The Kalininsky District Court of Tyumen today passed a sentence on the ex-deputy chairman of the Siberian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inessa Brandenburg, accused of “theft of the century.” The court sentenced her to 4 years and 10 months in prison to be served in a general regime correctional colony. In addition, Brandenburg will have to return, in solidarity with Gorbonosov, Kuznetsov and Manuilov, about 545 million rubles, taking into account the amount of damage partially compensated by them.
Kommersant.Ru, 03/15/2023, “The financier promised not to steal anymore”: The Siberian Bank for Reconstruction and Development was opened in Tyumen in December 1990. Among the co-owners of the credit institution were Reskom-Tyumen LLC (19.92%), the wife of ex-deputy of the regional Duma Sergey Korobov Natalya Korobova (19.25%), ex-chairman of the board of the bank Grigory Romanyuta (14.29%), Alexey Lebzak (15.61%), Natalya Kobzeva (15.47%) and Alexander Nikulin (15.46%). In February 2018, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation revoked the license from the SBRR, and in March of the same year the bank was declared bankrupt.
In January, Romanyuta and Brandenburg received money from the Ural State Central Bank of the Russian Federation under the pretext of an expected outflow of customers due to lower rates. The cash desks of the SBRR were replenished with funds, and later Inessa Brandenburg took them from the store, putting office items in their place. […] Today, the ex-head of the bank gave the last word in court. She once again reminded that she fully admits her guilt, and asked for forgiveness from “everyone to whom she caused so many problems, troubles, pain.” […]
“Everything that has happened in my life since January 2018 is punishment for a crime, and I understand that. For three and a half years I was afraid of every knock on my door. The money that I received from the crime, ironically, was stolen from me. She became seriously ill and underwent surgery. The disease does not exclude relapse at any time. I assure you that in these five years I fully realized what I had done. And more than anyone, I blame myself for what happened,” said Inessa Brandenburg. She asked the court “not to punish excessively severely” and to believe in her “sincere repentance.” The woman added that she wants to live next to her son, a student studying in Berlin, who “really needs” her, since they have no other close relatives. — Inset K.ru
Under the pretext of paying depositors, Romanyuta and his accomplice organized the replenishment of the bank’s cash desk from the Ural Main Department of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation in the amount of 561 million rubles. In order not to arouse suspicion, on January 18, 2018, Romanyuta went on vacation and left Tyumen, and ordered his accomplice, Brandenburg, to act as chairman. The second deputy chairman of the bank, the chief accountant were sent on vacation, and the head of the cash operations department was sent on a business trip.
“Theft of the Century”
On the evening of January 26, Brandenburg, acting chairman of the board of the bank, took the second keys to the safe from the cashier and, with the help of accomplice Sergei Kuznetsov, took out nine sports bags with money from the cashier. On the night of January 27, she went to Roschino airport in a black Toyota Camry, where a previously specially rented Yak-42 plane was waiting for her with the Tyumen-Moscow route.
On the way to Roschino, Brandenburg, through a courier unknown to the investigation, gave Romanyuta six bags containing 350 million rubles. She took about 100 million rubles for herself and flew to Moscow. The remaining money was shared by the other participants in the crime.
Technical performers tied up immediately
The crime became known after the weekend, and a criminal case was initiated on the fact of the theft on an especially large scale. Suspicion immediately fell on the chairman of the board of the bank and the disappeared Brandenburg. Soon, the operatives detained the technical executors of the “theft of the century” – Muscovite Dmitry Manuilov, Orenburger Sergei Kuznetsov and Igor Gorbonosov from St. Petersburg. The Kalininsky District Court found them guilty of the theft committed by an organized group on an especially large scale and sentenced them to three years in prison to be served in a general regime correctional colony. However, the prosecutor’s office considered this punishment too lenient and inadequate for the crime committed – “theft of the century” with causing damage in the amount of more than 560 million rubles.
In March 2019, the collegium of the Tyumen Regional Court for Criminal Cases granted the appeal of the prosecutor’s office and sentenced Manuilov to 4 years in prison with a sentence to be served in a general regime correctional colony. In addition, the court clarified the amount recovered from the convicts in favor of the bank – a little more than 557 million rubles.
URA.ru, 02/03/2023, “Millions stolen from a Tyumen bank buried in a Moscow park”: Part of the money stolen by Inessa Brandenburg from the Siberian Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2018 was buried in one of the Moscow parks. A package containing 100,000 euros was found there. This became known during the court session, where the URA.RU journalist is present. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation as of February 3, 2023, this amount is equivalent to 7 million 695 thousand rubles.
“At the pond of the southwestern forest park of Moscow, the witness suggested going inside the forest. Forty meters north of the specified tree at a depth of 20-30 cm, a black polymer bag with a marking was found. The bag contained a pile of cash in a foreign currency – the euro. There are 1,000 100 euro banknotes in total. That is, 100 thousand euros,” it became known from the case file. — Inset K.ru
Interpol returned the fugitive
The organizer of the “theft of the century” Grigory Romanyuta and his accomplice Inessa Brandenburg, who were put on the wanted list, fled abroad and were put on the international wanted list. However, on July 27, 2021, Interpol officers detained Inessa Brandenburg in Spain and at the Madrid airport handed over to the Russian police for extradition to Tyumen to the initiator of the search.
nashgorod.ru, 03/15/2023, “Inessa Brandenburg, who stole 560 million from the bank, was given the last word”: Who is Inessa Brandenburg. The woman was born in 1969 in Irkutsk. In 1991 she graduated from the local Institute of National Economy with a degree in finance. Until the 2000s, she worked in Irkutsk financial and timber companies. In 2009, she was appointed manager of the Irkutsk branch of OJSC Bank Otkritie.
Even then, local media wrote that the woman was not clean-handed. It was assumed that she helped to get loans for large amounts, after which she helped write them off, of course not without her own benefit. In 2013–2015, she already served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Management Board of BaikalInvestBank OJSC. In 2015–2017, she served as General Director of the Grinewald logging company.
Acquaintance with Tyumen Grigory Romanyuta, Chairman of the Board of the Siberian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (SBRR), fell on 2017. The businessman offered the woman a job. […] Brandenburg was appointed vice-chairman. However, she had to wait for Romanyuta to buy out the bank. The purchase deal was not actually planned, but the new employee was tormented for a long time with promises of an early purchase.
Later, Brandenburg directly stated that no one would buy the bank, Romanyuta and Manuilov decided to offer the woman more favorable conditions. We met an employee at the Tyumen Hilton hotel and said that the license of the purchased bank was about to be revoked, which means that she would be blacklisted and her career would end. Then Inessa Brandenburg received a proposal for a robbery. The woman also agreed. — Inset K.ru
@banksta, 07.03.2018 12:26: A hole in the capital of the Siberian Bank for reconstruction and development. Its owners are the family of the former deputy mayor of Tyumen, ex-deputy of the Tyumen Duma Sergei Korobov. He is on the international wanted list through Interpol. Another co-owner of the bank was the family of Elena Romanyuta, Vice-Rector of the Tyumen Industrial University, she was convicted of abuse of power.
The collapse of the SBRR was associated with large securities transactions at the end of December 2017: liquid assets were replaced by obviously bad ones. Half a billion rubles disappeared from the bank’s cash register. Chairman of the Board of the SBRR Grigory Romanyuta, former deputy chairman of Tyumenenergobank. This bank also quickly lost liquidity due to dubious transactions and owed creditors almost 10 billion rubles. — Inset K.ru