Sergey Magin, who was arrested in absentia, managed to withdraw 126 billion rubles from Russia
Sergei Magin was arrested in absentia for the Moldovan scheme.
The criminal case of the organized criminal community (OPS), which withdrew at least 126 billion rubles from Russia under the so-called Moldovan scheme, has been replenished with two new defendants. At the request of the investigation, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow arrested in absentia one of the largest Russian cashers, Sergey Magin, who was released on parole in 2019, and the former chairman of the board of directors of Smartbank, Alexander Galkin. Both now live abroad and are accused by the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of withdrawing foreign currency to the accounts of non-residents using forged documents on an especially large scale by an organized group.
The petition of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the arrest in absentia of Sergei Magin, known in certain circles under the nickname Serezha Two Percent, and Alexander Galkin, one after another, was considered by judge Varvara Oganova with a short interval. Both defendants are accused of committing currency transactions to transfer funds in foreign currency to non-resident accounts using forged documents on an especially large scale by an organized group (part 3 of article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The investigators believe that the organizers of this scheme are the wanted Moldovan politician Vladimir Plahotniuc and the owner of Moldindconbank SA Veaceslav Platon. A number of Russian bankers – Oleg Vlasov, Alexander Korkin and others, as Kommersant reported, have already received from 17 to 19 years in prison for such fraud.
Speaking about the need to arrest Sergei Magin and Alexander Galkin, the investigator gave a standard set of arguments, noting that the accused were put on the federal and international wanted list. In order for the latter to become full-fledged and carried out through Interpol, court decisions on arrests are required.
Lawyers for the accused insisted on a milder measure of restraint. However, the chances of this initially looked very illusory. And so it happened. The court took the ex-financiers into custody for two months from the moment they were handed over to Russian law enforcement agencies in case of extradition or deportation to their homeland, or from the moment the territory of our country was detained.
According to Kommersant, Sergey Magin and Alexander Galkin became suspects in the so-called Russian Laundromat case, the largest money laundering operation in the country’s history, at the end of 2019. However, before the presentation of charges, and in absentia, it came only in March of this year.
The basis for the accusations was the very detailed testimony given to the ex-financiers by another shadow banker, Agustin Morales-Escomilla.
In 2018, he received seven years in prison for embezzling funds from the Taurus Bank, and two months ago he was sentenced to 11 years of strict regime just for withdrawing 1.6 billion rubles abroad as part of an organized criminal group under the so-called Moldovan scheme. through Smartbank controlled by him. His case was considered in a special manner, since the accused Morles-Escomilla entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement with Anatoly Razinkin, First Deputy Prosecutor General. As part of this agreement, he spoke about the participation in criminal schemes of Sergei Magin and Alexander Galkin. Moreover, Augustin Morales-Escomilla was especially well aware of the activities of Alexander Galkin, whom he called not only his business partner, but also a friend. He worked with him at Smartbank as deputy head of the legal department and member of the board of directors from 2012 to March 2016, when the license was revoked from the credit institution.
Recall that the case of OPS Sergey Magin has become one of the largest in the biography of the former head of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Lieutenant General Denis Sugrobov. After a large-scale operation to detain Serezha Two Percent and his accomplices in the summer of 2013, it was announced the liquidation of one of the largest cash-out platforms through which hundreds of billions of rubles were pumped. Actually, Sergei Magin received the nickname precisely because the percentage for illegal operations was one of the lowest in the country, but he allegedly more than compensated for his insignificance with huge amounts of cash. At the end of 2016, Sergey Magin was sentenced by the Presnensky District Court of Moscow to eight and a half years in prison for creating an organized crime group (part 1 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), illegal banking activities with the extraction of income on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 172 of the Criminal Code Russian Federation) and the illegal creation of legal entities (part 2 of article 173.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He was released on parole at the end of February 2019 and a few days later he left for Israel, where he now lives.
At the end of the same 2019, Alexander Galkin also moved from Russia to Latvia, who, shortly before that, allegedly managed to get a Ukrainian passport. According to some reports, Alexander Galkin settled in Jurmala, where he has real estate. She remained in Russia. His defense did not comment on either the very fact of choosing a measure of restraint for Alexander Galkin, or the incriminated act.
Sergei Magin’s lawyer, Vitaly Sakurin, considers his client’s arrest in absentia to be illegal and intends to appeal against it. “One of the grounds for the arrest was that Magin allegedly fled from the investigating authorities, but this is not true. Magin left Russia for treatment immediately after his parole in early March 2019,” Mr. Sakurin noted. “There were no claims against him then, and he was only charged four years later, in March 2023.”
The defender also questioned the validity of the accusation against Sergei Magin.
According to the lawyer, the actions imputed to his client to transfer currency abroad on false documents became a crime only after June 30, 2013, and just four days later he was already detained on another criminal case.
“How in four days he managed to become one of the leaders of a large criminal community engaged in illegal currency transactions through various banks, remains a mystery. In addition, it must be taken into account that Sergei Magin was not familiar with the other defendants and was never an employee or shareholder of the banks through which foreign exchange transactions were carried out, ”added Vitaly Sakurin.
