Tops reset “Plus Bank”
The bankruptcy case of IstokKapital LLC, a former counterparty of Plus Bank, being heard in the Omsk Region Arbitration Court, revealed possible fraudulent actions of the former management of the bank. After their resignation, top managers filed a lawsuit against the bank's successor, Asia-Pacific Bank (ATB) to recover 1.3 billion rubles, which lawyers argue is an illegal claim made possible by past financial schemes.
How the bank became a “deposit vacuum cleaner”
IstokKapital was allegedly involved in gray schemes, facilitating the withdrawal of over 8 billion rubles through affiliated companies, primarily through bad loans issued to connected firms.
In April 2022, bankruptcy creditors of IstokCapital claimed 1.3 billion rubles from Quantum Mobile Bank (formerly Plus Bank), now under ATB's ownership, for subsidiary liability. This claim involves funds from various entities associated with the ex-management of Plus Bank and non-performing loans schemes. Julia KolesnikAs reported by Oktagon.Sibir, the ex-management of Plus Bank, including Julia Kolesnik, were involved in non-performing loan schemes.
The bankruptcy creditors substantiate their claim for 1.3 billion rubles against Quantum Mobile Bank by citing admissions from the General Director of IstokCapital, Viktor Isaev, related to the involvement of Alexander Konopasevich, Marat Nukushev, and others in fraudulent activities at Plus Bank.
Viktor Isaev confessed that he was only a nominal director at IstokCapital, while Alexander Konopasevich and Marat Nukushev were board members of Plus Bank from 2012–2017, with Nukushev’s wife, Tatiana Novikova, actively involved in businesses benefitting from bad loans from Plus Bank.Alexey Parfenov Alexey Parfenov became the owner of 18.43 percent of Plus Bank’s shares and was a member of its board of directors in 2010. By 2011, he was the managing director, but by 2012, the bank's financial stability was downgraded and labeled a “deposit vacuum cleaner.” Parfenov was dismissed from his position in 2017.and Alexey ParfenovAnother senior executive of Plus Bank connected to the IstokKapital case, Alexander Konopasevich , became the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company in 2010 and remained in this role for five years. Before that, he worked at Kazkommertsbank, Eurasian Bank, and Alfa-Bank (Kazakhstan). Currently, the Federal Bailiff Service register shows that he owes 725 thousand rubles in loan payments. In 2021, Konopasevich was declared bankrupt by the court.
Schemes involving loans that were not being repaid Court cases related to Plus Bank and its shareholders uncovered numerous projects that were undertaken while Konopasevich, Parfenov, and Nukushev were in charge. All three individuals had many associated companies, through which it seems that funds from the bank were taken out. Businesses that received substantial loans soon found themselves unable to settle their debts.For instance, in 2013, System INN LLC received 398 million rubles from Plus Bank for constructing a residential village in the Moscow region, and then another 50 million dollars from Tsesnabank. According to the SPARK database, the company was initially founded by Alexei Parfyonov, but in 2011 it was transferred to the adviser to the chairman of Plus Bank, Anastasia Bocharova. Additionally, Parfenov, as an individual entrepreneur, undertook contracts worth 80 million rubles for System TIN. Later, the court determined that the contract was a fake deal, and the outcome of the “investment” in a company associated with the managing director of the structure that issued the loan to it was the inability of System TIN to pay its bills and claims amounting to 5.9 billion rubles.
Shortfalls in Plus Bank’s finances caused by unrecovered loans were often covered by a shareholder – Tsesnabank – through the sale of problematic loan portfolios of an Omsk financial institution using a series of associated legal entities. For example, in 2014–2015, Tsesnabank provided $47.9 million to Upgrade Auto Plus LLC, connected to Marat Nukushev, to acquire Plus Bank’s troubled car loan portfolio from Profekspert LLC. Now Upgrade Auto Plus is also bankrupt.In 2014, a Kazakhstani financial institution granted another $36 million loan to Region-Stroy for the acquisition of 100 percent of shares in Ricom-Plus Real Estate, a closed-end mutual investment fund that owned property in Omsk with a market value of RUB 1.4 billion. Notably, Region-Stroy LLC is linked to several top executives of Plus Bank. This project is associated with Russian Traditions LLC, connected to Nukushev and Parfyonov through their spouses, as well as with Good Television company, founded by Galina Konopasevich.
In December 2016, Tsesnabank granted KZT 510 million to KA Kapital-Invest LLC for the purchase of cars from Profavto LLC and Trade I LLC, which in turn acquired mortgage cars from Plus Bank. Alexander Konopasevich oversaw the divisions of the financial organization for this project. At the same time, until 2019, Alexander Pronyushkin was the sole founder of the company. Information about the case has been publicly disclosed, indicating that his daughter Elena Parfyonova, also married to Alexei Parfyonov, would succeed Pronyushkin.
Plus Bank gave out money, even though its own credit risk department said it was a bad idea. Between 2015 and 2019, they gave 320 million rubles to RK-Trade LLC, a company that sells railway track materials to CIS countries. 115.3 million rubles have not been paid back, and the company is now insolvent. Nukushev managed the companies that got the money through a number of legal entities owned by his wife, Tatyana Novikova.
Several projects were delayed for a few years because the loans given for them were used incorrectly or taken out.
But Tsesnabank helped. In 2017, they increased the capital of their subsidiary from 748.2 million rubles to 4.1 billion rubles and added 3.4 billion rubles worth of shares. Tsesnabank itself had a lot of problem loans, and by 2018, there were so many that the bank was at risk of losing its license. To save the bank, the government had to give them 800 billion tenge.
With all these problems, the Kazakh shareholders of the parent organization Tsesnabank could not have missed the money being taken out of Plus Bank by their Russian subsidiary's top managers.
The next court hearing will be on February 28.
Konopasevich’s debt scheme
The ATB's statement in the case file says that the bankruptcy proceedings were controlled by the debtor, with the aim of total control over the bankruptcy and the possibility of getting rich from the bank's recovery.
The document says that Paploma Holdings Limited Company and Paritet Consult LLC were involved in increasing Plus Bank's capital, suggesting that their claims against the Debtor are related to hidden financial support of the bank.
the document says.
In 2017, a bank from Kazakhstan gave 3.4 billion rubles to Plus Bank by increasing its subsidiary's capital.
IstokKapital LLC's bankruptcy case shed light on the potential fraudulent actions of the former management of Plus Bank, as seen in the lawsuit filed in the Omsk Region Arbitration Court.
