As it became known to Kommersant, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow began considering the criminal case of the ex-head of the Moscow branch of the Asia-Pacific Bank (ATB) Tatyana Shablyko, accused of especially large embezzlement. According to the Investigation Department (SD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, in 2014-2015 the defendant contributed to the withdrawal of about 4.2 billion rubles from the capital branch of ATB under fictitious loan agreements. The defendant, not admitting her guilt, claims that she only fulfilled the agreements with the head office of the bank in Khabarovsk.
Hearings in the criminal case of Mrs. Shablyko did not begin immediately – at first, several preliminary hearings had to be held, at which the defense demanded that the materials be returned to the prosecutor’s office, also due to the vagueness of the charges. From it, it was not clear to the lawyers who was still responsible for making decisions on granting loans – the head office of the bank in Khabarovsk or the management of its Moscow branch. In addition, the defenders noted, the Moscow City Court had to consider an appeal against the restriction of Tatyana Shablyko to familiarize herself with the case materials, which, at the request of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, was accepted by the Meshchansky District Court.
After the motions of the defense were rejected by the presiding judge Elena Abramova, the representative of the prosecutor’s office briefly outlined the materials of the investigation. They said that Tatyana Shablyko was charged with especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code), although initially she was charged with the same fraud.
According to the prosecutor, a criminal case on the facts of embezzlement of ATB funds was initiated back in 2018, but Tatyana Shablyko was brought to justice only in the spring of 2021 – on April 15, she was arrested by the decision of the Tverskoy Court of the capital. In the summer of 2022, the Moscow City Court refused to extend the woman’s detention, placing her under house arrest.
The investigation believes that with the participation of Ms. Shablyko, from May 2014 to February 2015, at least 4.2 billion rubles were withdrawn from the capital branch of ATB under fictitious loan agreements. Moreover, loans were allocated, as stated in the indictment, to FTK LLC, EXPO-Leasing LLC, AV-Import LLC, VMHY, etc., to legal entities affiliated with the accused to other persons involved in the investigation. Tatyana Shablyko pleaded not guilty during the investigation.
She stated the same after the prosecutor had finished his speech. According to the defendant, she generally understands the accusation, but, Ms. Shablyko noted, she allegedly could not make decisions on concluding disputed loan agreements on her own, since they went through the approval and verification procedures at the ATB. According to the woman’s testimony, she was only following orders from the bank’s head office in Khabarovsk. In particular, the then chairman of the board of directors of ATB Andrey Vdovin, who until 2018 was one of the beneficiaries of the credit institution. It should be noted that Ms. Shablyko’s testimony was taken rather seriously by the MIA SD, since a criminal case was also initiated against the banker. True, it was not possible to bring charges against him, since he left for Germany.
