In 2008, the owners of JSC STROYENGINEERINGGROUP (JSC SIG) Vladimir Knaus, Vitaly Knaus and Alexey Demyanov decided to acquire a small Kuban bank LLC CB NOVOPOKROVSKY.
According to a source from Rucriminal.info, the decision to purchase the bank was only related to the intention to save and conceal questionable money laundering schemes under agreements with Russian Railways, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, and GAZPROM. Additionally, it was easier to utilize the funds received from investors in their business. Alexei Zavalny, the head of the Energy Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, facilitated the expansion of the business by providing SIG JSC with contracts with GAZPROM TRANSGAZ YUGORSK LLC and GAZPROM TRANSGAZ SARATOV LLC. JSC "Russian Railways" also endeavored, with the assistance of the Pershev brothers, to secure contracts without going through the bidding process.
Vladimir Knaus
Vitaly Knaus with sons Stanislav and Andrey
Alexey Demyanov with his wife Elena Gontareva
The Knaus brothers appointed Aleksey Demyanov to lead the bank, who, along with the financial director Svetlana Simonova and the deputy general director Georg (Grigory) Witt, had the responsibility of overseeing all fund withdrawal schemes and the holding's operations, as well as executing sensitive instructions for the transfer of kickbacks. A. Demyanov chose to entrust the cashing platform, including the forgery of documents, to his wife Elena Gontareva, making her the owner of VK-Consulting LLC, which hired accountants to falsify documents. VK-Consulting LLC was also tasked with forging documents for lending to SIG JSC in external banks. Vladimir Knaus appointed Grunwald Roman to oversee VK-Consulting LLC. As part of the larger plan, LLC "VK-Consulting" found "fronts" and regularly received 15 to 30 thousand rubles. For this nominal amount, they signed documents and bore all the Knauses' risks.
Vladimir Knaus assigned his nephews to the credit committee to maintain full control of the bank and prevent information leaks.
Georg Witt
In the bank, Olga Bogomolova was responsible for managing nominee directors, who oversaw the distribution of funds and the falsification of primary documentation.
The bank's financial director was Simonova S.A.
The bank operated successfully, and the withdrawn funds were used to purchase expensive real estate worldwide.
The bank owners transferred depositors' funds to FININVESTCOM LLC with a nominal director, and subsequently, these assets moved further down the chain. Consequently, a company with an authorized capital of 10,000 rubles received assets worth 2 billion rubles. In SIG JSC, a "Kazanchestvo" was established, led by Alexei Toloko, and cashiers who held "bank-client" keys were subordinate to him.
The bankers believed that investments in oil were the most profitable and appointed Alexander Appolonsky to lead oil trading, yet this was at the expense of depositors. However, in 2014, oil prices plummeted, along with the ruble exchange rate, and the bank went bankrupt.
Vladimir Knaus believed his partners should return all their property due to losses and even filed a criminal case against the oil traders and Alexei Demyanov for giving bad advice. Demyanov was sentenced to 4 years probation for fraud related to stolen funds from FININVESTCOM LLC, and Knaus was considered a victim, despite not investing funds there. It was found that the funds belonged to depositors.
Vladimir Knaus started a company to improve his reputation as a deceived partner, and the Knaus brothers began to rearrange shares in the business. No one planned to return the 4 billion rubles of losses to the bank.
The bank's license was revoked by the Central Bank of Russia on December 4, 2017, as the property associated with the Knaus family, purchased with “technical” loans, disappeared from the bank’s assets, and the bank started collecting funds from the public.
In July 2018, a criminal case was initiated for issuing knowingly bad loans to individuals. The scheme was simple, as the bankers had passport data and signature samples, and the money was issued at the bank’s cash desk to avoid detection.
According to a Rucriminal.info source, one of the “nominals” discovered that he not only worked for VK-Consulting LLC for 20,000 rubles, but also took a 60 million ruble loan, leading to the opening of the first criminal case. Aleksey Demyanov remains on his own recognizance due to strange circumstances, while other individuals involved are fighting off the bailiffs, and the investigation is waiting for the expiration of terms for criminal responsibility.
In September 2019, investigator Kuleva T.A. filed a case after receiving appeals from victims of banker fraud, involving companies OOO SMP and nominee directors of OO REFKOMPLEKT, OOO BAZIS, OOO SERVISNEFTEPRODUKT.
Kuleva T.A. realized that 1.7 billion rubles issued to NGO REFKOMPLEKT, OOO BAZIS, OOO SERVISNEFTEPRODUKT were not the only withdrawn funds of the bankers Knausov and Demyanov. It was established that all debit transactions were made from the building of JSC “STROYENGINEERINGGROUP” during the work of “technicians” in the client bank, which were owned by the bankers.
For instance, the owner of Service-Avtomatika LLC, TIN 6452096651, is actually SIG JSC (TIN 1087746800261), which is owned by V. Knaus. Knaus V. himself gave a non-repayable loan of 257,069,958.91 rubles to Service-Avtomatika LLC, and is in no hurry to return it, as he re-registered legal face on the next denomination.
All loans followed the same scheme: OOO “STROYTEKHKOPLEKT” RUB 190,530,000.00; LLC Domashnie money, RUB 302,091,068.49; LLC “KRAINEFTEGAZ” (LLC “GREAT KAVKAZ”), 278,202,082.20 rubles; LeasingPostavka LLC, RUB 141,735,984.98; OOO NPK Project Engineering, RUB 197,037,810.23
Investigator Kuleva T.A. decided that before retirement it was time for her to work for herself, and a scheme with a pre-trial agreement with Alexei Demyanov was ripe. He confesses in three episodes, Knausov does not give up, and she forgets about other thefts of denominations, which she recommended to forget everything. Deputy head of department 24 ex. “B” GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Shevchenko does not give statements and requests on Vladimir Knaus a move, letting them go in a circle.
So the scheme worked, on June 22, 2021, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Alexei Demyanov to 4 years for embezzlement in three episodes, and his participation in embezzlement through the issuance of bad loans in criminal case 11801450008000335 is completely excluded, like his wife, Grunwald R .Yu., Vladimir Knaus and many others.
Based on the number of episodes and the stable composition of the group, signs of a crime under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in relation to Vladimir Knaus, however, the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation forgot about everything and attributed everything to the financial illiteracy of the Russians.
The Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation inform the victims that the investigator Kuleva T.A. is conducting the investigation of the case, and so far in the actions of T.A. Kulevoy or the head of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation S.N. Lebedev, no corpus delicti for concealing episodes of the crime is seen.
The prosecutor’s office in the SZAO and in the Central Administrative District cancels the deliberately refusing decisions to dismiss the criminal case and makes a presentation to the investigation and operational officers, but there is no reaction. Episodes of embezzlement of funds through “technical” according to the state. contracts are not fully investigated, and at this time they are liquidated through a fictitious bankruptcy.
GK DIA represented by a representative to / from Petrenko A.A. with a statement about the crime, despite the appeal of nominee directors to the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation does not apply. The entire board of directors and members of the credit committee avoided subsidiary responsibility for approving the issuance of NPLs. The application for bringing to subsidiary liability was submitted on the last dates and cannot be submitted again. Here is such a mutual responsibility of the Civil Code of the DIA, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