Sergei Magin was arrested in absentia for the Moldovan scheme.
The criminal case of the organized criminal community (OPS), which withdrew at least 126 billion rubles from Russia under the so-called Moldovan scheme, has been replenished with two new defendants. At the request of the investigation, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow arrested in absentia one of the largest Russian cashers, Sergey Magin, who was released on parole in 2019, and the former chairman of the board of directors of Smartbank, Alexander Galkin. Both now live abroad and are accused by the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of withdrawing foreign currency to the accounts of non-residents using forged documents on an especially large scale by an organized group.
The petition of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the arrest in absentia of Sergei Magin, known in certain circles under the nickname Serezha Two Percent, and Alexander Galkin, one after another, was considered by judge Varvara Oganova with a short interval. Both defendants are accused of committing currency transactions to transfer funds in foreign currency to non-resident accounts using forged documents on an especially large scale by an organized group (part 3 of article 193.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The investigators believe that the organizers of this scheme are the wanted Moldovan politician Vladimir Plahotniuc and the owner of Moldindconbank SA Veaceslav Platon. A number of Russian bankers – Oleg Vlasov, Alexander Korkin and others, as Kommersant reported, have already received from 17 to 19 years in prison for such fraud.
Speaking about the need to arrest Sergei Magin and Alexander Galkin, the investigator gave a standard set of arguments, noting that the accused were put on the federal and international wanted list. In order for the latter to become full-fledged and carried out through Interpol, court decisions on arrests are required.
Lawyers for the accused insisted on a milder measure of restraint. However, the chances of this initially looked very illusory. And so it happened. The court took the ex-financiers into custody for two months from the moment they were handed over to Russian law enforcement agencies in case of extradition or deportation to their homeland, or from the moment the territory of our country was detained.
According to Kommersant, Sergey Magin and Alexander Galkin became suspects in the so-called Russian laundromat case, the largest money laundering operation in the country’s history, at the end of 2019. However, before the presentation of charges, and in absentia, it came only in March of this year.
The basis for the accusations was the very detailed testimony given to the ex-financiers by another shadow banker, Agustin Morales-Escomilla.
In 2018, he received seven years in prison for embezzling funds from the Taurus Bank, and two months ago he was sentenced to 11 years of strict regime just for withdrawing 1.6 billion rubles abroad as part of an organized criminal group under the so-called Moldovan scheme. through Smartbank controlled by him. His case was considered in a special manner, since the accused Morles-Escomilla entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement with Anatoly Razinkin, First Deputy Prosecutor General. As part of this agreement, he spoke about the participation in criminal schemes of Sergei Magin and Alexander Galkin. Moreover, Augustin Morales-Escomilla was especially well aware of the activities of Alexander Galkin, whom he called not only his business partner, but also a friend. He worked with him at Smartbank as deputy head of the legal department and member of the board of directors from 2012 to March 2016, when the license was revoked from the credit institution.
Recall that the case of OPS Sergey Magin has become one of the largest in the biography of the former head of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Lieutenant General Denis Sugrobov. After a large-scale operation to detain Serezha Two Percent and his accomplices in the summer of 2013, it was announced the liquidation of one of the largest cash-out platforms through which hundreds of billions of rubles were pumped. Actually, Sergei Magin received the nickname precisely because the percentage for illegal operations was one of the lowest in the country, but he allegedly more than compensated for its insignificance with huge amounts of cash. At the end of 2016, Sergey Magin was sentenced by the Presnensky District Court of Moscow to eight and a half years in prison for creating an organized crime group (part 1 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), illegal banking activities with the extraction of income on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 172 of the Criminal Code Russian Federation) and the illegal creation of legal entities (part 2 of article 173.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). He was released on parole at the end of February 2019 and a few days later he left for Israel, where he now lives.
At the end of the same 2019, Alexander Galkin also moved from Russia to Latvia, who, shortly before that, allegedly managed to get a Ukrainian passport. According to some reports, Alexander Galkin settled in Jurmala, where he has real estate. She remained in Russia. His defense did not comment on either the very fact of choosing a measure of restraint for Alexander Galkin, or the incriminated act.
Sergei Magin’s lawyer, Vitaly Sakurin, considers his client’s arrest in absentia to be illegal and intends to appeal against it. “One of the grounds for the arrest was that Magin allegedly fled from the investigating authorities, but this is not true. Magin left Russia for treatment immediately after his parole in early March 2019,” Mr. Sakurin noted. “There were no claims against him then, and he was only charged four years later, in March 2023.”
The defender also questioned the validity of the accusation against Sergei Magin.
According to the lawyer, the actions imputed to his client to transfer currency abroad on false documents became a crime only after June 30, 2013, and just four days later he was already detained on another criminal case.
“How in four days he managed to become one of the leaders of a large criminal community engaged in illegal currency transactions through various banks, remains a mystery. In addition, it must be taken into account that Sergei Magin was not familiar with the other defendants and was never an employee or shareholder of the banks through which foreign exchange transactions were carried out, ”added Vitaly Sakurin.