Ex-banker hiding in Canada arrested in absentia for fraud with the assets of a failed credit institution
Stepan Melkonov was involved in embezzlement from SB-Bank
The security forces found out who was the beneficiary of the multi-billion dollar embezzlement in the collapsed Sudostroitelny Bank (SB-Bank). It turned out to be 54-year-old ex-banker Stepan Melkonov, who was a witness in this criminal case. In 2021, he received a Canadian passport and fled the country, Kommersant found out. Another person involved in this investigation, the former co-owner of SB-Bank Andrey Vovchenko, also settled in Canada.
Stepan MelkonovAt the request of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Tverskoy Court of Moscow arrested Melkonov in absentia. The former banker is a suspect in a case of particularly large-scale fraud. According to Kommersant, we are talking about the theft of SB-Bank property as a result of assignment transactions.
In 2015, the Central Bank deprived the credit organization of its license. After that, she owed depositors more than 37 billion rubles. In 2018, the security forces opened a criminal case, discovering fraud with the alienation of the property of the SB-Bank.
It turned out that shortly before the revocation of the license, the bank’s management entered into a number of fictitious transactions to alienate the assets of a credit institution. For example, the main building of the SB Bank in Moscow on Sadovnicheskaya Street was first transferred to a closed-end real estate investment fund Mart Realty, and then sold to the Akvenga company. This company was registered as a figurehead, the police found out.
The same thing happened with the Moscow shopping and entertainment center (SEC) “Azov”. An institution worth about 2 billion rubles was affiliated with the owners of SB-Bank. The investigation showed that one of the ultimate beneficiaries of the stolen property was Stepan Melkonov.
Since 2020, the former banker has been called in for questioning as a witness. Apparently, having suspected something was wrong, he decided to apply for a Canadian passport and escape from the country, the publication noted. Moreover, he did not get to Canada right away – the entrepreneur managed to “light up” in Greece, Armenia, the USA and Mexico.
During the investigation, it was established that Stepan Melkonov was one of the ultimate beneficiaries of the property stolen from the SB-Bank, in particular the same Azovsky shopping and entertainment center, through affiliated companies.
In 1993, he was chairman of the board of a small commercial Post Bank, which was liquidated by a court decision in 2002. Then he was one of the key owners of Mobilbank. In 2012, due to “high-risk lending policy, placement of funds in low-quality assets and lack of adequate reserves for possible losses,” the Central Bank revoked his license. The police refused to initiate a criminal case on the fact of issuing non-performing loans by the bank to the Deposit Insurance Agency. It should be noted that the board of directors of Mobilbank included Mikhail Nefed, who during the arrest acted as a lawyer for Stepan Melkonov. It was not possible to get his comments to Kommersant. It is very likely that now the ex-banker Melkonov settled in Canada. It was there that, since 2015, another person involved in this investigation has settled – the former co-owner of SB-Bank, Andrey Vovchenko, who is also on the wanted list.
The investigation considers him to be the organizer of fictitious transactions for the alienation of the assets of a credit institution on the eve of revocation of his license. From the documents at the disposal of the investigation, it follows that all the assignment agreements in February 2015 were concluded by Mr. Vovchenko. Three months after these operations, the former top manager, having sold his Russian property, ended up in Canada. The damage caused by them is estimated at almost 6 billion rubles.
As it became known to “Kommersant”, the former director of the lending department of Sudostroitelny Bank (SB-bank) Irina Kukarskaya and her subordinate Sergei Zykov, the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs plans to file a new charge in the near future. Last Monday, ex-bankers were convicted in the case of embezzlement of 11 billion rubles. by issuing knowingly bad loans, now we are talking about the amount of 19 billion rubles. In total, the bankrupt credit institution owes more than 37 billion rubles to customers.
Instead of the nine years in a penal colony requested by Sergei Zykov, the court sentenced the defendant exactly half as much. Note that he has already spent three years and nine months in custody during the investigation and trial, that is, almost the entire period. Irina Kukarskaya, whom the state prosecutor asked to be sentenced to eight years, will go to a colony for only 3.5 years. At the same time, the ex-head of the SB-Bank department was under house arrest throughout the investigation. In addition, the court satisfied the requirement of the DIA to bring the defendants to subsidiary liability, obliging them to compensate the damage caused to the credit institution in the amount of 11 billion rubles.
We also note that now the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia is seeking the extradition from Latvia of the former top manager of SB-Bank Vasily Melnikov. In 2016, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow found him guilty of falsifying bank statements (Article 172.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced him to pay a fine of 300 thousand rubles. After that, the former about. The chairman of the board of the credit institution, Melnikov, decided not to wait for more serious accusations and left the country, settling in the Baltics. Now the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspects him of being involved in multi-billion dollar embezzlement from the SB-Bank.
