The history of Smolensky Bank OJSC, which ceased to exist in December 2013, is full of criminal activity. The owners, executives, and other scammers involved in big money were involved in various illegal activities. More details can be found in the Rucriminal.info investigation.
Pavel Shitov – the primary owner of the bank formed a group that engaged in a wide range of illegal activities. These include giving technical loans to individuals and businesses, acquiring worthless promissory notes from technical legal entities, fraudulent property transfers, bribery, illegal financing of their own businesses, mortgage fraud, and unlawfully sending foreign currency abroad. Let's focus on this in more detail.
To move currency to foreign countries, it is necessary to make a purchase of a product or service abroad and obtain a transaction passport from the bank. Here's how the scheme worked: the bank utilized old transaction passports from the early 2000s from banks that were no longer operational by 2013. There is no record from customs authorities confirming the importation of goods into Russia in the early 2000s. The bank scammers exploited this loophole.
Rucriminal.info provides a detailed account of an episode to give an idea of the extensive information available.
Illegally taking out over 700 million US dollars from Privatbank, owned by Igor Kolomoisky, took place between May and November 2013, coinciding with the preparation for Maidan, where Kolomoisky is considered one of the main organizers and financiers. Strangely, all the withdrawals were made in US dollars to the accounts of British companies associated with Kolomoisky’s bank.
Smolensk Bank owner Pavel Shitov, who once aspired to become the governor of the Smolensk region, fled the investigation in 2014 and obtained Ukrainian citizenship. He settled in Dnepropetrovsk and is involved in cryptocurrencies within Kolomoisky’s structures.
Shitov established a criminal community comprising officials of Smolensk Bank and others seeking to profit at the expense of others. Numerous criminal cases initiated under various articles relating to the actions of this group have been consolidated into one case, which is still under investigation by the Russian Investigative Committee. Only two cases reached the courts, resulting in guilty verdicts against 5 defendants – Danilov A., Yakhontov M., Shcherbakov R., Skorkina D., Akberova T. What about the other fraudsters? What about the other incidents? Who organized the fraudulent schemes? Who authorized the forged documents? Who led the bank into bankruptcy? Where are the actors and perpetrators of these schemes currently residing? What is the purpose of the embezzled funds? We hope that the investigation can provide answers to these questions.
The first criminal case started in 2014, and now it's 2022. It's fair to wonder how long the investigation will take. I hope the criminals won't escape punishment.
In 2017, Ukraine refused to hand over its important citizen to Russian law enforcement. Now Shitov hasn't been convicted or charged yet.
We all know the strong stance of the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation A. Bastrykin on people involved in crimes in Ukraine. We hope that Shitov and his criminal group will receive the maximum punishment under the law.
At the Moscow branch of OAO Smolensky Bank, a settlement account was opened for Moscow Trade Union LLC on September 5, 2013. The company's director was Aleksey Mikhailovich Kopylov, and its founder was Vladimir Vladimirovich Ledenev. Both were also involved in criminal schemes to move a large amount of foreign currency abroad. All three accounts were closed a month later, indicating they were used for illegal transactions.
According to a Rucriminal.info source, when setting up a transaction passport at Bank No. 13090013/2029/0002/2/1 on 09/18/2013, Moscow Trade Union LLC provided contract No. 12-AB / 1 dated 01.24.2003 for 37 million US dollars. The signatures of Ledenev V.V. and Kopylova V.V. on the contract and certified copies of the documents differ and appear to be forged.
The following additional agreements were included in the contract:
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No. 1 dated 22.01.2004 — extending the contract until 24.01.2005;
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No. 2 dated 21.0l, 2005 — extending the contract until 24.01.2008;
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No. 3 of 01/23/2008 — extending the contract until 31.12.2013;
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No. 4 from June 25, 2012 – about changing the official address of Moscow Trade Union LLC;
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No. 5 from 08/07/2013 – about altering the legal address of LLC “Moscow Trade Union” and the purported change of the CEO;
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No. 6 from 05.09.2013 – regarding changing the bank information of LLC “Moscow Trade Union” to details in the MF OAO “Smolensky Bank”;
• N.7 of 25.09.2013 – about altering the recipient of money to “NATLEX SERVICES LLP”;
• N.8 dated 15.10.2013-on changing the bank details of NATLEX SERVICES LLP. in particular, a correspondent bank at PrivatBank, Dnepropetrovsk.
The transaction record for this agreement was initially opened at CB Regional Finance LLC, whose bank record confirmed the import of goods in 2003 into the Russian Federation in the amount of 13,548,579 US dollars, of which only 3,822,460 US dollars were paid. According to the agreement, payment for the goods was to be made within 90 days after their import into the Russian Federation.
