,170,639 thousand rubles, of which 114 in the amount of 1,294,403 thousand rubles. completed by acts of impossibility of collection.
Based on the results of the claim work, the bankruptcy estate received funds in the amount of 1,221,878 thousand rubles, including from work challenging dubious transactions - 300,334 thousand rubles.
By the verdict of the Industrial District Court of Smolensk dated September 12, 2016, the former Chairman of the Bank’s Management Board was found guilty of committing crimes under Part 2 of Art. 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, part 2 of Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Part 4, Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, he was sentenced to imprisonment for a suspended term of 7 years. The verdict recognized the Bank's right to satisfy the civil claim, and the issue of the amount of compensation for the claim was transferred for consideration in civil proceedings. By the appeal ruling of the Smolensk Regional Court dated November 30, 2016, changes were made to the sentence, the amount of the imposed punishment was reduced to 6 years and 1 month probation.
Based on the results of checking the circumstances of the Bank’s bankruptcy, on September 4, 2014, the bankruptcy trustee sent an application under Part 4 of Art. 160 and art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on facts of theft of property and deliberate bankruptcy of the Bank and OJSC Askold Bank, which jointly formed the Smolensky Bank banking group. Based on the results of consideration of the application, on May 13, 2015, the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Central Administrative District of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow opened a criminal case under Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The bank was recognized as a victim and a civil plaintiff in a criminal case. The criminal case was combined into one proceeding with one previously initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in a criminal case.
The following criminal cases were also combined into one proceeding with this criminal case: initiated on March 22, 2016 against the director of the Moscow branch of the Bank and his first deputy under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, initiated on April 26, 2016 by the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation based on the results of consideration of the Agency’s application dated February 10, 2016 regarding the theft of the Bank’s funds under the guise of performing debit transactions on the accounts of its clients, initiated on September 8, 2014 against the former Chairman of the Board of the Bank and the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank under .2 tbsp. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the fact of abuse of power when lending to legal entities based on the results of consideration of the application of the Bank of Russia dated April 4, 2014 under Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
In addition, the Agency’s statements dated April 1 and October 6, 2014 under Part 2 of Art. 195 and part 2 of Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on facts of abuse by the Bank's managers of their powers, expressed in the unlawful satisfaction of the claims of individual creditors of the Bank.
During the investigation of the criminal case, the chairman of the board of directors of the Bank was charged in absentia with committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159, part 4 art. 160, part art. 196 and part 2 of Art. 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a preventive measure in the form of detention was chosen against him in absentia, he was put on the international wanted list. A preliminary investigation is underway.
On February 15, 2017, from the materials of this criminal case, a criminal case was separated into a separate proceeding on charges of the first deputy directors of the Moscow branch of the Bank, the head of the legal department of the Moscow branch of the Bank and their accomplices of committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 160 and art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The criminal case was transferred for consideration on the merits to the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow. The next court hearing is scheduled for November 20, 2018.
On December 11, 2017, a statement was sent to the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regarding the theft of funds from the Bank under the guise of issuing a loan to a legal entity.
A statement regarding the abuse of power, which resulted in improper repayment of debt by the Bank borrower, is attached to the audit material.
On January 13, 2017, the bankruptcy trustee sent an application to the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region to bring former managers of the Bank to subsidiary liability in the amount of RUB 13,769,966 thousand. By the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region dated March 6, 2018, the proceedings in the case of bringing former managers of the Bank to subsidiary liability were suspended until settlements with creditors are completed. Also, by the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region dated January 27, 2017, the property of persons held to subsidiary liability was seized in the amount of 13,769,966 thousand rubles.
The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) intends to recover almost 14 billion rubles from the former owners of the Smolensky Bank, which burst at the end of 2013. According to experts who studied the activities of the bank's top managers, its collapse was man-made.
Currently, the DIA performs the functions of the bankruptcy manager of the Smolensk Bank. It was in this capacity that the agency sent to the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region an application to bring the persons who controlled Smolensky Bank OJSC (Anatoly Danilov, Pavel Shitov, Roman Shcherbakov, Mikhail Yakhontov) to subsidiary liability in the amount of a total of 13.77 billion rubles - this is exactly what volume of unsatisfied claims of creditors.
