The Meshchansky Court of Moscow has ended the legal process in a high-profile criminal case involving Anatoly Ballo, former deputy chairman of the board of Vnesheconombank (VEB), and Alexander Lepikhov, founder of Arkaim LLC, one of the largest timber processing enterprises in the Khabarovsk Territory.
They were charged with stealing 10.9 billion rubles received by Mr. Lepikhov’s enterprise from VEB as a credit line. The case was dismissed at the request of Mr. Ballo's defense due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The defendants were released in the courtroom.
The Meshchansky Court began the trial in the criminal case of Anatoly Ballo and Alexander Lepikhov right after the New Year holidays, but did not actually start considering the investigation materials in detail.
After three postponed meetings, the presiding judge Elena Karakeshisheva granted the defense's request of Anatoly Ballo and ended the legal process due to the expiration of the ten-year limitation period for the article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regarding embezzlement.
Lawyer Dim Yunusov, who represented the banker, called the judge’s decision “legal and correct.” The defendants were released in the courtroom. “Of course, it would be better if this case did not exist at all,” said Kommersant’s lawyer, but Mr. Yunusov called this option to complete it “a good result.” It should be noted that the proceedings related to the events of the criminal case did not seem to completely cease: VEB, recognized as the injured party, filed a civil lawsuit against the accused for the amount of 10.9 billion rubles, and now will presumably attempt to recover this amount through a civil court. VEB has not yet commented on the decision of the Meshchansky Court and its future actions.
As previously reported by “Kommersant”, former deputy chairman of the board of Vnesheconombank Anatoly Ballo and businessman Alexander Lepikhov were accused by the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation of embezzlement of other people’s property using their official position, committed as part of an organized criminal group (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the investigation, the defendants stole almost all the credit funds allocated with the assistance of Mr. Ballo VEB for the development, and then the rescue from bankruptcy of one of the largest woodworking enterprises in the Khabarovsk Territory at one time – Arkaim Joint Venture. The enterprise, founded by Alexander Lepikhov, received in 2008 the status of an innovative project at the federal level. And four years later, a complex of four timber processing plants with a capacity of 1.2 million cubic meters was launched in the Oktyabrsky settlement. m round log per year.
In total, it was planned to launch six plants, and the total cost of the project amounted to 14.3 billion rubles, while the lion’s share of financing – 11.5 billion rubles – came from a credit line from VEB.
However, the project turned out to be unsuccessful, and after a while Arkaim, whose debts were measured in hundreds of millions of rubles, introduced a monitoring procedure, and then external management. All attempts to revive the project by attracting investors or creating a new timber processing holding, which was supported, in particular, by the former Khabarovsk governor Sergei Furgal, did not bring results.
In the end, VEB representatives filed a complaint with law enforcement agencies. Anatoly Ballo and Alexander Lepikhov were detained on June 3, 2021 and charged with embezzlement. By this time, Mr. Ballo left VEB and went to work at Promsvyazbank.
The defendants did not admit guilt, and, according to Kommersant, during interrogations they connected the failure of the project, among other things, with a jump in the euro exchange rate in 2014 (part of the loan was issued in this currency).
Notethat in 2011, Mr. Ballo became a defendant in a criminal case on especially large-scale fraud committed by a group of persons by prior agreement (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). It was about abuses related to the issuance of a loan in the amount of $ 14 million to the subsidiary of VEB, Evraziysky OJSC. However, the investigation did not establish Anatoly Ballo’s involvement in the scam, in July 2015 his criminal prosecution was stopped.
