The bankers from the “Pulse of the Capital” have a normal pulse again
How Sergey Mitin and Gennady Gatsukov gained experience from Ostap Bender and Alexander Koreiko.
The verdict was given to the former head of the Pulse of the Capital bank, Sergei Mitin, as well as to the adviser to the presidential administration of this organization, Gennady Gatsukov. The first was sentenced to 4 years in prison, the second 3 years and 5 months. Moreover, Gatsukov was released from custody in the courtroom, since he had already served his time in a pre-trial detention center. But what is most remarkable in the history of these bankers is the details of their “business”. It is felt that they carefully read the unforgettable novels about the adventures of the great strategist.
You need this kind of salary
A well-mannered person usually does not directly ask how much his colleagues or friends receive. But, it happens that information about salaries becomes public domain. This happened to the top managers of the Moscow credit institution “Pulse of the Capital”, which has long been deprived of a license. The bank itself existed from the mid-1990s and lived until 2016. But another detail is most remarkable: according to the media, which got acquainted with the current court decision, the bankers paid some unidentified persons a very good salary. And now, hold your breath – 17.574.000 rubles a month.
Once again: more than 17 and a half million rubles for only one person, but what kind of unidentified persons were they who received such gigantic payments, how many there were, what positions they held in the bank – it is not reported. The money was paid “no later than 2016” (in 2016, the license was revoked from the Pulse of the Capital) under fictitious employment contracts. The trial began in the spring of 2022. Simple manipulations with the help of a calculator show that in just one year, under one such contract, someone could receive more than 200 million rubles. However, it is still unknown how long the fictitious employees received huge salaries. But at the same time, we recall: in the same 2016, the average salary of employees in the country, according to Rosstat, was slightly less than 33 thousand rubles. As they say, feel the difference. The final figure of funds withdrawn from the bank in this way is almost 9 billion rubles.
Banker, you are free
This information was revealed after the decision of the Simonovsky Court of Moscow. The defendants are Sergei Mitin, former head of the Pulse of the Capital bank, and Gennady Gatsukov, a former adviser to his staff. They were accused of especially large embezzlement. Of course, this is not the first time bankers have been brought to justice. But this particular story can bring tears of tenderness and strengthen faith in the humanity of Russian justice. Let’s start with the fact that the criminal case did not immediately reach the court, the prosecutor’s office approved the indictment only the second time. And she asked to set terms for the aforementioned defendants for more than 6 years. But the court, apparently, considered such a punishment too harsh. As a result, Mitin received 4 years, and Gatsukov 3 years and 5 months.
The fate of Gatsukov is remarkable in itself. He, as the investigation found out, was involved in embezzlement in other banks. Their names are unlikely to say something to the layman: “Credit-Moscow”, Smartbank, Promregionbank and a number of other credit institutions. The investigation is still ongoing, but the banker himself is already at large – he left Russia at one time, and they could not attract him due to his absence from his homeland. However, in the end, they were still detained in Hungary and extradited. Not such a frequent case, usually our bankers, who escaped with the money of depositors, live safely abroad. But things are not going so badly for Gennady Gatsukov either. He was released in the courtroom, as he had already served his term in the pre-trial detention center. Moreover, the accused pleaded guilty and repented of their deeds. In general, to freedom with a clear conscience. That’s just the very fact that the manager was associated with several banks at once, already brings to mind the novel about the adventures of Ostap Bender, where the zits-chairman Pound appeared. And another detail clearly shows that the bankers have studied the lessons of literature well.
In the footsteps of the combinators
Of course, we all read The Golden Calf by Ilf and Petrov. And we remember very well the episode about barrels of ordinary water, which was posed as chemicals, for whose production the hero of the novel, the underground millionaire Koreiko, received loans. If anyone has forgotten, here is a short quote: “The liquid, so busily gurgling in the clyster intestine, in taste, color and chemical content, resembled ordinary water, which in reality it was. After certifying this incredible fact, the chairman of the commission said “hm” and looked at the members, who also said “hm”.
The defendants in another criminal case, where the same “Pulse of the Capital” and other banks are involved, as the investigation found out, issued loans secured by hundreds of barrels of expensive chemical raw materials. But in reality it turned out to be ordinary water. Of course, one can laugh and, perhaps, admire the erudition of financiers. But in this case we are talking about loans for more than one and a half billion rubles. Well, if we leave this remarkable detail out of the brackets, then banking schemes for withdrawing money do not change much. Fictitious loans, fictitious salaries that are issued and paid at the expense of ordinary depositors. And when the bank bursts, then the Deposit Insurance Agency, that is, the state, returns the money to depositors within the sum insured of 1.4 million rubles.
It would seem, where does the Central Bank?
But that’s not all. It is especially worth mentioning the Strategy Bank, from which more than 10 billion rubles were taken out. All the same Gennady Gatsukov worked in this organization as an adviser to the chairman of the board. He got a job at a bank in June 2016. And, that’s bad luck, a month later “Strategy” lost its license. The banker was unlucky with work, because a few months before being hired by the Strategy, the license was revoked from the Pulse of the Capital bank, where he had previously worked.
But seriously, without irony, we are talking about the massive embezzlement of money from many small banks, and the amounts amount to tens of billions of rubles. Moreover, the roots can be found even in the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The ultimate beneficiary of the Strategy is Dmitry Rubinov, a former top manager of the Central Bank. He is now on the international wanted list. His biography is worthy of a separate work. In addition to banking “exploits”, he was charged with kidnapping, including a two-year-old child, and extortion. But the banker himself is not yet available for investigation. He lives in Israel, of which he is a citizen. And he is engaged in the development of IT projects there. Good fashion business.
If we return to the Pulse of the Capital case, now the DIA (Deposit Insurance Agency) will demand almost 9 billion rubles from convicted bankers. But only not in the framework of a criminal case, but in civil proceedings. This decision was taken by the state organization for its own reasons. Ask any lawyer how long such a process can take. The short answer is years. Meanwhile, one of the convicted bankers is already at large. And, as can be assumed, it is unlikely that he will be retrained as a house manager.
