Ilya Kligman and his friends took out 150 billion rubles from banks and lost 500 thousand dollars
Over a few years, the OPS, led by banker Ilya Kligman, took out over 10 billion rubles from the bankrupt Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank banks. The total amount is much greater. The case of the banker and his associate Yevgeny Urin, who fled the country, has been sent to the Basmanny Court of Moscow. Interestingly, another group of businessmen are now involved in the investigation.
In 2019, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow initiated two criminal cases for major fraud in banks: Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank. The reason was the large debts of the banks to creditors after their licenses were revoked in 2018. According to the investigation, the defendants withdrew 7 billion rubles from Agrosoyuz and 3 billion from Inkarobank. Both cases were combined into one, with 500 volumes of evidence for theft. A total of 20 defendants were charged with fraud and involvement in an organized crime group. However, half of them had already left Russia and were only arrested in absentia.
The scheme for stealing large amounts of money from relatively small banks has been operating for over 10 years. The details of how it all began will be discussed later.
Inkarobank lost its license on October 31, 2018, and Agrosoyuz lost its license a week later, on November 7. The Central Bank took these measures due to 'lending to dubious borrowers, conducting non-transparent financial transactions for the regulator.' According to the investigation, unsecured loans were issued in both banks, and top managers transferred the loan portfolio to controlled organizations. This is what happened in Agrosoyuz, where Ilya Kligman was the main beneficiary, just before the license was revoked. The bank's managers assigned the right to claim on loans worth over 7 billion rubles to Voskhod. Then, the participants of the 'scheme' transferred all debts to three other organizations: 'Technology', 'Good Money', 'Megatorg'. The investigation believes all these companies are fictitious.
According to law enforcement, criminal schemes to withdraw money from Agrosoyuz were developed by Natalia Petrenko, a previous convict of financial fraud, and Yevgeny Urin, the brother of banker Matvey Urin, who was serving a sentence in a colony at that time. The former vice-president of Agrosoyuz Stanislav Shelovskikh and deputy chairman of the board Andrey Somov could have been the direct executors.
The accused of fraud apparently used more crude schemes, known in the banking industry as 'notebook loans'. In short, the client brought one amount to the bank, and much less money appeared in his account. The difference was recorded 'in a notebook' and withdrawn to third financial organizations or immediately to offshore companies – to yourself. In this way, Ilya Kligman and the company caused Arksbank to go bankrupt for 4.5 billion rubles.
Evgeny Urin seemed to intentionally become the right-hand man of Ilya Kligman, the person who created dishonest schemes. The Urin brothers started creating schemes to take money from banks in 2009 in Yekaterinburg. Matvey Urin, a banker, and some companies under his control got loans from Trado-Bank totaling 403.5 million rubles. Finansburo LLC, led by Evgeny Urin, guaranteed one of the loans. A month later, Eugene himself took a loan of 51 million rubles from the same bank. Investigators later said that both financial transactions were part of a plan to refinance loans that were previously given to the elder Urin.
At that time, Matvey Urin was the main person to benefit from the Mint and Uralfinprombank banks. In December 2010, the Central Bank took away the licenses of Trado-Bank and Mint Bank because they lost their ability to provide money when needed. According to the investigation, Mint Bank lost more than 110 million rubles because of giving out obviously bad loans.
In 2013, the court found Matvey Urin guilty of stealing money from Trado-Bank, Mint, Uralfinprombank, and Donbank, which he controlled. The banker was accused of five cases of stealing using fake transactions worth 7 billion rubles. Urin was given a 7.5-year prison sentence, and the amount of money stolen over the years and from new investigations has grown to 16 billion rubles.
Before 2010, Matvey Urin spent 4.5 years in a penal colony for attacking a former employee of Gazprombank and Stroytransgaz, a person from the Netherlands, Jorrit Faassen, on Rublevsky highway.
In 2013, Ilya Kligman was already out of the country, likely in Malaysia. In 2016, as reported by Kommersant, the dishonest person settled in Germany and directed the actions of his partners from there. However, in 2019, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in Moscow started two criminal cases about large fraud in two banks: Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank, which later became one case. At first, the investigation aimed at four people: bank executives Stanislav Shelovsky and Andrey Somov, former security officer Denis Makartsev, and Natalia Petrenko, who was previously convicted for financial fraud and managed illegal financial records.
Then comes the general director of the international fund Afrokom, Igor Yurasov, and the former president of the hockey club Lynx, the husband of the singer Sogdiana Bashir Kushtov, who claimed to have inside knowledge of the investigation. According to the media, they informed Kligman's confidant, Sergey Gerasimenko, that Kligman could become the fifth person involved. They then said that they could use their connections in the authorities to make sure that Ilya Kligman is not pursued in this matter, for a price of $1 million.
Gerasimenko gave 500 thousand dollars in advance. However, after some time, Ilya Kligman not only did not avoid the attention of law enforcement, but became the main person involved in the criminal case of bank fraud. Now Yurasov and Kushtov are being investigated for trying to commit a very large fraud.
In addition to the aforementioned Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank, Interkommertsbank suffered 65 billion rubles, and Arksbank suffered 35 billion rubles. The clients of Antalbank also became victims of the well-known scheme, losing 14.7 billion rubles, Trasinvestbank – 9 billion, Baikalbank – 6 billion, Gelendzhik Bank – 825 million rubles, and a number of other credit institutions. In total, more than 150 billion rubles were withdrawn from them, which should be reimbursed by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). On this occasion, the DIA asks the Moscow Arbitration Court to seize the property, including money in the accounts, of Ilya Kligman and Evgeny Urin in the amount of 10 billion rubles each.
In total, 18 criminal cases are already being investigated on these scams. Those on the run are put on the international wanted list. The judicial epic can drag on for many months.
