Vasily Boyko the Great milked the bank
The Cheryomushkinsky District Court of Moscow issued a guilty verdict in the case of multi-million dollar misappropriation of funds from the capital branch of the bank LLC CB Credit Express. Judge Valeria Bodnar found guilty the Orthodox philanthropist and founder of the agricultural holding “Russian Milk” Vasily Boyko the Great and sentenced him to six years and six months of imprisonment in a general regime correctional colony. Immediately after the verdict was announced, the convoy took the businessman into custody and handcuffed him. Before this, he was prohibited from certain actions. The verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
His daughter Anna, deputy general director of the Russian Milk agricultural holding, told Vedomosti that the verdict would be appealed. “He does not admit he is guilty of what he is accused of. He believes that his persecution is not related to his economic, but to his social activities,” said Boyko-Velikaya. She clarified that, according to the philanthropist, the criminal prosecution is connected, in particular, with the fact that he supported the work of independent experts in the study of the so-called. “Ekaterinburg remains”. Boyko-Veliky insisted that these were not the real remains of the holy Royal family of Emperor Nicholas II, but false relics.
During the debate between the parties, the prosecutor requested a sentence of ten years in a general regime colony. The trial lasted more than two years. Along with Boyko-Veliky, there are six other defendants in the dock.
The court also found them guilty of committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (embezzlement on an especially large scale) and paragraphs. “a”, “b” part 4 art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (money laundering).
According to investigators, from 2013 to 2018, the defendants, together with the ex-head of the Moscow branch of the bank LLC KB Credit Express, Elena Chueva, stole more than 190 million rubles from the bank. Chueva made a deal with the investigation and in 2021 was sentenced to three years in prison.
According to the verdict, they were sentenced from four years probation to seven years in prison.
It was established that from 2013 to 2018, criminals with the participation of the former head of the Moscow branch of the bank, Elena Chueva, and the head of the cash operations department, Natalya Tsipinova, stole more than 190 million rubles from the bank. The cases against Chueva and Tsipinova were sent to court earlier in connection with the conclusion of a pre-trial cooperation agreement with them. Tsipinova received four years in prison.
Boyko-Velikiy was detained and arrested back in 2019. The businessman was also accused of organizing a criminal community (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and especially large-scale fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code) in the framework of a case of theft of land shares in the Ruza region Moscow region, where the Russian Milk company is located. But in 2020, the court discontinued proceedings in the case.
Two years after his arrest in May 2021, the Moscow City Court transferred Boyko-Veliky from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest.
Central Bank revoked the license from Credit Express Bank in May 2018 due to numerous violations of legislation in the field of money laundering and due to a significant decrease in the bank’s own funds.
On January 16, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared Boyko-Velikiy, a former member of the board of directors of Credit Express Bank, bankrupt. In the summer of 2021, the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) sent an application to the Arbitration Court of the Rostov Region to bring eight individuals, including Boyko-Velikiy, to subsidiary liability. The total amount of liability is 1.325 billion rubles. Subsequently, in September 2023, the claim for subsidiary liability was satisfied by the Rostov Arbitration Court against bank managers Alla Kabanova, Elena Chueva, Natalya Tsipinova. In relation to the other five persons, including Boyko-Velikiy, the court rejected the DIA’s claims.
In 1995, the businessman ran for the State Duma in the single-mandate N79 Kineshma constituency (Ivanovo region), but lost to the candidate from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. In addition, Boyko-Veliky several times took part in organizing the exhibition of icon painting “Patriarch of the Renaissance” in the Kremlin. In 2000, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ Alexy II awarded Boyko the Great the Order of Sergius of Radonezh for his assistance in reviving the churches of the Ivanovo diocese.