A banker named Yuri Shutov who ran away is accused of setting up a member of his family for taking 4 billion.
The businessman is accused of stealing 4 billion rubles.
The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has started a criminal case against businessman Denis Pashchenko. He is accused of taking 4 billion rubles from Mezhtopenergobank. The money was sent to the accounts of 14 firms that, as the investigation believes, were controlled by the accused. According to the case materials, Mr. Pashchenko was involved in the fraud by a distant relative – the actual owner and chairman of the board of Mezhtopenergobank, Yuri Shutov, who is wanted internationally.
In May 2018, the Metropolitan Police initiated a criminal case for a large embezzlement from Mezhtopenergobank. This was done at the request of the Central Bank and the Deposit Insurance Agency. The reason was the disappearance of at least 11.9 billion rubles from the credit institution. According to the investigators, the money was taken by making obviously non-refundable loan agreements with people and organizations controlled by the bank's management.
Initially, the ex-owner and chairman of the board of Mezhtopenergobank, Yuri Shutov, and "unidentified persons" were the defendants in the case. The investigation believes that the former owner of the bank was the mastermind behind the crime. The bank was established in 1994 to serve the businesses of the Moscow fuel and energy and gas industries. At that time, its shareholders and clients were State Unitary Enterprise Mosgaz, subsidiaries of Gazprom, State Unitary Enterprise Mosteploenergo, and others.
When the bank's license was revoked on July 20, 2017, the total owed by Mezhtopenergobank to creditors was over 30.6 billion rubles, with almost 25 billion rubles being owed to individuals.
According to the Main Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow, Mr. Shutov, whose criminal group had been operating since February 26, 2014 until the bank's license was revoked, left the country about a month before Mezhtopenergobank collapsed. According to some sources, he is now living in Israel.
A 42-year-old businessman named Denis Pashchenko from Zhukovsky near Moscow was arrested on August 31, 2018. The next day, in the Tagansky District Court of Moscow, the investigation requested his arrest, but the court decided on house arrest instead. Initially, Mr. Pashchenko was accused of large-scale fraud, but it was later changed to embezzlement. According to the investigators, the businessman controlled 14 firms through which 4 billion rubles were taken from Mezhtopenergobank.
During questioning, Denis Pashchenko stated that in 2007, he asked his distant relative Yuri Shutov for a job. Shutov arranged for him to work as a courier at Chief Accountant LLC, which managed the accounts and legal matters for around 30 companies controlled by Mezhtopenergobank. Mr. Pashchenko's duties included submitting reports to the tax office. About a year later, the bank's owner offered Denis Pashchenko a position at one of his companies, Decor-Invest LLC. The ex-banker's relative claims that he was only a figurehead in the LLC and was only required to sign loan documents for his company from Mezhtopenergobank.
However, Denis Pashchenko did not see any crime in the actions of Mr. Shutov, as well as the general director of other companies, against which the investigation had no claims.
It follows from his testimony that at that time the bank was actively investing money in housing construction in Balashikha and Zhukovsky. And since this type of business was not included in the scope of the credit institution, it was necessary to act through third-party firms, which invested the bank’s money in real estate. It follows from the materials of the case that all the firms “carried out real financial and economic activities in the field of construction.” “The scheme worked as follows. All loans were secured by pledges of the same apartments in Balashikha and Zhukovsky, – explained to Kommersant defending the accused Pashchenko lawyer Viktor Borodin. – When the buyer purchased the property, the pledge was removed, and the company returned the loan. After the bank’s license was revoked, all housing sales were frozen, and, accordingly, loans ceased to be repaid. But the investigation does not want to see the fact that the property in which Mezhtopenergobank invested money has not gone away and by selling it, you can pay off all debts.”
According to the defense counsel, this case was submitted to the prosecutor’s office for approval twice, but the supervisory authority returned it to the investigation just because it did not sort out the bail.
In December last year, the case was submitted to the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow. But they decided that it should be considered by the Basmanny District Court, where Judge Irina Zorina forwarded 30 volumes.
