The banker is not “sitting”
The founder of the microfinance organization Home Money, the well-known Russian financier Yevgeny Bernshtam, received five years in a penal colony for large-scale fraud. But the businessman himself, who was under house arrest, preferred not to appear at the verdict and, probably, he has not yet been found. Yes, and money to clients of MFIs, and this is 10 billion rubles, he obviously did not return.
No rumor, no money
Probably, now Russian financiers who have received prison sentences or are awaiting sentences in a pre-trial detention center, having learned about the fate Evgeny Bernshtam ask the well-known question: “Was it possible?”. In July, the founder of the MFI “Home money” gave 5 years in prison. financier found guilty in 76 episodes of a particularly large fraud. In addition, the court partially satisfied the claims of the victims of the actions of the financier on 10 billion rubles. And, logically, now he should sit in a cell, and even better – in parallel, pay off his clients, who have lost such a huge amount. But Bernshtam did not appear for the announcement of the verdict. After all, he was under house arrest, so they couldn’t bring him to court by force. Accordingly, now he is probably at large. It’s just not known where.
The funniest thing is the statements of the defense of the financier. His lawyer Vadim Yalovitskywho, unlike his principal, came to the announcement, informed:
The explanation is, to put it mildly, not very convincing. Firstly, planned treatment is not resuscitation after all. And, secondly, modern technologies perfectly allow you to participate in the process via video link. There would be a desire. But here it is, apparently, and was not. From worldly logic, it is quite clear: who wants to go to court, from where they can be sent to prison. But from the point of view of the law, this is a misdemeanor. Bernshtam’s preventive measure was changed to arrest and put on the wanted list. The term of imprisonment will be accounted for after detention.
Forgive the sick and sinful banker?
No less remarkable is the fact that the banker was dealt with rather gently. He was detained in 2019 and initially sent to a pre-trial detention center. Then they changed the measure to house arrest, and then completely released him on bail. Not every Russian banker is so lucky, often for several years, while the investigation and process are underway, they spend their days in prison, after which they are sent to a colony. But Bernshtam was lucky not only with the subscription. According to the Criminal Code, for fraud on an especially large scale threatens up to 10 years in prison. The financier was given half as much. And, on the one hand, everything fits into the desire of our authorities to deal with entrepreneurs as gently as possible. And, on the other hand, when it comes to 76 episodes and 10 billion, the leniency of the sentence is somewhat surprising.
Yevgeny Bernshtam himself, of course, considers himself innocent. And, in general, if we recall his previous statements, then 65-year-old Yevgeny Semenovich becomes a pity. He called himself just a pensioner who lives on an allowance of 22,000 rubles a month and a subsidy of another 2,000. Although, we note, the state has acted relatively generously with a businessman, the average pension in Russia this year is several thousand lessthan his. But the financier, judging by his words, clearly needs money for treatment. He told how he stopped breathing 138 times during the night. Perhaps the entrepreneur has really serious health problems. But how can you not remember another businessman, Boris Shpigelwho is on trial for taking a bribe. Boris Isaakovich 3 years ago assumed his death in a pre-trial detention center and said: “I’m not a tenant.” But while alive. And it remains only to wish both businessmen good health and longevity.
Poverty is different
Regarding the impoverished life of Bernshtam, of course, legitimate questions arise. First, where did the billions of rubles that Home Money owed to their creditors go? We are talking about securities of a microfinance company, investors bought them based on a fabulous yield of about 20%. Secondly, at least a few expensive assets of the financier are known.
These are Gazprom shares, a collection of figurines worth more than 200 million rubles, shares in three Moscow apartments. One of his apartments is already tried to sell under the hammer for hundreds of millions of rubles. This “modest” property with an area of hundreds of meters is located in the capital’s Khamovniki, that is, in the very center of Moscow. It can be assumed that Bernshtam’s pension is not enough even to pay for a communal apartment.
Finally, the third question arises about transactions involving Home Money. The company even before it lost its license, according to reports, 6 times increased the volume of loans to legal entities – more than up to 12 billion rubles (do you feel that the figure is similar to the amount of creditors’ claims?). In particular, she lent almost 7 billion to a certain Cypriot structure. And this company was an affiliate, its ultimate beneficiaries were Bernshtam himself and his wife Elena. And the company itself, which controlled Home Money, belonged to Cypriot organizations. And creditors at one time sued the head office in the British Virgin Islands, in the Caribbean. At the same time with the financier, only in Moscow, the wife sued over the division of property and even partially achieved success. One can only speculate what is behind all these transactions and courts. But the very fact that the company borrows huge funds for itself, which go abroad, is already suspicious. And in this regard, I would like to ask the main question: where is the money?
From successful banker to criminal
At the same time, it would be interesting to find out if the financier had a passport of some other country lying around. As you know, our big businessmen usually have one or more citizenships in reserve. For example, European or Israeli… However, there were no such public reports about Bernshtam. He, in general, spent his entire working life in Russia, with the exception of a few months when he worked in Ukraine, but that was a very long time ago. And after all, Bernshtam has always been considered a talented financier. Once, thanks to him, the rapid development of Alfa-Bank began. But even then appeared strange qualities of a top manager. He could come to the bank branch late in the evening, the guard, of course, opened the door to the authorities. And he scolded him for it, and at best the guard received a reprimand, and at worst he was fired. And it is unlikely that the banker cared that, in fact, because of him, an ordinary employee lost his job.
Later, Bernshtam took up his own business, the pinnacle of which was “Home Money”. They once accounted for about a quarter of the microfinance business in Russia. Methods of working with debtors were, to put it mildly, dubious. How wrote “Fontanka”, collectors practiced psychological pressure, extortion, beatings and even arson of baby carriages.
That’s just things at the MFI itself in the end went badly. Defaults, deprivation of the license of the Central Bank and a criminal case against the founder. Now the banker’s lawyer is perplexed, what does Bernshtam have to do with it? He, according to him, was just a top manager, and the company employed 2.5 thousand employees. Apparently, 10 billion should be asked from them. And, taking into account the fact that Yevgeny Semenovich is now allegedly undergoing treatment, one would like to ask one more obviously fair, although not very politically correct question: who are you “treating”?
