Cherkalin spoke a lot about all

The court sentenced the former FSB Lieutenant Colonel to the seven years of the colony, but never found out where he got six billion rubles

On April 22, the military garrison court sentenced the former head of the banking department of the FSB department of Lieutenant Colonel Kirill Cherkalin, accused of fraud and bribery. The court sentenced him to seven years in a maximum security colony. Given the time spent in jail, Cherkalin will spend five years in prison. The court found out the details of how the relations of the FSB and Russian bankers and businessmen were arranged. However, only two episodes were presented to Cherkalin in the amount of “total” 50 million rubles, despite the fact that only in cash he was seized with 6.3 billion rubles. Where did these billions from the former FSB lieutenant colonel, the court did not answer.

The military garrison court began to consider Cherkalin's case on April 5, two years after his detention on April 25, 2019. Then he and his former colleagues Andrei Vasiliev and Dmitry Frolov seized the record amount of cash and property worth more than 12 billion rubles.

“Brilliant, very smart, is well versed in the topic ... These are all commercial guys, such a generation,” Cherkalin characterized one of the major bankers. The interlocutor of the "Medusa", close to the investigation, said that Cherkalin, who "was introduced every day," ultimately simply "lost a sense of reality."

The list of the FSB seized from Lieutenant Colonel is impressive. At one of the meetings, Judge Vadim Korchagin read a list of material evidence for a long time: Vacheron Constantin, Rolex, Hublot, Breguet, Omega, $ 200 thousand, $ 27 million, $ 50 million, 1 million euros - and so on within an hour. In total, more than six billion rubles - 800 million rubles, 72 million dollars and eight million euros were seized in cash from Cherkalin. As well as five apartments, two country houses and many smaller things.

During the arrest, the sources of Kommersant said that Cherkalin and his colleagues could accumulate such amounts thanks to the sale of official information received from the supervised Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, as well as through naked operations and bribes. But at the trial, Cherkalin was presented only two episodes, in the amount of no more than 50 million rubles.

These sources of enrichment of Cherkalin can become known from new criminal cases, which were based on the testimony of the lieutenant colonel, data under the pre -trial agreement.

"Examine the FSB officer"

At the first meeting, the prosecutor Milan Digaeva read out several petitions of Cherkalin on a pre -trial agreement. In one of these petitions, Cherkalin promised to testify to the former colleagues of Frolov and Vasiliev and the former leaders of the Euro -financial Mosnarbank Vladimir Stolyarenko and Alexander Bondarenko. And Cherkalin promised to “expose” several FSB officers that were not named in the document.

True, in another petition read out by the prosecutor, Cherkalin directly says that he was ready to testify to the former chief - General Viktor Voronin, who headed the FSB Office until 2016. This episode is associated with the Commercial Bank "Transport", which the Central Bank recalled the license in 2015.

“When concluding a pre -trial agreement, it is ready to explain about the participation in the described events around the KB“ Transport ”of my former head of the Department to the FSB Viktor Voronin, who, knowing that the KB transport policy has given me instructions for the assistance of the activities of the said bank, in addition, he also gave me such instructions regarding other credit institutions from which, according to my information to the controlled Voronin Credit institutions received funds, ”the Cherkalin petition says (hereinafter, the spelling and punctuation of original documents, approx. Medusa).

The prosecutor further clarified that Cherkalin fulfilled the terms of the pre -trial agreement and spoke about three crimes unknown to the investigation that are now being investigated. What kind of crimes are this is not yet known.

In another petition, Cherkalin promises to expose the FSB officer, who was patronizing the Ugra Bank and several other banks (he does not name the name of this employee). The “hole” at the Yugra bank, which was recalled by a license, amounted to more than 160 billion rubles.

Earlier, the ex-owner of the Ugra, the collapsed bank, Alexei Khotin, in his testimony, allegedly said that he paid Cherkalin for patronage for three years (RBC wrote about this version, but Khotin’s defense refutes and claims that he announced to RBC to the police).

While the testimony of Cherkalin formed the basis of the charges against another of his former bosses - Dmitry Frolov, deputy head of the KO department.

"Let him record to the head physician"

During the pre -trial detention center, Cherkalin lost his former brilliance - now this is a blurry forty -year -old man who let go of his beard and hair below his shoulders. From close Cherkalin, only his sister Anastasia went to every meeting, a thin girl in Saint Laurent sneakers. At the last two meetings, there was still a girl of Cherkalin, who was introduced by Elizabeth.

And earlier, Cherkalin was headed by the banking department of the FSB department, which should engage in counterintelligence support for banking and fight corruption in the central bank. Instead, Cherkalin helped banks bypass regulation.