The DIA found that during the two years since the bank's license was revoked, its owners made decisions to provide loans to firms that did not conduct business activities comparable to the scale of lending, as well as to insolvent individuals. In addition, the chairman of the board of the bank, Danilov, and the chairman of the board of directors, manager of the Moscow branch of the bank, Shitov, did not take measures provided for by law to prevent bankruptcy of the credit institution, as a result of which the financial position of the bank significantly worsened.
The rise and collapse of the Smolensk Bank are closely related to the preparations for the 1150th anniversary of Smolensk in 2010-13. On the basis of this credit institution, with the active assistance of high-ranking officials, a multi-profile financial and industrial group (FIG) was formed, which was actually tasked with securing “anniversary” state and municipal orders with a total value of over 16 billion rubles. The administration of the regional center and all municipal enterprises switched to services at Smolensky Bank, the wide business connections of the founders of financial industrial groups contributed to the active influx of new clients, the frantic expansion of the network of this credit institution began, and by November 2013, Smolensky Bank had 16 operational and additional offices in Moscow, three in the Moscow region, 19 in Smolensk, six in the Smolensk region, one in Pereslavl-Zalessky. The quickly created enterprises of the holding began to gradually replace municipal unitary enterprises and win open auctions in batches for the right to conclude municipal and state contracts. In 2010, the financial industrial group actively participated in the elections of deputies to the Smolensk City Council, and its nominees formed a majority in the representative body.
The victories did not last long, and by the celebrations in honor of the 1150th anniversary of Smolensk, the financial and industrial group no longer actually existed. The leadership of the Smolensk region has changed, and it was not possible to establish relations with the new officials. The financial industrial group lost support in the local government of Smolensk, and in the summer the holding officially split into two parts. The revocation of Master Bank's license, which caused Smolensky Bank's ATMs to stop working, was the final blow for the credit institution. In December 2013, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation revoked the banking license of Smolensk Bank, and in February 2014, by decision of the Arbitration Court, the bank was declared bankrupt.
The bankruptcy of the bank caused enormous damage to the economy of the Smolensk region, as clearly evidenced by the above-mentioned volume of subsidiary liability imposed by the DIA on the former owners of the credit institution.
Last year, Danilov was brought to criminal liability for unlawful actions in bankruptcy (Part 2 of Article 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), causing property damage in the absence of signs of theft (Part 2 of Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), was found guilty, but got off with a suspended sentence, which caused a sharply negative reaction in Smolensk. The prosecutor's office of the Smolensk region is studying the possibility of appealing the court decision. Two former deputies of the Moscow branch of the bank, Yakhontov and Shcherbakov, are under investigation - they are accused of embezzlement of 600 million rubles (Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Shitov, the actual owner of the bank, is beyond the reach of the investigation - according to some sources, outside of Russia.
As Kommersant has learned, the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs has completed an investigation into the wanted owner of the bankrupt OJSC Smolensky Bank, Pavel Shitov, and three top managers of the Moscow branch of this credit institution. They are accused of withdrawing more than 600 million rubles from the head office through the capital branch to the accounts of controlled foreign companies, shortly before the collapse of the bank, as well as the deliberate bankruptcy of the Smolensk Bank. Now the persons involved in this case are getting acquainted with the case materials, after which it will be sent for approval to the Prosecutor General's Office.
Criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (misappropriation or embezzlement) and Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate bankruptcy) was initiated against the owner of the Smolensk Bank Pavel Shitov, deputy managers of the Moscow branch Mikhail Yakhontov and Roman Shcherbakov, as well as the head of the legal department Timur Akberov a year ago. The frauds they committed became known during the main investigation into the circumstances of the theft of funds from a credit institution. In addition to the same Mr. Shitov, his defendant was the former chairman of the board of Smolensky Bank OJSC Anatoly Danilov, who was sentenced in September 2016 to seven years of suspended imprisonment for fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), unlawful actions in bankruptcy ( Part 2 of Article 195 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust (Part 2 of Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The investigation into the case of embezzlement or embezzlement and deliberate bankruptcy was based on materials from operatives of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs, who found out that, having learned in advance about the upcoming revocation of the license of the Smolensk Bank by the Central Bank (the credit institution lost it on December 13, 2013, and on February 4, 2014 the bank was recognized bankrupt), its management suspended servicing customer accounts, citing technical failures. In fact, at this time, through the Moscow branch of the bank, the defendants in the case actively purchased unsecured securities from fictitious companies controlled by them, issued loans to fly-by-night companies and alienated the real estate of the credit institution in their favor. In particular, as it was established during the investigation, Pavel Shitov and Mikhail Yakhontov, on behalf of the Smolensk Bank, issued a loan in the amount of more than 600 million rubles to the capital's Unicomfinance LLC, which was not conducting any real financial and economic activities.
