Business on loans leads to offshore and … “Sovcombank”?
Gaining momentum during the pandemic, the remote issuance of loans by banking institutions has led to the activation of “credit brokers”, offering intermediary services in obtaining loans and often “working” in close conjunction with bank employees. At the same time, the so-called “black brokers” for money promise to help in lending even to people with a bad credit history. In some cases, assistance in obtaining a loan is estimated at hundreds of thousands of rubles, the payment of which is not yet a guarantee of the success of the transaction. An example of the scandalous activity of an unscrupulous intermediary is Evgenia Yukhtenko’s Moscow-based Ivy Group, which is threatened by deceived clients with a lawsuit for fraud. Often, the owners of intermediary firms act as founders of dubious unprofitable enterprises, including those associated with offshore companies, to whose accounts funds from brokerage activities can be withdrawn. These include, for example, Moscow’s United City Financial Center, registered last year and already bringing millions in profits to its owner Vadim Sorokin. Among the banks with which “credit brokers” prefer to “work”, Sovcombank occupies a special place by the brothers Sergey and Dmitry Khotimsky: secured by real estate, this institution is ready to lend, including to persons with a bad credit history. But getting a loan from Sovcombank more than once turned into numerous problems for its clients: illegal write-offs of funds, a unilateral increase in interest rates, payment for a package of additional, often unnecessary, services, etc. Deceived citizens note that when applying for a loan secured by real estate, a conscientious client risks not only spoiling his credit history, but also losing expensive collateral.
Caution: “credit freeloaders”!
Increasingly, brokers are becoming intermediaries between banks and citizens who want to get a loan. Potential borrowers are motivated to turn to their services either by the desire to save time on paperwork, or by the difficulty in obtaining a loan itself. In the latter case, you will be promised a solution to almost any problem, whether it be self-employment, low wages or old age (it is known how reluctant banks are to lend to citizens over 65 and non-working pensioners).
According to various estimates, there are about 3-4 thousand companies specializing in credit intermediation in Russia. It is difficult to say how many “black schemes” are used in their work.
“Credit brokers are not organizations supervised by the Bank of Russia,” says a representative of the Central Bank. According to him, when receiving financial services, one should pay attention to the availability of a license to operate in the financial market and information in the registers of the Bank of Russia”– says one of the publications of Vedomosti.
The publication emphasizes that such dealers “they live off the income they receive in the form of commissions from banks for each brought client”. So it’s not for nothing that these intermediaries are called not only “best friends” banking institutions, but “credit freeloaders”. Enough has been said about the risks involved in cooperation with “black brokers”. Although at first glance it looks very profitable. For example, here is how a Kommersant correspondent described his experience of communicating with a representative of one of these “offices”:
“I have loans with arrears, my credit history is ruined. I need 450 thousand rubles. Can you help?” I began to lie not very confidently. The person on the other end of the wire specified how long I had been in arrears, and, having learned that since October last year, he said: the matter is fixable. “Only the first page of the passport is needed for verification,” my interlocutor added. Others asked for SNILS, TIN, passport pages with a residence permit … “.
It is not surprising that the remote issuance of loans in a pandemic automatically led to the activation of scammers, which was noticed by the Central Bank. Most often, citizens have to pay money that they did not even receive. But the scale of fraud, the size of payments and accrued interest, may threaten the loss of collateral, including housing, which morally unscrupulous bank managers readily use.
Broker “Ivy Group” threatened with court
Ivy Group LLC is one of the private commercial structures that assist in lending. Despite the fact that it was registered only in July 2020 (that is, during the coronavirus pandemic), the company’s activities have already become widely known, and of a very specific nature. How the “credit freeloaders” from the Ivy Group “work” can be found in the numerous customer reviews on specialized sites. As an example, let’s take a look at the comments of Yandex users.
