Oleg Vlasov, the former owner of Baltika Bank, was sentenced to 17 years of strict regime. The financier was recognized as an active participant in the so-called Moldovan scheme for the withdrawal of funds from Russia, in which, as indicated in the verdict, Mr. Vlasov led a separate division of an organized criminal community (OPS). In total, according to the investigation, more than 46 billion rubles were illegally withdrawn and then laundered through Baltika, almost a third of the funds that went through the scheme.
The Preobrazhensky District Court of Moscow considered the materials of the criminal case against Oleg Vlasov for a year and a half. And during the recent debate of the parties, a representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office asked the court to sentence the financier to 18 years in prison. Announcing the operative part of its decision, the court reduced the sentence proposed by the prosecutor by only a year.
Despite the position of the defense, which asked to acquit the banker, the court found him guilty of leading a structural unit of an organized criminal community using his official position (part 3 of article 210 of the Criminal Code), as well as conducting foreign exchange transactions on forged documents on an especially large scale (part 3 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code). 3 article 193.1 of the Criminal Code).
Raysud fully agreed with the arguments of the prosecution that from June 2013 to April 2014, Oleg Vlasov, acting as part of the OPS, which served the so-called Moldovan scheme, transferred money from the accounts of Baltika controlled by him to the main operator of the scheme, Chisinau-based Moldindconbank. At the same time, Mr. Vlasov’s bank provided the supervisory authorities with “knowingly false information” about the grounds, goals and purpose of these operations.
In total, more than 46 billion rubles were withdrawn through Baltika and then laundered. (at that time – about $ 1.3 billion), or about a third of the total amount of 126 billion rubles that went through the scheme.
The owner of Baltika became the last of the key participants in the criminal financial transit convicted at the moment. Over the past two years, about a dozen leaders and members of the OPS involved in the withdrawal of funds through Moldova have been sentenced to various terms. Financier Alexander Korkin (he recruited bankers to participate in the scheme) and lawyer Alexei Sobolev, who provided legal cover for operations, received the longest terms – 19 years of strict regime. Also, the convicts were confiscated real estate objects located in Moscow, the Moscow region and St. Petersburg, with a total value of 1.4 billion rubles, various vehicles and more than $3.1 million.
Recall that the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs considers the well-known Moldovan politician Vladimir Plahotniuc, as well as the owner of Moldindconbank SA Veaceslav Platon, to be the organizers of the criminal community. All of them are wanted. Mr. Platon, the investigators are sure, invented and developed the scheme, and Mr. Plahotniuc, becoming the “roof”, ensured its smooth operation with the help of extensive connections in the Moldovan government circles, supervisory, law enforcement and judicial bodies.
The scheme, unlike many other methods of illegal withdrawal of money from Russia, was not trivial and, most importantly, was supported by court decisions, which gave it an allegedly legal character.
The money was withdrawn in several stages: at the first stage, a loan agreement was concluded between a Russian company, in which funds intended for sending abroad were accumulated, and a foreign company specially selected for this purpose. The guarantors for it were citizens of Moldova and Russian companies. However, soon this agreement was deliberately broken, and the creditor applied to the Moldovan court with a claim against the debtor and his guarantors.
The court urgently granted the claim, sending the writ of execution to Moldindconbank for immediate write-off of funds.
At the same time, settlement accounts of companies acting as guarantors for loans were opened in sixteen Russian banks involved in the scheme, to which funds were credited for conversion into foreign currency.
The money was transferred to the same Moldindconbank to accounts opened by it in the US and Germany, after which they were arrested on the basis of a Moldovan judicial act. And in the end, the already laundered funds were transferred to banks, mainly in EU countries, to the accounts of the plaintiffs – companies controlled by members of the OPS.
At the same time, in Moldova, not one of the perpetrators or organizers of the scheme has ended up behind bars.
Only Vyacheslav Platon was sentenced to 18 years in 2017 for embezzling funds from the local Banca de Economii. However, later the charges against him were dropped, and the businessman moved to London. Investigations against perpetrators in the Baltic countries also ended in vain, where laundered money from Moldovan banks was also transferred.
The defense of Oleg Vlasov, considering his sentence unfair and not based on the materials of the case, intends to appeal against it.