One of the two episodes of which Cherkalin is charged is to receive a bribe from the beneficiary of the Bank "Transport" Alexander Mazanov. Cherkalin received money from “transport” from 2013 to 2015, 50 thousand dollars a month for “general protection”. Of these, he gave 15 thousand dollars to an intermediary-the ex-colonel of the FSB Mikhail Gorbatov.

In the testimony, Cherkalin said in detail what he did for this money and with whom he interacted in the Central Bank.

“I have a familiar [Ruben] Amirants. In 2013, he held the post of head of the banking supervision of the Bank of Russia, ”the prosecutor read the testimony of Cherkalin. - [In relation to the Bank “Transport”] there was the probability of taking supervisory response measures up to the recall of the license. Amirants owned this information by virtue of his position and provided it to me in the Central Bank building. Further, through the available opportunities in the Bank of Russia, namely, through the Amirian, I was monitored by the situation around the KB transportation design. ” Cherkalin received information from the amyryans "informally orally."

To the question of the "jellyfish", whether such interaction with Cherkalin was out of the framework of official duties, did not answer the Central Bank.

However, as the interlocutor of Medusa, familiar with the regulations of the work of the Central Bank, according to the Law on the FSB, employees of the Central Bank must assist them, and Cherkalin was also the head of the specialized department. But employees of the Central Bank are not obliged to provide the FSB all the information they had, and whether they went in communication with Cherkalin beyond the framework of restrictions is not clear.

In 2015, Amirants went to work in the deposit insurance agency, where he was engaged in the liquidation of banks. Cherkalin admitted that, although he understood the risks of the fact that the creditors of the Bank “transport” would lose their money, did not conduct operational-search measures.

The lieutenant colonel helped the bank save on reserves: when the Central Bank demanded that the “transport” reserve risky loans for 1.3 billion rubles, Cherkalin advised the bank to change the place of registration in order to get into the 2nd branch of the Central Bank of the Central District, where the Chekist had a “confidant person”. As a result, the amount of reserves decreased to 552 million rubles, and Cherkalin received an additional 100 thousand dollars as a reward. What kind of “confidant” was this and whether the investigation was conducted in relation to him, the prosecutor did not explain.

Corresponding to Gorbatov about the problems of the KB "Transport", Cherkalin used peculiar encryptions. “Under the words“ a serious disease, almost incurable ”I meant that the bank can withdraw a license,” says Cherkalin. “Let it be written to the head physician until 17:00 - I meant that until 17:00 it is necessary to make an appointment with the Chairman of the Central Bank [Elvira Nabiullina].”

In total, according to the investigation, in two years Cherkalin received 850 thousand dollars from the leadership of this bank. But in May 2015, the Central Bank nevertheless withdrew the license from the “transport” and found in its capital a “hole” for 25 billion rubles .

Over the past seven years, there have been many such “holey” banks in Russia. At the end of 2020, Elvira Nabiullina announced that the Bank of Russia completed the clearing of the banking sector from unscrupulous and weak players - the Central Bank spent about seven trillion rubles on it.

Chekists in crocodile shoes

The plot of the second criminal episode presented by Cherkalin was previously known for the publications of Kommersant, based on sources close to the investigation. But at the trial, the prosecutor voiced the testimony of Cherkalin himself.

The victims in this matter is a businessman, founder of Avenue Group Sergey Gyladkin and his partner, a former official of the Moscow City Hall Igor Tkach.

As follows from the testimony of Cherkalin, which the prosecutor read out, for the first time the businessmen came to the Chekists themselves to report the crime: the then vice-mayor of Moscow Alexander Ryabinin, the then Vice-mayor of Moscow, extorted a bribe.

“Zadelkin said that Ryabinin demands a bribe from him to extend the investment contract, Vasiliev conducted a complex of operational-search measures against Ryabinin, and Gladekin's information was confirmed,” Cherkalin said in the testimony.

Gyadelkin was introduced to the Chekists, his then partners - bankers Vladimir Stolyarenko and Alexander Bondarenko, told the Medusa to the Medusa correspondent. Both worked in half the state “Euro-financial Mosnarbank”: Stolyarenko-the president, and Bondarenko-the first vice president. Their bank credited to the construction of Zadelkin, and they themselves, through affected persons, owned shares in his investment projects.

Cherkalin and Frolov came to a meeting with the businessman - the latter was in shoes and a jacket made of crocodile leather and looked like a pimp, recalls Gladelkin. They introduced themselves to lawyers. Zadelkin told the lawyers that he was ready to write an official statement for Ryabinin. The fact that he actually talked with the FSB officers later found out - when they took his business in development.

While the Chekists were developing Ryabinin, they continued to communicate with Zadelkin - they held working meetings and briefing. As a result, a criminal case was brought against Ryabinin, he was found guilty of embezzlement and received three years conditionally and a fine of a million rubles.

