How Koba Vasadze shod Sovcombank
How did Sovcombank reveal a scheme with the theft of a pledge of 100 million rubles, and what does the manager of the MFC have to do with it?
Amazing events for 2023 are taking place in the Moscow region: fraudsters forge bank seals on the printer, and MFC employees calmly accept them, land plots with shopping centers are stolen. Moreover, when the creditor tries to return the pledge, the debtor initiates an obviously fictitious process of dividing property with his common-law wife. “Our Version” decided to study the circumstances of the daring fraud of businessman Koba Vasadze, for which he will have to go to jail for the next six years.
On June 26, 2023, the Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow found Vasadze Koba Olegievich guilty of fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced him to six years in a penal colony, minus the period that the defendant spent in a pre-trial detention center on the principle “ a day and a half.” Thus, the “path to success” of the former businessman Koba Vasadze ended ingloriously.
Well, it all started in December 2019, when Koba Vasadze issued a loan for 66 million rubles in Sovcombank for business development. The money was issued on the security of real estate – a non-residential building with an area of 2.5 thousand square meters and two land plots with a total area of 3.4 thousand square meters, located in Mytishchi near Moscow. As expected, encumbrance entries were made in the USRN in respect of these objects. However, it soon became clear that these entries could be quite easily canceled without the knowledge of the creditor.
Watch your hands
Further, events developed something like this: in January 2020, that is, a month after receiving a loan, Vasadze told the bank that he wanted to change the type of permitted use of land and combine them into one. In order to make appropriate changes to the USRN, the permission of the creditor was required. The borrower received it – on the condition that the newly formed plot will remain as a pledge to the bank.
On February 29, 2020, Vasadze, together with a certain Kashirin, applied to the MFC and submitted an application for the redemption of the mortgage registration record for his land plots. His companion pretended to be a representative of Sovcombank PJSC, presenting a false power of attorney, in addition, he showed the MFC employees a letter signed by himself stating that Koba Vasadze’s obligations under the loan agreement were fulfilled in full. Later, the court will establish that in reality he did not intend to fulfill his obligations, but in order to create the appearance of a bona fide borrower, he fulfilled the terms of the loan agreement for some time.
During the consideration of the criminal case, one of the witnesses will inform the court that A.M. Kashirin was an employee of Gerand LLC, owned by Vasadze, and had never been related to Sovcombank. The text of the verdict, which the editors of Nasha Versiya have read, contains a link to the data of the examination of seals and signatures on documents provided at the MFC. The expert found that the bank’s seals on the letter stating that Vasadze allegedly repaid his loan obligations, as well as on the copy of the “power of attorney” addressed to A.M. Kashirin are made using a color inkjet printer.
The “scheme” looks absolutely clumsy, but, surprisingly, it worked. The MFC specialist, who accepted the application from Vasadze and Kashirin, stated in court that he acted in accordance with the approved instructions. And now the land plots that were pledged to the bank were deregistered in Rosreestr and merged into one. A couple of months later, in March 2020, Vasadze, as follows from the materials of the criminal case, received a loan in the amount of 18 million rubles from a certain A.Yu. Kurochkin. The latter was involved in the case as a witness. He told the court that a broker he knew brought him to Koba Vasadze. The borrower stated that there were no encumbrances on the property he owns. In order to verify this information, Kurochkin ordered an extract from the USRN, where he did not see any pledge marks in favor of another creditor.
It is clear that all this did not pass by the security service of Sovcombank, which turned to law enforcement agencies with a statement about fraud by Koba Vasadze. In addition, by the decision of the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region dated November 16, 2020, the actions to exclude from the USRN the entry on the pledge of Sovcombank PJSC in relation to the above real estate objects were declared illegal.
According to the expert opinion cited by the Cheryomushkinsky District Court in the verdict against Vasadze, the market value of the building owned by Vasadze as of December 13, 2019 was 108,956,000 rubles, the value of the land plot was 108,000 rubles.
Family matters
In December 2020, Sovcombank applied to the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region with an application to declare Koba Vasadze bankrupt. By the way, as the investigation established, the money he received on the security of real estate in Mytishchi was used to repay a loan in another large bank. The defense of the defendant pointed to this moment in the course of the criminal proceedings, as well as to his participation in numerous legal disputes. “They do not in any way refute Vasadze’s guilt in committing a crime, and even more so they do not testify to his innocence,” the text of the verdict says.
In July 2021, the arbitration court recognized Vasadze’s bankruptcy petition as justified, and the register of the debtor’s creditors began to grow rapidly. In addition to Sovcombank and A.Yu. Kurochkin, it included Mosenergosbyt, Vodokanal-Mytishchi JSC, which Vasadze owed for utilities, as well as another bank, Tavrida LLC and Argo LLC.
A certain Elena Shadrina was also among the creditors, who received from Argo LLC the right to claim 3.9 million rubles against Vasadze for just 100 thousand rubles. At the same time, the court found that Koba Vasadze and Elena Shadrina have children in common and live together in an apartment owned by the debtor.
It soon became clear that in June 2021, that is, after filing a bankruptcy petition against him, Vasadze sold two of his cars to Shadrina: a 2015 Toyota Land Cruiser and a 2017 KamAZ. Moreover, he sold for 200 thousand and 100 thousand rubles, respectively, although the market price of each of these cars can be several million rubles.
Later, the purchase and sale transactions of both cars were declared invalid, KamAZ and Toyota returned to the bankruptcy estate of the debtor. However, apparently, on similar terms, Koba Vasadze “sold” Elena Shadrina two apartments on Altufevskoe Highway in Moscow. Lenders are challenging the change of ownership of apartments in the courts. But that’s not all.
In July 2023, Elena Shadrina filed an application to exclude a non-residential building, land plots, outbuildings, an apartment and the debtor’s funds from the bankruptcy estate of the debtor. The Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region scheduled to consider this issue on September 26.
Based on the materials of previous court hearings in the bankruptcy case of Koba Vasadze, it can be concluded that Ms. Shadrina intends to share all this as jointly acquired property in a civil case in the Mytishchi City Court. This process started in December 2022, that is, against the background of the investigation of the fraud case we mentioned and the bankruptcy proceedings of Vasadze. Accordingly, the division of the property of its participants may have signs of fictitious. It is impossible to imagine that in this case everything will go as smoothly for them as in the case of a power of attorney in Rosreestr, however, we will continue to monitor the development of this complicated story.
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