In the capital, the investigation of the criminal case on waste more than 1 billion euros funds of Promsvyazbank (PSB). Within its framework, the Basmanny Court decided to arrest in absentia the ex-head of the PSB project financing department Alexander Afanasyev. Writes about this “Kommersant”. Afanasiev is considered one of the main participants in the withdrawal of the embezzled amount, and the investigators call the former owners of the bank brothers the organizers of the crime Ananiev – Alexei and Dmitry. The absentee arrest of Afanasyev will allow him to apply to Interpol to search for him outside of Russia.
In December 2017, the Central Bank of Russia began to reorganize the PSB. The day before, 57.3 billion rubles and $505.6 million were withdrawn from the bank. Prior to this, the Central Bank revealed numerous violations in the PSB when issuing loans. Up to 9 people could be involved in the money withdrawal scheme. Several transactions for the purchase of securities were urgently executed. In just a few hours, the entire amount indicated was transferred to the accounts of one of the Dutch firms. The total amount of the transaction exceeds 1 billion euros. Then the money was “shattered” and the Ananievs legalized it. The investigation is sure that in fact no securities were purchased.
“Kommersant”, 01/27/2023, “Embezzlement required arrest”: As stated in the case, Mr. Afanasiev was one of the active participants in the withdrawal of the specified amount, and the financial transaction itself took only a few hours.
The Basmanny Court of Moscow took about two hours to consider the petition of the ICR for the arrest in absentia of the former top manager of Promsvyazbank. And although the lawyer of the financier, Elena Yessikova, opposed the choice of a preventive measure proposed by the investigation, the court considered the arguments of the TFR to be more weighty. As a result, the petition was granted: if Alexander Afanasyev is detained in Russia or extradited from abroad, he will be sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months. Arrest in absentia will allow the Russian side to apply to Interpol to organize the search for Alexander Afanasyev. […] The actions of the financier are qualified by the investigation as embezzlement on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). […] It should be noted that earlier Promsvyazbank filed a lawsuit against its former employee, demanding compensation for losses incurred in the total amount of 20 billion rubles. […]
Recall that ex-lawyer of the PSB Sergey Zorin, a citizen of Ukraine Igor Pidluzhny and the president of Promsvyazcapital JSC Batraz Pliev are on the international wanted list in this case. At the same time, Interpol as reported by “Kommersant”, in November 2020 removed Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev from the wanted list, recognizing their persecution as politically motivated. — Inset K.ru
As part of this case, one sentence was already passed in November last year. The Lefortovo court of the capital acquitted the former vice-president of the PSB Nikolai Tsukanov and sentenced four other defendants to imprisonment for terms from 5 to 7.5 years.