At the same time, as noted by law enforcement agencies, the theft scheme was clearly worked out and at first glance, the transfer of money from the bank seemed quite justified. For example, borrowers provided the credit institution with false reports on commercial activities, and bankers who were part of the criminal group prepared deliberately false “professional judgments about the category of loan quality.” The police consider the actual owner of the Smolensk Bank, Pavel Shitov, to be one of the organizers of this crime. However, he was unavailable for the investigation, having left abroad even before the initiation of the criminal case. After the collapse of the Smolensk Bank, his accomplices got jobs at Zlatcombank and the International Settlement Bank. After the arrest, Messrs. Yakhontov and Akberov, at the request of the investigation, were taken into custody by the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, and Roman Shcherbakov was placed under house arrest. Now they are all getting acquainted with the materials of the criminal case, after which it will be sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office for approval. We also note that the court seized the property to which, according to the investigation, Pavel Shitov was related. True, non-residential premises and land plots turned out to be registered to several LLCs and individuals. The ex-banker’s defense failed to prove in the appeal that their client had nothing to do with the seized property.
In total, from 2010 to 2013, according to law enforcement agencies, Smolensk Bank issued obviously non-repayable loans worth 2 billion rubles to six construction companies controlled by Pavel Shitov and another local entrepreneur. Now all these companies are in bankruptcy.
In total, at the time of the collapse, Smolensk Bank owed creditors more than 19 billion rubles, including 12.5 billion rubles to individuals. According to the DIA, as of March 1, 2017, the amount of debt paid to first-priority creditors was just over 2.3 billion rubles.
Smolensky Bank was founded in December 1992 in Smolensk. Initially it was called “Commercial Land Peasant Bank “Smolensky Farmer”. In February 2005, on the eve of the bank's entry into the deposit insurance system, some participants left its capital, and Pavel Shitov became the majority owner. At the same time, the local bank Askold, which was already a participant in the SSV, was acquired and included in the banking group. In December 2009, Smolensky Bank nevertheless received a “pass” to the deposit insurance system. In December 2013, after Master Bank’s license was revoked in November (Smolensky Bank used its processing and also placed several hundred million rubles in deposits with the bank), Smolensky faced financial difficulties and its operating activities were stopped. On December 2, the main shareholder Pavel Shitov withdrew from the bank's capital, while retaining the positions of chairman of its board of directors and head of the Moscow branch. To prevent bankruptcy, the issue of providing Smolensky with a stabilization loan in the amount of 8 billion rubles is currently being resolved by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
Now the main shareholders of the bank are Sergei Bykov (17.64%), Sergei Senin (12.7%), Pavel Strepkov, Svetlana Doroshenko (9.9 each), Valery Voronin (9.88%), Ekaterina Patrusheva (9. 16%), Elena Guskova (9.11%), Mikhail Yakhontov (8.79%), Mikhail Pankratov (8.19%).
Smolensky Bank has a branch in Moscow (opened in 1996), 50 service offices and seven cash desks. The number of personnel is about 600 people. The bank serves over 6 thousand corporate clients, including farms, construction, industrial, oil production, investment, telecommunications, jewelry companies, and, together with Askold, more than 20 thousand individuals, for whom 15 thousand plastic kart.
At the end of ten months of 2013, the assets of Smolensky Bank increased by almost a third, or 8.9 billion rubles. The main influx of assets was provided by household deposits (plus 6.5 billion rubles). The loan portfolio forms almost 60% of assets. Three quarters of the portfolio are corporate loans (mostly for a period of one to three years). The bank issues debit and credit cards and issues consumer loans to individuals. The loan portfolio is covered by reserves by 12%, overdue according to RAS exceeds 3%. The securities portfolio makes up 7% of net assets, including approximately half of which are securities transferred to the Bank of Russia for repo (raising against securities as collateral). There are investments in government securities worth 200 million rubles (less than 1% of assets). The bank's liabilities are 38% represented by funds of individuals, 26% - balances on enterprise accounts, 7% - attracted interbank loans, 14% - own funds (capital and reserves).