Diana Fedorova: “We will draw up a class action lawsuit against this company! Don’t be afraid to deceive people. They take money and don’t do their job. They took 210,000 rubles from me and promised to help me get a loan even with a bad CI (credit history) and in fact they just stopped communicating. In the office, they are not shy about using obscene language, they brought me to tears. ”.
Oleg Samoniy: “The organization is clearly a fraudulent type … Deception of customers begins immediately … A large number of customized reviews, a high rating … During the preliminary conversation, the client is convinced that the consent of some banks has already been received, they immediately take an advance payment, appoint a time and place to meet with the manager, already to receive loan … After receiving the prepayment, all sorts of “miracles” begin … As a result, no credit, no money … The client number is blacklisted, it is no longer possible to get in touch with them … I am writing this review to warn others not to be left without money … No advance payments to these scammers!!! I have already said goodbye to my 36,000 rubles … “
Karina: “A company that advertises and promotes itself as one of the best, as a result, turned out to be the simplest and cheapest scammers. Everything is extremely simple, you come to the organization (before that you communicate by phone, they check the credit rating, clarify the meeting and data), check the rating again, everyone talks beautifully, but when the time comes to conclude the contract, they require an initial commission (about which there was not even a word to) the contract does not contain a written clause on a guarantee of a refund if the loan is not approved in the end. Honestly, I advise you not to waste your time on them..
Sergey Sakhnenko: “But don’t you think that taking 200,000 rubles for a simple consultation is a bit cool? If you look at the root, what is this company doing that is so supernatural? Yes, it simply repeats after the banks the same text that employees of ANY bank say to a person who has come for a loan, only in other words. In fact, there are no guarantees of obtaining a loan, since ONLY the bank decides whether to give a loan or not…”.
In what has been said, only one point can be corrected: the “scammers” from the Ivy Group are not so “cheap”, as evidenced by the cost of services, reaching 200 thousand rubles or more. At the end of 2020, the company’s profit amounted to only 199 thousand rubles with a revenue of 3 million. The sole owner and general director of the company, Evgenia Yukhtenko, is also the founder of LLC “Profinance”, registered in April last year and specializing in the provision of advisory services on financial intermediation. It is possible that Profinance was created as a safety net: in case you have to liquidate or bankrupt the Ivy Group, whose activities are becoming increasingly scandalous.
Banks, bankruptcy, offshore
The Credit Consumer Cooperative (CPC) registered in January 2020 specializes in providing mutual financial assistance “Art Capital”. Last year, with zero revenue, the CPC declared losses in the amount of 800 thousand rubles. The chairman of the board of the cooperative, Andrei Kharchikov, was previously listed as the owner of a construction company “City Line”liquidated in March last year. In 2021, with a revenue of 169.4 million rubles, the profit of City-Line amounted to only 465 thousand rubles.
One gets the impression that the company was liquidated deliberately, having previously withdrawn finances from it. And as if to replace it last December, a new legal entity was created – specializing in construction and repair work SK-Get LLC. Its co-owners are Andrey Kharchikov and Alexander Zotov, who is also the chairman of the board of another CCP – “People’s Capital”whose losses at the end of last year amounted to 5.1 million rubles with zero revenue.
On the net, you can find references to the connection of the PDA “Art Capital” with the infamous “Norvik Bank”, lit up in a number of high-profile scandals. In particular, its former owner Grigory Guselnikov was the controlling shareholder of the Latvian Norvik Bankarenamed to PNB banka. In 2019, PNB Banka was declared bankrupt: its debts to depositors were estimated at 367 million euros, with an asset value of 167 million euros. Later, the administrator of the credit institution, Vigo Krastiņš, tried to obtain the arrest of Guselnikov’s property for more than 32 million euros in the Moscow Arbitration Court, but was refused.
