The Basmanny Court of Moscow sentenced Grigory Gurevich, the former owner and chairman of the board of directors of Rublev Bank, and Sergey Shapoval, a former member of the board of directors of the bank, to three years in prison on probation. They were accused of particularly large-scale fraud. The investigation believed that in 2015, financiers, by providing a non-performing loan to Mr. Shapoval, stole 98 million rubles from a credit institution, which they transferred to controlled companies for the purpose of laundering. However, in the legalization of funds, the court found Messrs. Gurevich and Shapoval innocent.
Before passing the verdict in the debate of the parties, the public prosecutor asked the court to find the former owner and chairman of the board of directors of the Rublev bank, Grigory Gurevich (he also headed the Nobel Oil oil company at one time), as well as the former member of the board of directors of the credit institution, Sergei Shapoval, guilty of especially large-scale fraud and legalization of criminal proceeds (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and part 4 of article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
As previously reported by Kommersant, a criminal case on the embezzlement of funds from the Rublev bank that collapsed in 2018 was initiated in August 2019. Grigory Gurevich and Sergei Shapoval were initially witnesses. However, at the end of July 2020, both were charged with fraud and money laundering, after which a representative of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR filed a petition with the Basmanny Court for their arrest. The case went to court for consideration on the merits only at the end of December 2021. By that time, the accused had already been placed under house arrest.
In his speech, the public prosecutor asked to sentence Grigory Gurevich to seven years in prison, and Sergei Shapoval to eight years, and also to impose a fine of 1 million rubles on each. with deprivation for three years of the right “to engage in activities related to the performance of managerial functions in commercial organizations.”
According to the prosecution, the money was stolen by issuing a knowingly bad loan to Mr. Shapoval in the amount of 98 million rubles, which the accomplices then legalized.
The defendants and their defense categorically disagreed with the prosecution. So, Mr. Gurevich’s lawyers asked him to be acquitted on the grounds that he allegedly became a victim of Shapoval, whom he trusted too much. According to the lawyers, Mr. Shapoval himself asked for a loan to pay for his business project, and Grigory Gurevich agreed to allocate the money. When the chairman of the board of directors of the bank realized that the loan was bad and he became a victim of fraud, he himself reported the theft of 98 million rubles. to law enforcement agencies.
Sergei Shapoval, in turn, insisted that it was Grigory Gurevich who planned to steal bank funds, withdrawing millions from the institution to his companies, and he himself had nothing to do with this scam. Moreover, he did not even know that such a loan was approved by the bank’s credit committee, since he was not a member of it. The defendant also asked for an acquittal.
However, the court did not believe both, but imposed a punishment much more lenient than the state prosecution had requested.
According to the operative part of the verdict, both were found guilty of fraud, and under this article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the presiding judge appointed them three years of probation. Under the article on the legalization of criminal proceeds, the court acquitted both.
Lawyers have not yet decided whether they will appeal the verdict.
It is worth noting that after 2014, Rublev Bank was actively working in Crimea, but in 2018 the Central Bank revoked its license for repeated violations of the law. After that, the Nobel Oil group became the main asset of Grigory Gurevich, whose companies were engaged in the development of deposits in the Timano-Pechora oil and gas province (Komi Republic).
