As it became known to Kommersant, the court returned to the Prosecutor General’s Office the criminal case against the former deputy chairman of the Central Bank Konstantin Korishchenko, who at the time of his arrest was the head of the department of the Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. The case of the ex-financier and his alleged accomplice, businessman Maxim Palchun, accused of embezzling 1.4 billion rubles from the collapsed Investment Bank, was stopped by the court after it turned out that the investigation had incorrectly indicated the place of the crime. While work on the errors is carried out, the statute of limitations may expire on the case.
The criminal case on especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against Konstantin Korishchenko and Maxim Palchun began to be considered by the Savelovsky District Court of the capital in July 2022. Since then, about a dozen meetings have taken place, after which Konstantin Korishchenko’s defense filed a motion to return the criminal case to the Prosecutor General’s Office to eliminate various violations of the Code of Criminal Procedure in the indictment. Judge Dmitry Zozulya agreed with this. However, as explained to Kommersant in the Savelovsky District Court, the basis for such a decision was only the place of the alleged crime, incorrectly indicated in the indictment.
It should be noted that the prosecutor’s office did not object to the decision of Judge Zozulya. But representatives of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) and lawyers for the defendants filed appeals. The first, according to Kommersant, believed that the violation noted by the judge was of an insignificant nature and could be eliminated during the consideration of the case on the merits. The lawyers, not objecting to the very fact that the case was returned to the prosecutor’s office, focused on the fact that the district court ignored their arguments about other violations committed by the investigation.
Be that as it may, but recently the Moscow City Court recognized the decision of the court of first instance as lawful and justified.
The criminal case, the defendants of which are ex-banker Korishchenko and businessman Palchun, was opened by the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in June 2021 at the request of the DIA. It refers to the theft of securities owned by Investbank worth 1.4 billion rubles. According to investigators, the crime was committed in 2013 shortly before the bank’s license was revoked due to “the complete loss of its own funds and the lack of prospects for restoring the financial situation.” At the time of the collapse, the hole in the capital of Investbank amounted to more than 61 billion rubles.
It follows from the materials of the case that Konstantin Korishchenko, the last chairman of the board and a member of the board of directors, was directly related to the collapse of the credit institution. Previously, from 2002 to 2008, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, then for two years he was President of the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange. In 2010, he headed the Russian office of the American investment bank Merrill Lynch, from where he joined Investbank in 2012.
It is 64-year-old Konstantin Korishchenko that the investigation considers the organizer of the crime committed almost ten years ago.
In particular, the ex-financier is charged with signing a contract for the alienation of 38,750 land shares in the Istra city district of the Moscow region in exchange for an unsecured promissory note of the Moscow Zodiac Trade LLC.
As a result, the securities passed into the possession of the Cypriot company, the holder of which, on its behalf, allegedly turned out to be the Kursk businessman Maxim Palchun.
The stumbling block for the consideration of this case in court was the fact that the investigation in the materials incorrectly indicated the address of the depositary, which gave the green light to the alienation of the securities stored in it and belonging to the Investbank.
According to Kommersant, 2nd Khutorskaya Street appears in the indictment, while at the time of the crime, the organization was located on Zemlyanoy Val.
Obviously, the investigation will not need much time to eliminate this error. However, with an eye to the ten-year statute of limitations for criminal prosecution expiring this year, the defense of the defendants will most likely once again insist on returning the case to the prosecutor’s office, emphasizing that other violations they have noted have not been eliminated.
Lawyers for Konstantin Korishchenko and Maxim Palchun did not comment on the situation.
Recall that law enforcement agencies have been investigating the theft from Investbank since February 2014. Three years later, the first defendants were one of the owners of the Spartak hockey club and a former beneficiary of Investbank Sergey Mastyugin and. O. the chairman of the board of this credit institution, Olga Borgardt – by the verdict of the Tagansky District Court of Moscow for embezzling 2.8 billion rubles from the bank. received eight and six years in prison, respectively.
In April last year, a new large-scale case came to court on the fact of multi-billion dollar embezzlement from Investbank by issuing knowingly bad loans. Its defendants are all the same Sergey Mastyugin and Olga Borgardt, as well as the ex-owner of Investbank Sergey Mendeleev, member of the Supervisory Board Sergey Zaitsev and Vice President Grigory Yusufov.
Another defendant, a former member of the Supervisory Board of Investbank Vladimir Gezin, was guilty of embezzlement of 12.7 billion rubles. fully recognized and in June 2021 received a special order of three and a half years in prison.