Another Moscow credit broker is developing quite successfully – United City Financial Center LLC (EGFC). Registered in March last year, for the reporting period, the Center declared a revenue of 8.7 million rubles and a profit of 4.2 million. Apparently, the company has no shortage of customers… The owner of the Center, Vadim Sorokin, has previously acted as the founder of several commercial structures, including Electro-Voronezh LLCspecialized in the sale of audio and video equipment.
Leonid Feldman and Petr Grachev were among the co-owners of this company, which brought neither revenue nor profit and was liquidated in March 2018. A number of enterprises engaged in real estate transactions and declaring millions in revenue are registered on Feldman – “Domel”, “Domel Real Estate”, “Registration Center”. In addition, he was one of the founders and served as CEO European Credit Broker LLC (ECB LLC), engaged in the provision of brokerage services for mortgage transactions and liquidated just last week. There is no information on the financial performance of EKB in open sources.
In turn, among the liquidated companies owned by Grachev, there is a specialist in the preparation of a construction site OOO Tekhstroyrazvitieaffiliated with a company “registered” in the Seychelles “RED HILLS LIMITED”. At different times, 55 commercial structures were registered for this offshore, the finances of which could “settle” in foreign accounts. It is possible that funds were also withdrawn to the Seychelles from the provision of ECB brokerage services. The money of the EGFC clients can also follow there.
It is possible that the same offshore is associated with JSC “Mosstroymekhanizatsiya-5” (“MSM-5”)involved in the construction LCD “Red Hills” in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. Today the developer is in the process of bankruptcy. At the end of 2020, its revenue amounted to 745.8 million rubles, profit – 573.6 million, the portfolio of government contracts exceeded 15.3 billion. The customers of MSM-5 included the Ministry of Construction of the Moscow Region, the structures of the Russian Guard, the Moscow Department of Construction, etc.
The reasons for the bankruptcy of a promising enterprise also make you think about the possible withdrawal of finances. It is noteworthy that the developer was one of the founders Bank “Solidarity”which lost its license in December 2017, and was declared bankrupt in April 2018: the “hole” in its capital was estimated at 7.15 billion rubles.
Credit “trap” “Sovcombank”
Among the lending institutions consistently popular with brokers is the infamous Sovcombank brothers Sergei and Dmitry Khotimsky. The reason is simple: the institution does not refuse loans to customers with bad credit history.
“Living conditions are such that many are faced with the need to have a certain amount of money on hand to solve an important task. If you need to get a loan with a bad history without being rejected by Sovcombank, you have come to the right place.”writes the Banki.Ru portal.
At the same time, the bank issues loans to pensioners under the age of 85 secured by real estate. Indeed, there are many who wish, and the safety of the institution’s clients can be safely called into question: it is enough to recall last year’s story with the leakage of 150,000 profiles of citizens who applied for a loan to the Internet. In Sovcombank itself, the blame for the incident was placed on an unscrupulous call center employee.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of reviews on the network about the work of the bank, which is so willing to distribute loans. Clients complain about a unilateral change in the interest rate, illegal debiting of funds, refusal to issue money without issuing a package of additional services, etc. One of the comments on the Banki.Ru website tells about an attempt by Sovcombank employees to redeem the debts of a deceased person from a relative. Here is how users of the Otzovik website briefly describe their experience of contacting the Khotimsky brothers bank:
“Misleading in order to impose additional services. Inclusion in the contract of services without the knowledge of the client. Outright lies”.“Extortionate interest, boorish communication of the staff”.“Just a nightmare. One deception. What they promise they don’t deliver.”. “A typical MFI-shka with the expectation of illiterate elderly people who, with the help of advertising from each iron, are hammered into the subcortex of the brain about their “decency”. Bypass this pseudo-bank, please don’t get involved.”.
We emphasize that each comment contains a detailed description of a specific conflict situation. So all the stories of “bank freeloaders” (credit brokers) about some “fabulous conditions” of Sovcombank can be safely questioned. Otherwise, as one of the clients wrote, “you will be left without collateral and with a damaged credit history”!