"Troika" with bells

What offshore services were offered to the Russian elite the best investment bank of the country, explains Roman Schleinov

The Center for the Study of Corruption and Organizational Process (OCCRP), uniting investigators from around the world, discovered the offshore companies of the Troika Dialogue Investbank through which, including dubious money. It is clear that there are no angels in the business world. But the Troika was one of the brightest stars. The founder of Investbank - Ruben Vardanyan in many colleagues and experts causes only positive emotions, speak of him as a gurus of the Russian stock market.

“He is a positive figure, and if he had a skeleton in the closet, then others have a whole cemetery,” his acquaintance says about Vardanyans.

What to think about other investment banks with a less brilliant reputation, if in the Troika with its status clients from the business and political elite this could happen?

The OCCRP was at the disposal of the UKIO Lithuanian Bank, which was part of the five largest in Lithuania, it went bankrupt in 2013 and was suspected by local prosecutors in laundering.

As it turned out, in the Lithuanian UKIO there were accounts of numerous offshore firms Troika - one of the most successful financial holdings in the Russian market (the Troika was sold to Sberbank in 2012).

Troika offshore companies and their accounts in the Lithuanian bank were registered with nominal owners, including seasonal workers from Armenia. OCCRP managed to find some of them. They had no idea what money was taking place on accounts, and could not recall that they signed some papers. Since 2006, more than $ 4 billion has passed through the offshore network of Troika.

As OCCRP found out, money from companies that were noted in large scams and criminal cases of laundering also got into this network.

So, in particular, funds came from firms littered in the Magnitsky case - a lawyer of the Hermitage Capital Foundation, thanks to which the scheme of theft of several billion rubles from the Russian budget became known. Sergei Magnitsky, who contributed to the disclosure of this scheme, was arrested and died in prison.

Money also received from firms associated with a strange fuel trade scheme for Sheremetyevo. Fuel transactions went through a chain of intermediaries, which overstated the price, but the intermediaries received quite a lot of taxes, but did not pay taxes. The Austrian lawyer took part in the creation of firms through which the money took part. He admitted to the police that he worked for representatives of crime from Russia, and was soon killed.

Even in the offshore network the Troika, funds from firms marked in a fraudulent reinsurance scheme, regarding which the Moscow Central Internal Affairs Directorate opened several criminal cases.

In turn, well -known people received money from the offshore network of Troika: firms of a longtime friend of the President of the cellist Sergei Roldugin, the structure of the heads of state -owned companies and their relatives.

There were a lot of high -ranking customers of Troika.

Can investbank live and develop in the market without reacting to the wishes of status customers and provide them with cover?

The international journalistic investigation "Panama Files" about the real owners of offshore companies and earlier materials about the data leak from the Swiss office of the HSBC showed that Western banks also sinned with similar schemes. But if in their case there is a clear procedure: caught - pay a fine, then in the Russian reality the reaction to such an event is absolutely incomprehensible. Maybe because the Russian statesmen themselves were the clients of the investmentBank.