The Simonovsky District Court of Moscow convicted the former chairman of the board of the Pulse of the Capital Bank Sergei Mitin and adviser to the office of the president of a credit institution Gennady Gatsukov. Judge Svetlana Tumanina found the bankers guilty of especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the court verdict, Mitin was sentenced to four years in prison in a penal colony of general regime, Gatsukov – three years and five months in prison.
At the same time, the court released the latter in the courtroom from custody, since he had already served his sentence in the pre-trial detention center.
Mitin’s defense considers the verdict severe and intends to appeal it in the near future, Petr Nikitenko, head of the NMB and Partners Moscow Bar Association, told Vedomosti: “Mitin partially admitted his guilt and repaid a significant part of the damage in the case.” “At the same time, the sentence was assigned to him as an executor, although the defense asked that Mitin’s actions be reclassified as complicity,” said lawyer and managing partner of DS Law Oleg Ponomarev.
Nikitenko clarified that within the framework of the investigation, a civil claim was filed against the defendants from the injured party, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), in the amount of damage in the case – 8,787,000 rubles. But before the verdict, the DIA announced its desire to consider the claim in civil proceedings, so Tumanina did not make a decision on the claim along with the verdict.
The trial in the Simonovsky court began at the end of March 2022. The criminal case did not reach the court immediately – the prosecutor’s office approved the indictment the second time. For the first time, the investigation wanted to prosecute another person involved – a former member of the board of the bank Dmitry Ilyin. From the second time, the supervisory authority approved the indictment and sent the case to court.
From the indictment, which Vedomosti has read, it follows that no later than 2016, Gatsukov and Mitin teamed up with other unidentified persons and entered into a fictitious employment contract with a salary of 17,574,000 rubles. per month. […]
“Kommersant”, 07/25/2023, “Employment turned out to be arbitrable”: However, Gennady Gatsukov managed to receive only an advance payment in the amount of 8.7 million rubles at a new place of work. Already in April, the Central Bank revoked the license of the credit institution.
It should be noted that Mr. Gatsukov, during interrogations, claimed that people who were allegedly very influential in banking circles were behind him, however, he named only one last name – the former owner of Baltika Bank and Inkredbank, who was sentenced this year to 17 years in a strict regime colony. Oleg Vlasov. Interestingly, Gennady Gatsukov also worked as an adviser to the board of directors at Strategy Bank – he was appointed to this position on June 25, 2016, and already on July 21 of the same year, the bank’s license was revoked. Now a criminal case is being investigated on the theft of 10.5 billion rubles from this credit institution, and its ultimate beneficiary is a former top manager of the Central Bank Dmitry Rubinov is on the international wanted list. According to law enforcers, in the story with the “Strategy” Gennady Gatsukov could act precisely in the interests of the former employee of the Central Bank. The latter, according to Kommersant’s sources, was allegedly very interested in what kind of testimony the former adviser to the head of the Strategy gives during the investigation.
As already said “Kommersant”, for the first time Gennady Gatsukov came under criminal prosecution in November 2016, when the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case on the theft of more than 2.3 billion rubles from Investtrustbank. Then Mr. Gatsukov was charged in absentia with a particularly large embezzlement, since he left Russia. Then his involvement in the disappearance of billions from the “Strategy” and the bank “Credit-Moscow”, Smartbank, Promregionbank and several others was established. In March 2017, all cases were merged into one proceeding, and their investigation is still ongoing. It should be noted that, along with other persons who controlled these credit institutions, the name of Gatsukov appears as a defendant in arbitration and in claims against them by the Deposit Insurance Agency. Some, as, for example, in the case of Smartbank for 4.5 billion rubles, have already been satisfied. It should be noted that Sergey Mitin is also a co-defendant in the ABC suit for the amount of 728 million rubles, filed against a number of persons who controlled the Pulse of the Capital bank. — Inset K.ru
The representative of the prosecutor’s office in court during the debate stated that the guilt of the defendants in the court was fully proven, and asked to set terms of 6.5 years and six years and four months for Mitin and Gatsukov, respectively.
“We believe that the prosecution failed to prove the conspiracy of Gatsukov and Mitin in the process, therefore the verdict passed today is illegal and unjustified,” Nikitenko said.
In turn, the representative of Gatsukov’s defense, in an interview with Vedomosti, said that he was satisfied with the verdict and did not intend to appeal it. […]