A peculiarity of the credit organization is the fairly significant amount of balances and turnover on the accounts of conversion transactions (7-8% of net assets, turnover on them amounts to 650 billion rubles per month). Raising from banks presumably largely comes from the affiliated bank Askold, which also attracts deposits from individuals for the group. It should be noted that in November 2013, Smolensky Bank began the procedure for merging Askold.
In the interbank lending market, Smolensky Bank has been raising funds in significant volumes in recent months, including approximately half of the amount from the Bank of Russia secured by securities.
According to RAS reporting data, at the end of 2012 the bank earned 69.9 million rubles (for 2011 - about 43.8 million). For ten months of 2013, the bank received a net profit of 301.9 million rubles.
Board of Directors: Pavel Shitov (chairman), Boris Pustilnik, Anatoly Danilov, Elena Guskova, Tamara Ermolaeva, Mikhail Pankratov, Sergey Bykov.
Governing body: Anatoly Danilov (Chairman, President), Svetlana Bogdanova, Irina Dolosova, Zoya Kondratova, Natalya Listovskaya, Yuri Petrushchik, Olga Astafieva, Alexander Pyatkin.
Following Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Smolensk resident, ex-owner of the bankrupt Smolensk Bank Pavel Shitov, may also insistently ask to leave Ukraine with his things. During the journalistic investigation conducted by the site, facts were revealed in which he would no longer be able to remain a citizen of Ukraine, and therefore hide from Russian justice.
SHITOV-VIL
Until now, in the scandalous story of the theft of the Smolensk Bank, schemes for withdrawing money from the bank were gradually becoming public knowledge. For the first time, we were able to find out how some of this money, actually stolen from investors, was sold by a fugitive banker.
It is worth recalling that on December 13, 2013, the license for the right to carry out banking activities was revoked from Smolensky Bank OJSC, and by a decision of the Arbitration Court of the Smolensk Region dated February 5, 2014, the bank was declared bankrupt. From that moment until today, the ball of fraud is constantly unwinding, presenting more and more new surprises.
As we managed to find out, in September 2014, Shitov’s accomplice transferred 360 thousand Euros to the fugitive banker (at that time only a citizen of the Russian Federation) through an offshore company. Apparently, using the money stolen from investors, Mr. Shitov decided to start a new life “from scratch” in a European province.
The ex-banker disposed of the money instantly - the next day, September 11, he purchased a villa in the Republic of Latvia at the address: st. Zalakalna 10, Kadaga, Adazi region (cadastral number 00000176057).
Do you want to see what kind of property and surrounding area it is? Please:
When registering this villa, Mr. Shitov, naturally, used a Russian passport. And in the summer of 2015, he also became a citizen of Ukraine. And this is a very important point, to which we will return.
As we reported earlier, in 2016 in Ukraine, Shitov was interrogated by Interpol officers. Then he claimed that he lived in his own one-room apartment in Dnepropetrovsk. By that time, according to him, he had not acquired any other real estate, although he said that he was linking his fate with Ukraine.
And all because, at the same time, Shitov did not forget to apply for a Ukrainian passport in 2015. Maybe just to visit a villa in Latvia, and, if necessary, to stay there for a long time.
By the way, the cost of Latvian real estate provides grounds for obtaining a residence permit in Latvia. Apparently, Latvia is considered by Shitov among possible shelters from Russian justice as an alternate airfield. Why? It will become clearer later.
As for the Russian passport, the ex-banker told Interpol employees that he got rid of it, and he himself does not remember how - either he sent it to the Russian Embassy on the territory of his new homeland, or to the Russian Migration Service. But based on the data we received, Mr. Shitov de jure remained a citizen of the Russian Federation, he remained consciously, with a certain intent, starting his relationship with his “new homeland” with a lie.
SmolDaily is authorized to report
We don’t know whether the banker himself is aware, but he can no longer count on a villa in Latvia.
By a decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow on July 28, 2017, a villa in Latvia, which is still registered on the Russian passport of the enterprising citizen of Ukraine Shitov, was seized.
