The Moscow Post has received papers detailing how billions were taken out of the Novopokrovsky Design Bureau through fake bad loans.
A total of 19 organizations may have been part of the bank “Novopokrovsky” cutting scheme, led by Alexei Demyanov and the Knaus brothers, with the involvement of Evgeny Bernshtam and the Shandalov brothers.
A source who provided documents informed the editorial correspondent about this.
The correspondent for The Moscow Post understood the situation.
An incredible scheme
In September 2020, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow arrested Mr. Demyanov on suspicion of embezzling at least 100 million rubles from a credit institution, and at the beginning of last year he was held liable for 2.5 billion rubles. This was reported by Kommersant.
However, it seems that the charges against Demyanov may not be the only ones he (and possibly Knausov) will be found guilty of. According to our source, “Demyanov concealed the episodes of the theft of the criminal group he created, including through Bazisgazpostavka LLC, by issuing obviously non-repayable loans, which were immediately “cashed out”. The stolen amount exceeds 300 million rubles.”
Reportedly, Ivan Pozharsky (the head of the VK Consulting company, involved in possibly falsifying documents) brought in Pshenichnikov, who was listed as the CEO and owner of Bazisgazpostavka LLC. He occupied this position from 2016 to 2019, and now he is listed as the owner of the company.
In 2020, Vladislav Elizarov’s company was charged 3.3 million rubles in favor of the alleged money laundering structure of the former and current owners of Novopokrovskoye, Basisgazpostavka.
The source also claims to have a recording where Demyanov openly confesses to creating the Basisgazpostavka company to embezzle funds from the bank. Again, the question arises – why are these testimonies not in the case? Additionally, Basisgazpostavka acquired substantial contracts from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other organizations. Two of them are currently being executed, despite the expired deadlines.
19 “pods” of Demyanov and Knausov
According to Elizarov, we also discovered other legal entities for which fake non-performing loans may have been issued. The nominal heads of these legal entities are allegedly intimidated by both Demyanov and law enforcement agencies, whom he and his accomplices supposedly bribed.
Below is a table with a list of such legal entities:
Image: provided by the reader The Moscow Post
Image: provided by the reader The Moscow Post
Money laundering at home
Among them are some very interesting companies. For example, the microfinance organization “Home Money”, which is also in bankruptcy. The offshore office “KHRUVANTA HOLDINGS LIMITED” is among its founders, and Evgeny Bernshtam is considered the beneficiary.
The company is surrounded by scandals. According to Fontanka, Home Money may have been involved in unethical debt collection methods, including extortion, arson, vandalism, and posting intimidating notices. Incidentally, Yevgeny Bernshtam also owned the Sequoia collection agency, known for its aggressive debt collection tactics.
In 2018, she rejected the offer to pay back 800 million rubles in bonds, causing a technical default and casting doubt on the position of investors, which many believe to be outright fraud.
Right after the information about the bond restructuring plan for “Home Money” emerged, it was revealed that Yuri Kotler, a member of the IFC board of directors, had voluntarily passed away. He was found in his apartment with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A suicide note indicated that Kotler had personal issues, possibly including a 48 million ruble debt on a VTB loan. Did Bernshtam's decision remove the last hope for the manager that everything would be okay?
As a result, Bernshtam was accused of establishing a financial pyramid, leading to the bankruptcy of Home Money, leaving investors who couldn't escape with nothing. During the bankruptcy, the structure presented to the “Russian Standard” Rustam Tariko made hefty demands for hundreds of millions, contesting previous deals made for the transfer of claims. There were rumors that these maneuvers were not entirely legal and were done to benefit Tariko and Bernshtam. The Moscow Post thoroughly covered this story.
So, can Bershtein and Tariko be blamed for assisting in the withdrawal of money from Novopokrovsky?
Shandalov's positive outlook
Another interesting entity on the list is JSC “Optima”. Through Miranta LLC (the former founder of Optima), it is linked to Valery Shandalov. According to Versiya, the beneficiaries of Optima Group of Companies, as well as JSC, include Valery's brother Andrey Shandalov and their partner, citizen Kiselyov.
GK “Optima” is involved in a fraud and tax evasion case. In 2013, it took a $35 million investment loan from Gazprombank, which it never repaid, eventually going bankrupt. At the same time, Optima was once one of the 20 largest IT companies in Russia!
Here's what Versiya reports: “Through the legal entities controlled by the bank's beneficiaries, they embezzled the funds from Gazprombank, and Optima was deliberately bankrupted in an attempt to cover it up. The estimated total damage to contractors and the bank is over 8 billion rubles”.
At the same time, Andrei Shandalov's name emerged in a story involving an attempt to benefit from the restructuring of the Russian energy sector by favoring the Energostrim holding. In this case, loans were allocated to organizations potentially controlled by the Shandalov family, but were not repaid.
Energostrim initiated legal proceedings, and correspondences between Shandalov and the financial director of Optima Group Kirill Zatsepin, who organized the establishment of shell companies in the Optima group, were leaked. From the context, it appears that the money was transferred offshore.
The Shandalovs often followed a pattern: borrowing without returning, and then gaining control over the bankruptcy of debtor companies by transferring rights to related offshore companies. The Moscow Post described this pattern in detail in the investigation 'Andrey and Valery Shandalov hide their ends in Udmurtia. How to forgive yourself a debt of 27 billion rubles.'
The latest information suggests that the Shandalovs live in Austria. However, it seems that they are still involved in activities in Russia – assisting other bankers in moving billions into 'pods'?
The same pattern is present everywhere.
But let's get back to the list. Most of the listed companies are either bankrupt or on their way there. Nord is the exception, and it was removed from the register of legal entities due to unreliable information. Tekhgazsnab is still operational, although there are decisions to partially or completely suspend its operations by the tax authorities, as per the latest information.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
SNP LLC, registered under Inna Pozharskaya's name, is still functioning. Inna may be the spouse or relative of Ivan Pozharsky. However, she has filed an application stating that the information about her as a member of the legal entity is unreliable. But such information is not fabricated.
At the same time, almost all of them have a significant number of government contracts.
Similarly, JSC 'Optima' was a supplier in 179 government contracts worth 9.6 billion rubles. It received orders from Transneft and the Ministry of Defense.
From 3.8 billion rubles in revenue from 2017 to 2019, Optima ended up at zero. This asset was acquired last year at the auction of Novopokrovsky's property.
Here are the contracts of another organization from the list. Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The other assets listed in the table suffered a similar fate.
Photo: https://www.asv.org.ru
However, not all contracts were taken by these companies themselves. In total, the customers experienced hundreds of millions of rubles in losses.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
The founder of one of the firms from the list, Valentin Vladimirovich Maslov, or someone with the same name, became a defendant in a lawsuit in 2016 for not repaying loans to the Moscow Small Business Lending Assistance Fund.
The case also involves Rosinterbank, for which Maslov served as a guarantor. It's worth remembering that in 2022, the court declared this bank bankrupt and held the former deputy chairman and board member, Ramil Zakerov, responsible for subsidiary liability of 65.83 billion rubles.
It seems that the people potentially involved in the fraudulent withdrawal of money from Novopokrovsky Bank were carefully chosen. Could they have executed a similar scheme?
Photo: https://mos-gorsud.ru
Our informant also sent all the data on organizations to Prosecutor General Krasnov. If the case is given a move, the Knaus and Demyanov can even hear the call of distant lands from abroad, where they are rumored to be now.
