An acquaintance of the ex-Minister of Agriculture of Mordovia, Yuri Medyankin, can help the Khotimsky brothers from Sovcombank to take away the only housing from people using credit schemes.
Artegofinance, an office that, according to our readers, brings people to Sovcombank, brothers Dmitry and Sergey Khotimsky, where deals are made with them, resulting in the loss of an apartment by people, can be directly connected with Sovcombank through the son of the former head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Mordovia Yuri Medyankin. Details are in The Moscow Post.
Tandem of Sovcombank and Artegofinance
As The Moscow Post wrote, Artegofinance, owned by Yegor Shtrak, places aggressive advertising on the Internet, collects insolvent citizens from the entire market, but who have housing, and takes them to Sovcombank for a loan secured by an apartment, a source told the Editorial Office, who introduced himself as a victim of fraudulent scheme.
For the period from 2020 to 2021, the organization earned 22 million rubles and, as a source told us, as a result, it exchanged an office in two rooms in an old business center for several premises in Moscow with such a finish that they can be confused with a “daughter” ” Transneft.
The story connecting Artegofinance with Sovcombank looks like this: people who find themselves in a situation in which they are forced to take out a loan (sick, large families, unemployed) come to Artegofinance, where they are told something like : “Everything is bad with you, banks will not give a loan, but there is one that is ready. In Sovcombank, on the security of an apartment, you will receive money on favorable terms.
Further, everything unwinds rapidly – “their own” appraiser comes, concludes that the apartment is worth a pittance in comparison with the adequate market price, a loan is issued, the client is declared that at a conditional 27%. Then, in fact, it turns out that there are at least two times more interest there, and even after the lapse of time, consumers have huge debts to the bank, for which an apartment is eventually taken. We talked in detail about how this happens – in a series of publications.
And just the other day, we still received documents from which it indirectly follows that Sovcombank enters into a loan literally according to the phone number and date of birth. This means that anyone who knows them can manage the loan. By the way, apparently, far from all bank employees have access to these offers, because on the hotline of a credit institution, one of the victims was told that she had no credit at all, although she regularly serviced the contract, monthly paying “bribes” to cash desk of Sovcombank.
Where do the threads lead
Let’s get to the heart of the matter. We have already assumed that the bank can be “protected” both in the law enforcement agencies of Russia, and in the Central Bank and even in the Ministry of Economic Development. The first follows from the documents provided to us, replies from law enforcement agencies, which we published in the investigation “Va-Bank Khotimsky: who helps Sovcombank to take away clients’ apartments.”
The second is from the fact that, despite a series of scandals, the Central Bank somehow, to put it mildly, does not really seek to cover up the bank. The last one comes from the fact that the former employee of Sovcombank, Petr Zaselsky, from December 26, 2018 to March 2021, served as one of the Deputy Ministers of Economic Development of the Russian Federation.
As the correspondent of The Moscow Post managed to find out, in addition to the information already available, the Sovcombank members themselves could act as the founders of the already mentioned Artegofinance, and here’s why. Its founder, the already mentioned Mr. Shtrak, was also the founder of the NGO OZPP “Public Initiative”. This organization, by the way, positions itself as a society for the protection of consumer rights. Very ironic, considering Strack’s current activities.
So, along with Shtrak, the founders there were gentlemen Yuri Medyankin and Armen Melikyan. As for the latter, in 2017 he was elected to the deputies from the “Party of Growth” in the Moscow region – the relevant information is on the website of the Russian encyclopedia of candidates.
Yuri Medyankin is an even more interesting subject. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, this is the name of the ex-head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Mordovia, who was detained in 2021 for taking a bribe. He was also charged with fraud and abuse of power.
The patronymic of the unlucky official is Vasilyevich. So, the founders of the “Public Initiative” most likely include his possible son, Yuri Yuryevich. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that if you look at the state contracts of Sovcombank, you can easily and naturally find 56 (!) Orders that were supposed to be executed for the Ministry of Finance of Mordovia.
Interestingly, the date of the last contract is mid-2020, and Yuri Medyankin was detained in April 2021. And the last 10 identical contracts concluded on the same date, worth 14 million rubles, were terminated just a couple of months after that. It seems that there is where to dig for the security forces.
In total we have
Returning to Artegofinas, let’s loop through the meaning of the above: Mr. Shtrak could do business together with the son of the disgraced minister of the Ministry of Agriculture of Mordovia, who, perhaps, together with Sovcombank, took money out of the budget. Therefore, this is precisely why Strack could become the founder of this delightful helper organization, which brings the so-called “loan suicide bombers” to Sovcombank.
As for the “Public Initiative”, it is possible that it has become a kind of “pod” for the withdrawal of money from the same regional branch of the “Party of Growth”, the chief of staff of which was Mr. Melikyan. Subsequently, according to Rusprofile, he moved to the chair of the chairman of the board of the regional branch of the Grani party. In 2019, the office was closed, and Shtrak went to work on Artegofinance.
He received the company from a certain Alexei Chernov. He also worked with Chernov Artem Alekseevich in the “Public Initiative”. Which once again confirms that Artegofinance was founded by people from that cohort.
Frightened “ears tucked in”
The editors have at their disposal an audio recording in which a person named by our source Yegor Shtrak offers money to the victim, who is too zealously defending her rights, to hush up the case, so that she stops trumpeting to all instances about what is happening.
Apparently, despite the possible good cover in a row, Sovcombank – Artegofinance is afraid for its money. After all, if everyone around them finds out, it’s not even an hour, not only will they stop going to the bank and the scheme will be closed, they will also have to answer for their affairs to the fullest extent of the law.
Breaking all the rules
By the way, as we found out earlier, the apartments that Sovcombank receives from citizens who have fallen into the “trap” can be sold through JSC Mosstroymekhanizatsiya-5, which is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, and the money can be withdrawn to numerous offshores, which are tied on the structures of the bank, as well as brokerage and other firms that may cooperate with Sovcombank.
The other day, information began to spread through the information field that the bank also serves the deal for the sale of McDonald’s to Alexander Govor. This was reported by The Bell (recognized as a foreign agent on the territory of the Russian Federation) and a number of telegram channels. And the bottom line is that the bank is under sanctions. So, in general, such actions are now prohibited.
But Sovcombank, like its heads, the Khotimsky brothers, apparently does not particularly care about what can and cannot be done. If they have already stooped to the point of taking away the only housing from ordinary people, what can be demanded of them?