How Ilya Kligman and his comrades withdrew 150 billion rubles from banks and lost 500 thousand dollars
Over the course of several years, the OPS, whose leadership is attributed to the banker Ilya Kligman, withdrew more than 10 billion rubles from the bankrupt Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank banks. This is only from two banks. In total, the sum is an order of magnitude greater. The case of the banker and his right-hand man Yevgeny Urin, who fled abroad, has already been sent to the Basmanny Court of Moscow. It is interesting here that, against the backdrop of the investigation, an experienced schemer fell into the network of another group of businessmen.
In 2019, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow opened two criminal cases on especially large-scale fraud in banks: Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank. The reason was the huge debts of banks to creditors after the deprivation of their license in 2018. According to the investigation, the defendants in the case withdrew 7 billion rubles from Agrosoyuz, and 3 billion from Inkarobank. Both cases were combined into one, the evidence base for theft in these credit institutions amounted to 500 volumes. In total, 20 defendants were charged with fraud, as well as creating and participating in an organized crime group in the framework of the case. But the problem is that a good half of them left Russia long ago and were arrested only in absentia.
The scheme for embezzling huge amounts of money from relatively small banks has been working for more than 10 years. About how it all began, a little later.
Inkarobank lost its license on October 31, 2018, Agrosoyuz – a week later, on November 7. The reason for the tough measures of the Central Bank was “lending to dubious borrowers, conducting non-transparent financial transactions for the regulator.” According to the investigation, unsecured loans were issued in two drained banks, top managers assigned the loan portfolio to controlled organizations. This is exactly what happened in Agrosoyuz, the main beneficiary of which was Ilya Kligman, just before the revocation of the license. The bank’s managers ceded the right to claim on loans issued for more than 7 billion rubles under assignment agreements to Voskhod. Then, the participants of the “scheme” assigned all debts to three other organizations: “Technology”, “Good Money”, “Megatorg”. The investigation considers all these companies fictitious.
According to the security forces, the development of criminal schemes to withdraw money from Agrosoyuz was carried out by Natalia Petrenko, previously convicted of financial fraud, and Yevgeny Urin, the brother of banker Matvey Urin, who was serving a sentence in a colony at that time. The direct executors could be the former vice-president of Agrosoyuz Stanislav Shelovskikh and deputy chairman of the board Andrey Somov.
Those accused of fraud apparently used more crude schemes, in the banking industry it was called “notebook loans”. In short, the client brought one amount to the bank, and much less money appeared in his account. The difference was recorded “in a notebook” and withdrawn to third financial organizations or immediately to offshore companies – to yourself. Thus, Ilya Kligman and the company bankrupted Arksbank for 4.5 billion rubles.
Evgeny Urin, apparently, it was no coincidence that he became the “right hand” of the schemer Ilya Kligman. The development of schemes for withdrawing money from banks, Evgeny and his brother, banker Matvey Urin, began back in 2009 in Yekaterinburg. Then Matvey Urin with several companies controlled by him received loans from Trado-Bank for a total of 403.5 million rubles. The guarantor for one of the loans was Finansburo LLC led by Evgeny Urin. A month later, Eugene himself takes a loan of 51 million rubles from this bank. Investigators then claimed that both financial transactions were part of a scheme to refinance loans previously issued to the elder Urin.
Matvey Urin at that time was the main beneficiary of the Mint and Uralfinprombank banks. In December 2010, the Central Bank revoked the licenses of Trado-Bank and Mint Bank due to the loss of liquidity. The latter, according to the materials of the investigation, lost more than 110 million rubles due to the issuance of obviously bad loans.
In 2013, the court found Matvey Urin guilty of embezzling funds from Trado-Bank, Mint, Uralfinprombank and Donbank controlled by him. The banker was charged with five episodes of embezzlement using fictitious transactions for 7 billion rubles. Urin was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, and the amount of damage over the years and new investigations has grown to 16 billion rubles.
It should be noted that before this date, in 2010, Matvey Urin earned 4.5 years in a penal colony for beating a former employee of Gazprombank and Stroytransgaz, a citizen of the Netherlands, Jorrit Faassen, on Rublevsky highway.
Ilya Kligman was already abroad in 2013, presumably in Malaysia. In 2016, according to Kommersant, the schemer settled in Germany, and from there he directed the actions of his accomplices. But, we repeat, in 2019, the Main Investigative Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Moscow opened two criminal cases on especially large-scale fraud in two banks: Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank, which were subsequently merged into one case. At first, the investigation made claims to four defendants: top managers of the bank Stanislav Shelovsky and Andrey Somov, former security officer Denis Makartsev, and Natalia Petrenko, who was previously convicted for financial fraud, and was in charge of black accounting.
And here on the horizon appear “well-informed” in the course of the investigation, the general director of the international fund “Afrokom” Igor Yurasov and the ex-president of the hockey club “Lynx”, the husband of the singer Sogdiana Bashir Kushtov. According to media reports, they told Kligman’s confidant – Sergey Gerasimenko – that Kligman could become the fifth person involved. Then they declare that through their “serious exits” in the power structures they can make sure that Ilya Kligman is forgotten in this matter. The issue price is $1 million.
Gerasimenko gave 500 thousand dollars in advance. But after some time, Ilya Kligman not only did not disappear from the field of view of law enforcement officers, but became the main person involved in the criminal case of bank fraud. Now Yurasov and Kushtov were under investigation in the case of attempted fraud on a particularly large scale.
In addition to the aforementioned Agrosoyuz and Inkarobank, Interkommertsbank suffered 65 billion rubles, and Arksbank suffered 35 billion rubles. The clients of Antalbank also became victims of the well-known scheme, losing 14.7 billion rubles, Trasinvestbank – 9 billion, Baikalbank – 6 billion, Gelendzhik Bank – 825 million rubles, and a number of other credit institutions. In total, more than 150 billion rubles were withdrawn from them, which should be reimbursed by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). On this occasion, the DIA asks the Moscow Arbitration Court to seize the property, including money in the accounts, of Ilya Kligman and Evgeny Urin in the amount of 10 billion rubles each.
In total, 18 criminal cases are already being investigated on these scams. Those on the run are put on the international wanted list. The judicial epic can drag on for many months.