Credit verdict: 11 people convicted of embezzlement at the Bank on Krasnye Vorota

Former managers, employees and clients of the Bank on Krasnye Vorota received from 4 years probation to 6.5 years in prison for embezzlement and embezzlement of funds of a financial organization. On December 15, the Basmanny District Court of the capital made such a decision regarding the eleven defendants. According to the case file, they participated in the withdrawal of 250 million rubles from the bank under the guise of issuing loans. However, not all the main defendants in the case were in the dock: according to Izvestia's sources, the investigation considers the co-founder of BNKV, Alexander Petrov, to be the organizer of the scheme. He is currently abroad. How the withdrawal scheme from the bank worked is described in our article.

The verdict in the case of embezzlement from the bank

On December 15, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow convicted eleven defendants in the criminal case of embezzlement at the Bank on Krasnye Vorota (BNKV). The total damage caused to the financial institution is estimated at 250 million rubles.

"The court found that from May 2014 to December 2016, members of an organized group from among the employees of JSCB Bank on Krasnye Vorota... We have concluded nine loan agreements on behalf of the bank," the Prosecutor General's Office said after the verdict was announced. "At the same time, they involved the bank's clients in these activities by arranging the issuance of deliberately non-repayable loans."

Andrei Sinitsyn, chairman of the Board of BNKV, received the harshest sentence — 6.5 years in prison and a fine of 1 million rubles. His wife, Oksana Sinitsyna, head of the credit department, was sentenced to five years in a penal colony and fined 800,000.

The first deputy chairman, the son of BNKV co-owner Alexander Petrov, Sergey Petrov, was sentenced to six years in a penal colony and a million-dollar fine. And his ex—wife and bank client Olga Petrova received a suspended sentence of four years. She was also fined 500 thousand rubles.

According to a source in law enforcement agencies, the organizer of the scheme was the co-owner of the bank, Alexander Petrov: he chose people loyal to him, issued cash loans to them, and took the money for himself.

In 2017, the central Bank sent an application to law enforcement agencies with a request to verify the legality of loans issued by BNC. The regulator was refused 20 times, and the case against Petrov was initiated only in 2023. Petrov Sr. is now on the international wanted list.

According to a source in Izvestia, Petrova's father and son, as well as the Sinitsyns, influenced the issuance of nine deliberately non-repayable loans to several employees and two clients, although their financial situation obviously did not allow them to return the money. At the same time, according to the source, the BNKV employees were aware of the illegality of their actions, but had a selfish motive.

For example, when Sinitsyn received a power of attorney from Petrov Sr. to conclude transactions on behalf of BNKV, he lobbied for the appointment of a subordinate to the position of chairman of the management board. Sinitsyn then issued a power of attorney for Petrov Jr. so that the son of the bank's co-owner could also manage the organization's property. As a result, the bank issued deliberately non-repayable loans.

And Oksana Sinitsyna organized formal inspections of technical borrowers — front persons who provided loans. The woman had to keep records of loans issued to technical borrowers and monitor the timely repayment of interest on them. This was necessary to conceal the traces of the crime and make it appear that the loans were legitimate.

Who else was convicted in the case

In addition, the court sentenced Valentina Yakushkina, the head of the cash register, to four years in a penal colony and a fine of 500 thousand rubles. Andrey Chernyavsky, the bank's client, Alexey Mitrokhin, Deputy Director of the Investment Projects Department at BNC, and Vasily Yakunin, the bank's system administrator, received a similar punishment.

Andrey Lapovok, head of the Information Technology Services Department, Marina Korotaeva, Secretary of the Management Board, and Lyudmila Puzenkova, an expert in the bank's depository accounting sector, received four years probation and a fine of 500 thousand rubles.

All the defendants are required to jointly cover the damage in the framework of a civil lawsuit — more than 161 million rubles. Their property remains under arrest.

As a source told Izvestia, Yakushkina's cashier "manipulated" the cash register in order to repay loans ahead of schedule, in particular, this was the case with Puzenkova's debt.

According to the source, Petrov attracted technical borrowers right up to the revocation of the bank's license in order to grow the bank's loan portfolio, which generates the main profit. However, in fact, such actions worsened the financial situation of the organization. In total, the organized criminal group received more than 556 million rubles, but they repaid part of this amount in order to create the appearance of legitimate activities.

On the eve of the license revocation, technical borrowers transferred their debts to Petrov Sr.: more than 197 million rubles of principal and more than 6.5 million rubles of interest and other payments.

On December 29, 2016, the Bank of Russia revoked the license from BNKV due to a "real threat to the interests of creditors and depositors." The regulator found out that the organization "pursued a high-risk credit policy related to the placement of funds in low-quality assets." They could not pay their creditors on time and were under threat of bankruptcy, having lost 370 million rubles of customers. A few months later, the bank was declared bankrupt.

Puzenkova's lawyer, Sergey Loginov, told Izvestia after the court's decision was announced that the borrower should not be responsible for obtaining a loan.

— The bank should control whether it is possible to issue a loan or not. The bank can be punished for giving money. And those people who have received a loan based on the permission of the credit committee have nothing to judge," he said.

He also noted that his client specifically repaid the entire loan with interest.

Was there any intent

The amount of 250 million is not too significant even within a small bank, Vladimir Sobolev, a lawyer at the Moscow Regional Bar Association, pointed out.

— Based on the emerging picture, it does not seem that any of the managers had a direct intention to harm the bank. I can assume that from 2014 to 2016, the owner took actions, even if they were wrong, to save his bank, but they were not successful. Because of this, the Central Bank revoked the license," said Vladimir Sobolev.

Lawyer Ekaterina Alicheeva noted that the bank's employees are not prohibited by law from taking loans from the financial institution where they work. However, the requirements for all borrowers must be met. She also recalled that Alexander Petrov had signed an agreement to transfer the debt of individuals to himself. Thus, he "partially secured them with a pledge of personal property."

Since Petrov Sr. did not repay BNKV's debts, in 2017 the bank applied to the arbitration court for bankruptcy of its co-owner.

— Currently, the bankruptcy procedure for Alexander Petrov has not been completed, the debts have not been written off, — Ekaterina Alicheeva said.

Thus, the register of creditors' claims now includes the claims of the Bank at Krasnye Vorota for a total amount of more than 276.4 million rubles, of which only 52.9 million claims are secured by a pledge of the debtor's property.