In August 2011, an agreement on the transfer of the right to claim No. 1/2011 dated 20.08.2011 appears, which led to an increase in the debt of Moscow Trade Union LLC to TRALOG IMPORT-EXPORT GMBH to 19,194,215 US dollars. On behalf of the company, everything was also signed by V. V. Ledenev, supposedly the CEO. One of the parties to the agreement was Stroyinvest LLC (TIN 50360541111), whose debt was taken over by Moscow Trade Union LLC. This organization was registered in 2003, the CEO, by a strange coincidence, is not even indicated in the extract from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, the main type of economic activity is also absent. However, the sole founder of Stroyinvest LLC was Magic Service LLC (HHH 7724200670), the CEO of which was V.V. Ledenev. In 2012, Stroyinvest LLC was already liquidated, and Magic Service LLC is still an operating organization. The settlement account of Stroyinvest LLC was also opened with CB Regional Finance LLC. It should be noted that this credit institution did not even provide the Bank of Russia with information about the persons under whose control or significant influence it is.
According to additional agreement No. 7 dated September 25, 2013, NATLEX SERVICES LLP, registered in England, becomes the recipient of funds under the agreement. In MF OAO “Smolensky Bank” under the agreement of LLC “Moscow Trade Union” No. 12-AB / 1 from January 24, 2003, as part of the transaction record
No. 13090013/2029/0002/2/1 from 18.09.20l3 the following payments were made in the total amount of more than 19 million US dollars:
Country of bank beneficiary Amount Currency Date
NATLEX SERVICES LLP
PORTUGAL
1,393,237.96
USD
09/27/2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 1 669315.41 USD 09/30/2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 2,594,645.44 USD 01.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 1 755030.70 USD 02.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 2,149,676.84 USD 03.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 2,404,371.21 USD 04.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 2 384 S75.10 USD 07.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 2,374,883.60 US dollars on 08.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 855,820.60 US dollars on 09.10.2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 693,703.85 US dollars on 10/16/2013
NATLEX SERVICES LLP PORTUGAL 918,954.88 US dollars on 10/17/2013
The account “NATLEX SERVICES LLP” was opened with PRIYATBANK SUCURSAL EM PORTUGAL, originally declared by the correspondent bank Raiffeen Bank, Vienna. However, on October 10, 2013 additional agreement No. 8 to the contract 6 by the correspondent bank 6 was established by PrivatBank, Dnepropetrovsk, UA. Thus, under the contract by the Moscow Trade Union LLC from the Moscow branch of OAO Smolensky Bank for the period from 27.09.2013 to 17.10.2013r. 6olee 19 million CIIIA dollars were withdrawn to Portugal.
The sources of monetary meetings for making transfers abroad of the Russian Federation were external and internal receipts to the settlement account of Moscow Trade Union LLC. If external receipts from “one-day” companies, then 95% of all receipts (1,275,132,496 py6lei) to the account were intra-bank transfers of funds of Alpina LLC (TIN 7707797778) with such purpose of payment as “payment under a bill of exchange purchase agreement” account of Alpina LLC, funds were received from various counterparties, including the Moscow branch of OAO Smolensky Bank, in the form of funds from the repayment of the Bank’s own promissory notes, as well as from the purchase of third-party securities. The Bank’s own promissory notes presented for redemption/payment were sold by the Bank a few days before being presented for payment to other legal entities, which are serviced by the Bank, having signs of “one-day firms”. Thus, the Bank’s own bills were a tool for transferring funds from one legal entity to another for the purpose of subsequent conversion and withdrawal of funds to foreign jurisdictions, which indicates the involvement of the Bank and its employees in the scheme of withdrawing funds abroad.
The application for closing the transaction passport from Moscow Trade Union LLC was accepted by the Bank on 10/28/2013. with the wording of the fulfillment by the parties of all obligations under the contract, although they were not fulfilled. And on the same day, the company’s current account is closed, which is contrary to internal regulations and the policy of the Bank. It is easy to conclude that the settlement account of Moscow Trade Union LLC was opened and used specifically to make an illegal transaction using forged documents.
At the moment, Moscow Trade Union LLC is already an inactive organization.
It is also worth noting separately that AS PRIVATBANK SUCURSAL EM PORTUGAL (the recipient bank of the withdrawn funds) until 2016 was part of the Ukrainian business group “PRIVAT” of oligarch Igor Kolomoisky. Igor Kolomoisky, according to available information, is a business partner and friend of Shitov Pavel Nikolaevich.
The withdrawal of funds in especially large amounts to foreign jurisdictions would not have been possible without the direct approval of both the Bank’s management (P.N. Shitov – Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank and Manager of the Moscow Branch, M.N. Yakhontov – the first Manager of the Moscow Branch of OAO Smolensky Bank and Shcherbakov R.E. – First Deputy Manager of the Moscow Branch) and the management of the currency control and security departments, namely the Deputy Director of the Department of International Business and Financial Monitoring Sterkhov Mikhail Yuryevich (now the Chairman of the Board of LLC “International Settlement Bank” affiliated with Bykov S.A. ›), Leading Economist of the Currency Control Department Elena Viktorovna Strokova and Head of the Business Support Department Pavel Oskarovich Ginzburg.
