Alexander Afanasiev was introduced into the scheme
The former top manager of Promsvyazbank was arrested in absentia for withdrawing €1 billion in the interests of shareholders, the Ananyev brothers.
In the capital, the investigation of a criminal case on the embezzlement of more than 1 billion euros of funds from Promsvyazbank (PSB) continues. Within its framework, the Basmanny Court decided to arrest in absentia the ex-head of the project financing department of PSB Alexander Afanasieva. Writes about this “Kommersant”. Afanasiev is considered one of the main participants in the withdrawal of the spent amount, and the investigation calls the former owners of the bank, the Ananyev brothers, Alexei and Dmitry, the organizers of the crime. Absentee arrest Afanasievand will allow you 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 The day before, 57.3 billion rubles and $505.6 million were withdrawn from the bank.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 they say 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: in the event of the detention of Alexander Afanasievand on the territory of Russia or his extradition 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 Afanasieva. […] 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 Kommersant reported, 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 ranging from 5 to 7.5 years.