“Ripper of banks” Andrei Vdovin left Russia before he was arrested in absentia and put on the wanted list. Senator-gold miner Pavel Maslovsky is already serving a term in a colony. And just recently, the security forces came for their business partner Kirill Yakubovsky. Judging by the accusation brought against the businessman and the extent of suppression, the case may turn out to be high-profile.
In recent years, Kirill Yakubovsky was practically unheard of. Until the very end of April, law enforcement agencies reported the arrest of a businessman in Moscow.
“In the course of operational-search activities as part of the investigation of a criminal case on fraud on an especially large scale, law enforcement officers detained Yakubovsky Kirill Vyacheslavovich. After carrying out investigative actions with him, he was officially charged under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, ”the law enforcement agencies told the TASS agency.
A little later it became known that the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow granted the request of the investigating authorities to elect Yakubovsky as a preventive measure in the form of detention for a period of two months. A few more days later, it turned out that the Golden Gate office and hotel complex belonging to him, located in the Ploshchad Ilyicha metro area, had been seized. And again – silence. In the days that have passed since the arrest of Kirill Yakubovsky, no new information has appeared either from law enforcement agencies or from representatives of the businessman’s defense. Apparently, the consequence is like happiness: it also loves silence.
But once Kirill Yakubovsky was a fairly successful entrepreneur. So much so that he could even afford to act as a co-producer of the comedy melodrama Dove, which was released in 2009. However, the project was a failure: with a budget of $400,000, the film made only $22,464 at the box office. More Yakubovsky with Russian cinema did not contact. Apparently, he had something to do without it, and in the end his activities attracted the close attention of law enforcement officers.
Judging by the charge brought against the businessman (fraud on an especially large scale) and the measure of suppression (arrest), this is a serious matter. It is likely that the investigation considers Yakubovsky capable of escaping from criminal prosecution abroad, and the person involved in the criminal case now clearly regrets that he did not do this earlier. Why, now we will tell and at the same time remind readers about this person of Russian business.
Financial academic
Kirill Yakubovsky is a Muscovite, born in 1969, and in 1994 he graduated from the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation with a degree in finance, credit and money circulation. During his student days, he not only learned how to properly handle money, but also acquired the necessary contacts, judging by his career. And his career began at the same time, in his student years – already in 1990-1993, Kirill Yakubovsky worked as a senior expert at the Vneshpromtekhobmen RVO. In 1993-1994, he held the position of a leading specialist, head of the international settlements department at Intermedbank.
Obviously, the successes of a promising financier were noticed: in 1994-1995, he already worked as deputy director of the Moscow branch of Asia-Trust Bank. And his boss was another graduate of the Financial Academy under the Government of the Russian Federation – Andrey Vdovin, who later received a scandalous reputation as a “burial of banks.” If each “buried” bank was marked with an asterisk, then Andrey Vdovin’s “fuselage” would have a long string of them, and the first “downed” bank was Asia-Trust, which went bankrupt in the same 1994 and declared bankrupt in 1997. At the same time it turned out that the clients’ money miraculously flowed into Expobank. The list of banks liquidated with the participation of Vdovin also included BaikalBank, Kolyma-Bank, Kamchatprombank, CB Magadansky and others.
The story of Expobank, M2M Private Bank and the Asia-Pacific Bank (ATB) deserves special attention. Just from December 1997 to 2008, Kirill Yakubovsky was first deputy chairman of the board, and then chairman of the board of Expobank. Andrey Vdovin at the same time was a key shareholder and chairman of the board of directors of ATB. In March 2008, Expobank was sold to the British Barclays Bank for $745 million, while prior to the transaction, the accounts of large private clients were withdrawn from it to the NBR, later renamed M2M Private Bank.
For ten years, M2M was used by Vdovin as a channel for pumping money from Russia to the West, until in 2016 the Central Bank, losing patience, revoked his license. Vdovin bought back M2M shares on the balance sheet of ATB, thereby shifting the risks of the first to the investors of the second. At the end of 2016, ATB stopped conducting operations with corporate clients, and soon Vdovin left Russia. As it turned out later, in advance, because in 2018 law enforcement agencies accused him of fraud in the amount of $13 million (the same article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), arrested him in absentia and put him on the wanted list. And the reorganization of ATB cost the Central Bank (read – the state) 13.5 billion rubles.
Tell me who your friend is…
In parallel, business partners Vdovin and Yakubovsky had other business projects. At one time (from 2008 to 2014), Yakubovsky and Vdovin were co-owners of City Supermarket LLC, which owns the Azbuka Vkusa chain. For four, together with Pavel Maslovsky and Peter Hambro, they acquired 30% of the shares. Through these same people, Vdovin and Yakubovsky were connected with the gold mining business – the Petropavlovsk Group of Companies. In the summer of 2022, Petropavlovsk Plc suspended its activities in Russia, citing sanctions, and achieved the High Court of London for the introduction of external management, which in fact means its bankruptcy.
Where and what Peter Hambro is doing now, we could not find out. But it is known that Pavel Maslovsky, a former businessman and senator from the Amur Region, has been serving 5.5 years in a penal colony since December last year for fraud on an especially large scale – that is, under the same article that is now brought against Yakubovsky.
Well, given the career successes of Kirill Yakubovsky himself and the “track records” of his fellow partners, the interest of law enforcement agencies in his activities looks logical and natural. Although the investigation has not yet plotted the accusation against the partner of the “bank buryer” Andrey Vdovin, with such a background it is not difficult to suggest that the investigators really have something to present to the “successful financier”.
