In Britain, a $ 1.75 billion was arrested by a fugitive Russian banker

The High Court of London, in the claim of Zastroprombank (VPB), arrested the assets of the co -owner of the bank Georgy Bedzhamov by 1.34 billion pounds ($ 1.75 billion), a representative of the bank in court told Vedomosti . He specified that this happened at the end of March, the property was frozen around the world.

According to the interlocutors of the publication, among the arrested assets there are villas in the Italian Sant Anello and the French cap-d'Ai, 33% 5-star Badrutt's Palace Hotel in the Swiss Saint Moritz, real estate in London Belgravia and land in the suburbs. The court forbade Bedzhamov to dispose of these assets and decided to reveal other assets worth more than 50,000 pounds to the court, wherever they were. He is also forbidden to leave the territory of England and Wales, he must hand over a passport.

In addition, the London court decided to limit the expenditure of Bedzhamov 35,000 pounds per week for rental housing if he has an appropriate contract, as well as 10,000 pounds per week for accommodation. He is also allowed to spend a “reasonable amount on legal services and representation”, however, before spending any money, the defendant must explain the sources of these income to representatives of the plaintiff.

Bedzhamov can be carried out operations that do not affect the blocked assets of 1.34 billion pounds, however, it is forbidden to transfer money or assets to companies directly or indirectly belonging or controlled by Bedzhamov. And when making a transaction or a series of transactions in the amount of more than 50,000 pounds, he needs to notify the representatives of the plaintiff in 48 hours. For non -compliance with the decision, Bedzhamov is facing an accusation of disrespect for court, imprisonment and confiscation of assets.

Zastroprombank was part of the top 50 banks and specialized in working with eminent customers. His collapse in January 2016 was the largest case of falsification of reporting in the history of Russia: the Central Bank estimated the hole in the bank at 216 billion rubles.

The VSB served the largest companies in Russia, their top managers, high-ranking officials and their relatives. The bank was the money of the wives of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak and the Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, the son-in-law of President Transneft Nikolai Tokarev and relatives of the member of her board of directors Arthur Chilingarov, the son of the then head of the presidential administration, Sergei Reznik and his wife, as well as the former head of the financial committee of the Duma of Natalia, Natalia Burykina.

The sister of Bedzhamova Larisa Marcus, who headed the VPB, was arrested in December 2015: the court sentenced her to 8.5 years in a general regime colony. Bedzhamov left the country - in March 2016, he was arrested in absentia and put on an international wanted list. Bedzhamov was detained in Monaco, but from there he was allowed to leave for the UK - due to health reasons.

As the director of the legal department of the A1 investment unit, Alexander Zablotskis, who is entrusted with the pursuit of Bedzhamov in the London court, the lawsuit in the London court was filed in December last year, and the request for the arrest of the businessman’s assets in March this year. According to him, the case was listed without calling Bedzhamov to court and was held closed, because there were fears that he would try to leave the country. However, in the Card index of the high court of London there is no mark on the listening of such a case, it was not possible to contact Bedzhamov or his representatives.

As stated in the VPB lawsuit against the former owner, Bedzhamov did not hold a managerial position, but led the bank with his sister. Together they planned and agreed on a fraudulent scheme that was implemented by Marcus at the direction of Bedzhamov from May 2009 to December 2015. According to the plaintiff, this scheme included four types of transactions: issuing fictitious loans to companies affected by the bank, issuing loans and writing off funds from customer accounts without their knowledge, as well as the issuance of obviously non -reflective loans to fraud companies.

On fictitious transactions, the VPB issued loans to companies affiliated with Marcus and Bedzhamov. In the bank’s systems, notes were made on the issued funds, although in fact they were not issued: this money went to repay the real obligations of Bedzhamov and other persons in front of the bank. As a result of these actions, the Bedzham and the companies controlled by him received at least 3.1 billion rubles, or about 35 million pounds.

In addition, the bank secretly concluded loan agreements with clients without their knowledge, the document says, this money entered the client’s account, after which they were withdrawn in cash according to fake documents. From May 2009 to December 2015, 124 such loans were issued. The debt for them is at least 5.4 billion rubles.

Also, a group, led by Bedzhamov, and Marcus secretly rented funds from customer deposits, issuing fake statements to customers in which these operations were not reflected. From December 2014 to August 2015, there were at least 44 such cases in the amount of 7 billion rubles.

The VPB also issued deliberately irrevocable loans to dummy companies that did not conduct any activity and did not reflect the receipt of loans in the reporting. There were more than 1000 such loans, and the debt for them today was 101 billion rubles. As a result of these transactions, the VPB was damaged by 116.6 billion rubles. (about 1.4 billion pounds), the document says.