And such a turn of events, in which the Latvian villa of the ex-banker appears, could deprive the house of cards called “Shitov’s Ukrainian citizenship” from foundation. It turns out that Shitov was violating the current Ukrainian legislation all this time.
The fact is that, according to Article 9 of the Law on Citizenship of Ukraine, a foreign citizen, having accepted Ukrainian citizenship, is obliged to renounce the citizenship of another state within 2 years, if this was not done when acquiring Ukrainian citizenship.
Failure to comply with this condition, as well as Shitov’s concealment from the authorities when obtaining citizenship of information about the commission or suspicion of committing a serious criminal offense is grounds for termination of Ukrainian citizenship.
It turns out that Shitov managed to violate two of these conditions at once.
Firstly, in the current extract from the register of rights to real estate in Latvia there is no record of a change of owner, which should certainly appear when the owner’s passport data is changed. This means only one thing: the ex-banker continues to use the villa on the basis of a Russian passport, which means he retains Russian citizenship. At the same time, it turns out that Shitov is violating other laws by hiding this property from the Ukrainian authorities.
Secondly, as previously reported, a criminal case against Shitov was initiated in December 2014. This means that when he received Ukrainian citizenship in the summer of 2015, he was well aware of this, knew his status within the framework of this criminal case, realized the severity of the charges brought against him, and deliberately withheld information about his unenviable state of affairs in Russia.
To expel Saakashvilli, the President of Ukraine only needed the second part. Our fugitive banker got a “golden double”. Therefore, today the Ukrainian authorities, whose legislation was violated in the most cynical way, have every reason to say to Shitov “Come on, goodbye!” and hand it over to Russian justice.
REFERENCE: The Smolensk Bank case
The court ruling states that the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is investigating criminal case No. 97701, which was initiated on March 17, 2015 (that is, several months before Shitov received Ukrainian citizenship) based on crimes part 4 of article 159 and article 196 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. And the first criminal case against the fugitive banker was opened in December 2014.
Criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (misappropriation or embezzlement) and Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate bankruptcy) was initiated against Pavel Shitov, as well as deputy managers of the Moscow branch Mikhail Yakhontov, Roman Shcherbakov (one of whom is under house arrest in Moscow, and the second in one of the capital’s pre-trial detention centers) and the head of the bank’s legal department Timur Akberov.
The investigation established that when the management of Smolensk Bank learned about the upcoming revocation of the banking license, they deliberately suspended servicing customer accounts, covering it up with “technical failures.” According to the investigation, in fact, “Shitov and Co,” through the Moscow branch of the bank, actively acquired unsecured securities from fictitious companies controlled by them, issued loans to shell companies and alienated the real estate of the credit institution in their favor. The materials of the criminal case say that Shitov and Yakhontov, on behalf of the Smolensk Bank, issued a loan in the amount of more than 300 million rubles to the metropolitan LLC Unicomfinance, which was not conducting any real financial and economic activities.
The court ruling also states that in the period from 2010 to October 2013, Shitov, together with the chairman of the board of Smolensk Bank Anatoly Danilov, entered into a number of loan agreements on behalf of the bank with well-known legal entities in Smolensk, LLC Smolensk Construction Company, OJSC Smolenskenergoremont. , RegionDomstroy LLC, etc. These actions, according to the investigation, led to damage to the property rights of creditors for a total amount of 1.75 billion rubles.
“In addition, in November 2013, Shitov, acting as part of a stable and cohesive organized group headed by him, through abuse of trust, using his official position, committed the theft of funds belonging to A.G. Rshuni,” the court notes. The amount of stolen funds is more than 18 million rubles.
By his actions, Shitov and his accomplices actually created a financial pyramid, which provoked the bankruptcy of the bank and the withdrawal of assets of citizens and legal entities in an unknown direction.
Now thousands of Smolensky Bank depositors are trying to get their money back. A year after Smolensk Bank was declared bankrupt, it had a debt of more than 19 billion rubles to creditors, including 12.5 billion rubles to individuals. In the Smolensk region alone, more than 36 thousand depositors suffered from the actions of the ex-management of Smolensky Bank. Shitov’s seized Latvian villa will be used to pay off these debts. The period for appealing the court ruling has expired.
This is probably not the last property of the ex-banker that will be seized. We continue to monitor developments.
