Fled to Canada: Russian billionaire accused of embezzlement managed to leave before his arrest
The police managed to find out who was on the list of beneficiaries from theft from the assets of the bankrupt Sudostroitelny Bank (SB-Bank), which amount to several billion rubles.
One of them turned out to be ex-banker Stepan Melkonov, who had previously been arrested in absentia by the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow. The man was in the top management of several credit institutions that had already suffered financial setbacks. In June 2021, being in the status of a witness, Melkonov secretly left Russia. It will be reported that they began to call him for interrogations back in 2020, after which he decided to become a citizen of Canada, and realizing that he was on the verge of arrest, he left the country. With the help of Interpol, it was possible to find out that Stepan managed to visit many countries during this time, including Greece, the USA, Mexico and Armenia.
The arrest in absentia of the fugitive former banker was requested by an investigator of the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow, Kommersant writes. To date, it is in production on a case of a particularly large-scale fraud, in which Melkonov became a defendant. It is also reported that Judge Irina Buneeva found no reason to refuse to impose the most severe measure of restraint on the accused. In the criminal case itself, the fact of embezzlement of the bank’s finances in the course of cession transactions is being investigated. Frauds with the alienation of assets of a credit institution were recorded during the investigation of the main embezzlement case, which was opened back in 2018.
It is worth noting that in 2015 Sudostroitelny Bank was deprived of its license, after which it owed more than ₽37 billion to depositors. But before that, its management made many fictitious transactions, according to which the assets of the credit institution were alienated. Thus, the main building of the bank, located in the center of Moscow, was first sent to a closed-end real estate investment fund, and soon sold to a company that was registered as a front person.
Recall that earlier “Top Secret” wrote about high-ranking ex-policemen who were arrested on suspicion of taking a bribe with an apartment.
