What is common between Andrey Smyshlyaev’s Taganka and Yugra Bank of the Khotin brothers
The network of tire centers “Taganka” was once one of the five largest tire distributors in Russia. Billion turnover, solid salaries and bonuses, prospects for the future.
So it was until the owner (already former), businessman Andrey Smyshlyaev, did not change his native Tyumen and Bashkiria for an unfriendly, but affectionate Italy. According to the investigation and the court, at the expense of the supplier Nokian Tire LLC, which was not paid more than a billion rubles. Now, for the next eight years, Andrei Smyshlyaev will have to look for an alternative to sunbathing on Lake Como in a strict regime colony.
On the eve of the announcement of the verdict, 50-year-old Ufa businessman Andrey Smyshlyaev felt that he would have to spend the near future in places not so remote, leaving the Oktyabrsky District Court of Ufa in an ambulance. So, in fact, it happened – the court did not believe the version of the ex-owner of the Taganka tire centers network in the machinations of the product supplier Nokian Tire LLC and his partner Sergey Gorokhov, and sentenced him to eight years with a fine of 950 thousand rubles.
Lawyer of the Moscow City Collegium Anton Kolosov: My opinion is that Andrei Smyshlyaev was tried not under a special “entrepreneurial” article, but as an ordinary citizen who committed the theft of other people’s property. You could say it’s a “typical” crime. He deceived (abused) trust – and sent the money for his personal needs. Sustainable judicial practice under part 4 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – from four to seven years in prison. The fact that the court sentenced Smyshlyaev to 8 years for such a crime is a lot in this category. Probably, the court took into account the actual circumstances (Smyshlyaev did not plead guilty, was hiding from justice, etc.). Of course, the defense side will appeal against such a severe punishment, but the maximum that can be expected is a slight reduction in the sentence. And then everything depends on Andrei Smyshlyaev himself. Actively contributing to the investigation of a crime always mitigates the punishment.
Andrei Smyshlyaev was found guilty of fraud on an especially large scale. Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is one of the most “popular” among entrepreneurs, despite all the calls to stop “nightmare business”. The accused businessmen themselves, as a rule, do not admit their guilt, appealing to a variety of reasons for criminal prosecution: from the interest of the security forces to the revenge of competitors. The Taganka case was no exception. Andrey Smyshlyaev, according to investigators, signed distribution agreements with the Finnish corporation Nokian Tire and received car tires worth 3 billion rubles from it. Then the “schemes” began, as a result of which the Finns missed more than 1 billion rubles, and the companies controlled by Smyshlyaev (the largest of which is Russhina-Tyumen), like himself, went through bankruptcy proceedings.
The financial condition of Andrey Smyshlyaev will be most eloquently told by the inventory of foreign property, prudently recorded on the next of kin. The bankruptcy trustee of LLC Russhina-Tyumen found a private jet, a yacht (traditionally named after his wife, Olga), real estate in London, an apartment in Brenzio, a villa “Bonomi” with a park and pools in the province of Como – once the most popular among the Russian nouveaux riches is a province in Italy. Etc. and so on. All this wealth was arrested by the court of Bashkiria as an interim measure to satisfy the claims of creditors. In order to escape from which, Smyshlyaev not only split up what he had acquired through overwork among relatives, but also entered into a fictitious marriage with an Italian waitress.
Not surprisingly, with all his talents, the tire seller managed for a long time, as they say, not to shine. Big money loves silence, and even when Andrei Smyshlyaev was the main witness for the prosecution of Ufa Vice Mayor Alexander Fillipov, he did not violate the “silence regime”. He simply did not go to court hearings, although he himself wrote a statement to that effect.
Did not help. How can one not recall the still relevant history of the Khotin brothers, the modest owners of the large Yugra bank, even whose photographs remained “terra incognito” until they were taken under escort to the Zamoskvoretsky court. Hu from Mr. Smyshlyaev, the interested parties managed to find out on the plane. The passenger in which he was alone – under the supervision of employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, which achieved the extradition of Andrei Smyshlyaev from Italy.
What is left to do for a person who was pulled from a sun lounger on Lake Como to not the most comfortable place in the world – the Ufa pre-trial detention center. And Andrey Smyshlyaev spoke. According to him, the “scheme” was beneficial to the tops of Nokian Tire, who received bonuses from revenue. Then came the crisis, and while Mr. Smyshlyaev was working remotely on Lake Como, his CFO, Sergey Gorokhov, ran the business. And Andrei Smyshlyaev himself, according to him, disputed invoices for 1 billion rubles. did not sign because he had been abroad since 2014.
Obviously only one. Can the little-known bankers of Khotin “launder” billions in the clearing of the Central Bank? Can entrepreneur Andrey Smyshlyaev earn billions of rubles on tires? Let everyone answer this question for himself. Respected businessmen did not give up their “patrons”. But still hzikhidtidekrt ahead…