Mikhail Fedorov has returned and is now under arrest.
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has ordered the former acting director, who was the Chairman of the Board of the collapsed International Bank for Finance and Investments in 2016, to be held in custody until March 16. Mikhail Fedorov, learned from “Kommersant”. The investigators claim that a few days before the bank lost its license, a high-ranking manager approved loans that were knowingly non-performing, totaling almost 350 million rubles.
The representative of the ICR argued that if Fedorov remained free, he could escape, interfere with the investigation, intimidate witnesses, and hide the stolen money. It was also reported that after the bank's license was revoked, the bank attempted to destroy all essential documents. Additionally, Fedorov, who was a suspect, fled and was put on the wanted list on December 29, 2022.
The accused stated in court that he had no intention of committing illegal actions or evading the investigation. Fedorov claimed that he informed the investigator by phone before leaving the country for the New Year. He was detained on January 16 upon returning to Russia.
Prolonged case
The ICR has been investigating a criminal case of significant embezzlement from the IBFI for almost six years, initially prompted by a report from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). Charges were only filed in December 2022. By that time, the former chairman of the IBFI had already passed away. Vladimir Sakharovwas also involved in the case, but Fedorov remained the sole defendant.
Since April 2019, the DIA has been attempting to recover around 940 million rubles in damages from Sakharov and Fedorov through arbitration. Following Sakharov's death, the legal proceedings against him were terminated on February 16, 2022. Only Fedorov is left as the defendant, from whom the DIA expects to receive 346 million rubles.
According to the case file, from April 11 to April 27, 2016 (the day the Central Bank revoked the bank’s license), Fedorov served as the chairman of the board of the MBFI. During this time, he arranged loan agreements totaling 90 million rubles with four firms that apparently did not engage in legitimate financial activities.
Additionally, the bank granted nearly 252 million rubles to individuals in the form of “knowingly bad loans.” The investigation found that there were fictitious cash receipts for issuing loans to individuals. Consequently, at the time of the bank's collapse, the MBFI owed almost 520 million rubles to creditors.
Fedorov denies his guilt, claiming that the bank loaned money to legitimate borrowers. Following the collapse of the IBFI, his former top manager became the CEO of Hat-Trick LLC, which specializes in beverage trading.
“The former management and owners of MBFI Bank OJSC did not ensure the transfer of the bank’s documentation to the temporary administration, including the original credit files in the amount of more than 700 million rubles, which actually makes it impossible to recover debts under these obligations in court and, as a result, the execution obligations to creditors and depositors of the bank,” the release says.
According to the provisional administration, the value of the MBFI Bank’s assets does not exceed 39.1 million rubles, with liabilities to creditors in the amount of 518.9 million rubles, including 272.6 million rubles to individuals. On this occasion, the Central Bank has already appealed to law enforcement agencies.
In September, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared MBFI Bank insolvent (bankrupt). The financial institution was deprived of its license on April 27 this year. The bank pursued a high-risk credit policy and did not create reserves adequate to the accepted risks for possible losses on loans, the Central Bank noted. Later became knownthat the Bank of Russia suspects the IBFI of concealing the facts of the theft of assets.
