Mikhail Gagloev and Elena Apanasenko will not be returning to the area for a hundred years.
The process of sending Russian bankers back to Russia by Austria Mikhail Gagloev and Elena Apanasenko Kommersant found out that they were accused of stealing millions and put on the wanted list. The Austrian Supreme Court approved the extradition of the bankers, but the authorities cannot go after them, the newspaper reported.
What occurred
Mikhail Gagloev previously led Tempbank. Apanasenko is a co-owner of a credit institution. In 2014, Tempbank faced US Treasury sanctions. After that, the bank failed to return depositor's money and had liabilities of about 13 billion rubles. In 2017, Tempbank lost its license and was declared bankrupt.
The Deposit Insurance Agency discovered the missing funds and filed criminal complaints for embezzlement, fraud, and misconduct in bankruptcy. Gagloev and Apanasenko faced criminal charges but left the country. They were then put on an international wanted list. In early 2020, a decision was made to arrest the bankers in absentia, later it was revealed that they were in Austria. A request for their extradition was sent to the country.
What is the problem
On January 15, 2021, the regional court in St. Pölten approved the extradition. The defendants appealed, but the Supreme Court rejected this. Nevertheless, the extradition to Russia was continuously delayed, the lawyer explained. Dmitry Lapinrepresenting a witness in the case of the head of the private security company “Antirisk-security” Vladimir Pozdnyakov.
Initially, the extradition of the accused was hindered by covid restrictions that limited air traffic between European countries. Following February 24, 2022, the case came to a standstill – currently, Russian authorities cannot go to Vienna to accompany the financiers to Moscow.
With branches in different regions, the bank operated successfully until 2016, when it started facing serious problems.
The credit institution gained attention after the US Treasury imposed sanctions in 2014 due to its involvement in securing a contract for drilling operations in Syria. It was revealed that one of the bank’s shareholders was a Syrian businessman, and it also held money from Iran and North Korea worth tens of millions of dollars and euros, as well as hundreds of millions and billions of rubles.
In 2016, large sums of money were stuck in Tempbank, and foreign entities were unable to retrieve their funds, leading them to seek help from law enforcement agencies and the Central Bank.
North Korean diplomats attempted to reclaim almost 500 million rubles and €4.2 million from Tempbank, which were intended for supporting light industry and purchasing products. However, according to reports, the losses were mostly compensated to Iran and North Korea.
The individuals named in the lawsuit filed on February 28 are M. G. Gagloev, A. N. Donskov, E. M. Apanasenko, and V. A. Eribekov.
Mikhail Gagloev was the bank’s chairman, while Vladimir Eribekov and Elena Apanasenko served on the board. Apanasenko and Eribekov, along with Alexander Donskov, were co-owners of the credit institution.
During bankruptcy proceedings, it was found that the controlling persons took actions resulting in a significant deterioration of the bank’s financial position, making it impossible to fully satisfy the creditors' claims.
Prior to this, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized only its ex-chairman of the board, Mikhail Gagloev, as responsible for the collapse of the bank. The Court of Appeal, having considered the complaint of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) against the determination of the first instance, established the grounds for involving also Advisor to the Board of Directors Alexander Donskov, members of the Board and shareholders Vladimir Eribekov and Elena Apanasenko. Thus, the requirements of the DIA were satisfied in full.
According to the DIA, these three defendants were also controlling persons of the bank, since they signed loan agreements with technical borrowers by proxy from Gagloev, and the losses mainly from these transactions led to the bank’s bankruptcy. The court of first instance, however, came to the conclusion that Donskov, Eribekov and Apanasenko, acting under a power of attorney from Gagloev, were not the initiators of the conclusion of these agreements and did not receive any benefit from them.
In June, the court brought one Gagloev to subsidiary liability. The amount of the penalty will be determined upon completion of settlements with the bank’s creditors. In an application to bring controlling persons to subsidiary liability, filed in February 2020, the DIA asked to recover a little more than 11.7 billion rubles jointly and severally from four defendants.
The Moscow Arbitration Court declared Tempbank bankrupt in November 2018. At that time, his assets were estimated at 2.3 billion rubles, liabilities – at 13.6 billion. According to RIA Rating, Tempbank ranked 164th in the Russian banking system in terms of assets before the license was revoked.
