Rucriminal.com has already extensively discussed the deceitfulness of the billionaire Mikhail Fridman. This was related to the controversy involving the Ukrainian branch of Alfa-Bank, which distanced itself from Russia, fully supported the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, and labeled Crimea as occupied.
Alfa-Bank was among the first international banks to cease operations in the occupied areas in accordance with Ukrainian law: both in Crimea and in Donbas. The bank stated, “The main shareholder of the bank is Mikhail Fridman from Lvov, who has Israeli citizenship and lives in London.”
The oligarch himself remained silent, perhaps expecting to escape repercussions once again, as they had done with numerous other incidents that were investigated in Russia. However, isn’t it time to hold him accountable? In order to assist Russian security forces in addressing a “Lviv resident” with an Israeli passport, Rucriminal.com begins publishing a significant portion of criminal cases and pre-investigation checks where Fridman was directly involved.
In 2008, the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation unexpectedly received the green light for Fridman. The investigators didn't have to work hard as they had a series of criminal cases in progress that implicated this businessman. For instance, the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation conducted an inquiry into the illegal cashing of billions of rubles, involving Alfa-Bank and its owners. According to evidence collected by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the scheme worked as follows. Billions of dollars flowed from the accounts of numerous one-day firms into several one-day accumulating firms, which had accounts with Alfa-Bank, Uralsib Bank, and Smolensky Bank. Then, the funds were transferred to the accounts of other firms – “garbage dumps”, opened either in the bank “Creditimpex” (since 2006) or in the bank “Intelfinance” (since 2007). Some of the funds were cashed out there, while the rest went to regional banks (primarily in Dagestan) where they were also cashed out. In many cases, regional banks created a false appearance of money arriving and being cashed out, when in reality it did not leave Moscow and was cashed out in Creditimpex and Intelfinance.
Furthermore, the Investigative Committee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation conducted an investigation involving Fridman. It was related to case No. 290838 – regarding the withdrawal of Sodbiznesbank's assets.
The initial case materials stated, “From January 23 to May 12, 2004, the management of Sodbusinessbank LLC intentionally caused the bankruptcy of CB Sodbusinessbank LLC by entering into loan agreements with various firms, transferring 3 billion 337 million rubles from the accounts of CB Sodbusinessbank LLC to result in significant damage to the company.
In 2007, investigators started looking into the close cooperation between Sodbiznesbank and Alfa-Bank, including mutual lending, securities transactions, and an agreement they made in November 2003.
Under the agreement, Sodbiznesbank carried out securities transactions and used a deposit at Alfa-Bank for settlements. When Sodbiznesbank lost its license, Alfa-Bank took $7 million from the deposit to cover Sodbiznesbank’s debts.
Investigators believe that in 2003-2004, the leaders of CB Sodbiznesbank issued unsecured loans totaling up to 3 billion rubles to certain insurance and investment companies to conceal the true state of the bank's solvency.
These funds were then transferred to fictitious firms, which promptly returned them to the bank. The firms involved in this scheme received a commission, and Sodbiznesbank artificially inflated its capitalization. The Investigative Committee found that Veltex LLC, owned by Mikhail Fridman, was among the companies participating in this scheme.
In November 2007, the authorities conducted searches in Alfa-Bank due to these circumstances. They found premises where bank employees handled offshore firms and their documents. They also seized documents related to the state farm “Matveevsky” (CJSC) and the Golden Share fund.
At that time, most of the shares and territories of Matveevsky were owned by Millhouse Capital. Additionally, lands were purchased by Inteko, and Alfa-Eco-linked structures, including Veltex LLC, were involved in fraud, according to seized documents. The investigators point to Mikhail Fridman as overseeing this land project. As a result, in 2008, a criminal case was opened regarding the land fraud.
The KGB of Belarus also caused trouble for the owners of Alfa Group, which handed over to the Russian Federation the materials of its investigation into the distribution of child pornography. From the documents it followed that a website operated on the territory of Belarus that sold products, as well as demonstrated online child pornography. The site was controlled by two offshore firms that the KGB believed could be connected to Alfa-Eco. The Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation joined in the promotion of the pedophilic investigation. In particular, its representatives handed over to their leadership documents on the need for seizures and seizure of information in VimpelCom and MegaFon. The pretext for such events is as follows: payment for views by pedophilic sites is done by sending SMS. Basically, these SMS are sent to Megafon and Bee-line numbers, through which money is debited from the accounts of strawberry lovers and transferred to the creators of such sites. Accordingly, having received information from mobile companies, one can reach the structures that are behind such a business.
This list can still be replenished with a number of tax evasion cases, structures controlled by Alfa Group and its shareholders. As well as an investigation into the theft of two state dachas from the state, worth over $300 million, which since 2005 has been “collecting dust” with military investigators. This story deserves a separate story.