But the story did not end for Zadelkin. Already familiar to him by the FSB Cherkalin and Vasiliev, they began to intimidate him by the fact that the statement at the vice-mayor will come out sideways: he will lose contracts with Moscow, or he himself will become the accused of provoking a bribe. They did this at the request of their chief Frolov in the interests of the bankers Stolyarenko and Bondarenko, in order to convince Gladelkin to rewrite all the built houses for bankers, Cherkalin admitted at the trial.

“At the end of January 2011, Frolov addressed us, saying that he was asked by Stolyarenko and Bondarenko, and asked us to convince Zhadelkin to give a share in the company“ Jurprompromonsalting ”. Vasiliev and I agreed to take part in the crime, ”the lieutenant colonel says.

During a couple of meetings, Frolov, Vasiliev and Cherkalin convinced Zadelkin and Tkach to give the right to his share (49%) in the company "Jurpromonsulting". This company belonged to several multi-storey buildings in the metropolitan district of Levoberezhnaya, as well as an investment rights for more than 200 thousand square meters of residential real estate, about six thousand square meters of non-residential and more than 600 cars.

As Zeadelkin clarifies in a conversation with Medusa, in fact, under pressure, he rewrote much more to bankers - six companies with assets in the amount of 1.5 billion dollars. These thefts are still investigated. The Chekists promised to return the share of Zadelkin after the sentence in relation to Ryabinin and said that "as the FSB officers would be guarantees of the transfer of the share."

For the next eight years, Zadelkin regularly talked with Frolov and Vasiliev, trying to get money for his share, and even appealed to the arbitration court, but all to no avail.

Neither Cherkalin nor Vasiliev received money for their participation in this episode, but they hoped that this would help them in promotion, Cherkalin explained. But three million euros were received by the wife of Frolov Olga, the interlocutor, close to the investigation, told Medusa. A month after Stolyarenko and Bondarenko received the shares of Zadelkin in construction projects, Olga Frolova’s offshore Mirenstone Ltd received three million euros from Stolyarenko and Bondarenko. Frolov spent this money on the purchase of a villa in Italy on the shores of Lake Majore - for which he was eventually fired from the FSB "due to the loss of confidence." Frolov’s lawyer Andrei Andrusenko did not answer the question of “Medusa”.

Now Zadelkin and weaver asked the court to recover from Cherkalin 638 million rubles of direct damage and almost 20 billion rubles of missed benefit.

However, they were almost benevolent to Cherkalin: at the trial, Zadelkin said that Cherkalin acted under the pressure of Frolov, did not take part in the distribution of stolen means, and contributed to the investigation. And that all this could be the basis for softening the sentence - and the weaver asked to show condescension to Cherkalin "based on sincere recognition and humane considerations."

Where did the billions come from

The Cherkalin case eventually met five meetings: since he pleaded guilty, the case was considered in a special order, without studying evidence.

The prosecutor asked for Cherkalin 11 years in prison with a fine of 34 million rubles, a ban on holding certain positions in law enforcement agencies and deprivation of military rank. Judge Korchagin gave Cherkalin seven years of strict regime, but did not finish. True, according to the court verdict, Cherkalin must compensate for the direct damage to Zadelkin and Tkach - in the amount of 638 million rubles.

But there is nothing to compensate for Cherkalin from, his lawyer Vladimir Mikhailov said after the meeting: his confiscated money was turned into state revenue. And the most interesting thing is that the origin of these 6.3 billion rubles has not yet been clarified. Although Cherkalin in his pre -trial agreement promised to reveal the origin of the money found from him, but in court this explanation did not sound.

Brieves of the KB “Transport” are only no more than 50 million rubles at the then rate, and Cherkalin did not receive money for fraud with shares in Jurpromonsulting, counting only on promotion. Perhaps there is an explanation for this in other criminal cases that are now being investigated according to Cherkalin's testimony.

The interlocutor of Medusa, familiar with the course of the investigation, believes that in fact, the banking line is not much interesting to the investigation, because the reason for the arrest of Cherkalin was that he “got stuck” and began to conflict with the new boss - Ivan Tkachev, who was developing Cherkalin at his previous place of work, in the Office of his own security of the FSB.

In the coming months, the case of the former colleagues of Cherkalin Vasiliev and Frolov will be considered in court. Vasiliev, according to the interlocutor who was familiar with the course of the investigation, pleaded guilty, testified to Frolov and has been under house arrest since the summer of 2020. Vasiliev’s lawyer Alexander Gofstein refused to comment. Frolov - the only one of all - does not admit his guilt.

“Cherkalin clearly spoke a lot about everyone, the question is how it will be used further,” says the interlocutor of Medusa, close to the FSB. - If a line with the origin of money is spinning, then they must interview those who gave these bribes - including, apparently, bankers. It is hardly possible to hide these testimonies, because both the prosecutor’s office and the Investigative Committee are familiar with them. ”

Author: Anastasia Yakreva

Editor: Valery Igumenov