The high-profile story with the reorganization of Promsvyazbank is moving towards the finale. Its former owners, apparently, are not threatened with criminal prosecution. Brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev will be able to work in Russia in peace. And this circumstance suggests that we have learned only a small part of the facts about the business of the founders of the PSB.

The law, according to which Promsvyazbank will be transferred to the ownership of the state, has come into force. PSB will be capitalized by almost 1 trillion rubles by transferring loans from the military-industrial complex from other banks to it. Neither the loss of credit files for almost 110 billion rubles, nor the "signs of illegal actions of the management" of the PSB, which the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank Vasily Pozdyshev spoke about, caused the criminal prosecution of the Ananyev brothers. The situation can be considered unique. Owners and managers of other troubled banks became defendants in criminal cases after the loss of an order of magnitude smaller amounts. We remember how the law enforcement agencies in the fraud of the former owner of Globexbank, Rossiyskiy Kredit and M Bank, Anatoly Motylev, because of "some" 700 million rubles.

However, Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev are not afraid for their freedom and plan to continue doing business, including in Russia. Not so long ago, the brothers divided the assets: Alexei will remain with his Technoservice, Dmitry with Promsvyazkapital. At the same time, if the youngest of the brothers is now most likely abroad, Alexei Ananiev does not intend to leave the country.

“Everything that is important to me in life is here: parents, family, work. I can’t imagine my life in another country - I didn’t leave and I don’t plan to leave, ” he said in a recent Vedomosti newspaper.

In that interview, Ananiev Sr. again spoke about how unexpected the introduction of an interim administration at the end of last year turned out to be for the owners of Promsvyazbank.

“The fact that the bank has problems, problem assets, was no secret to anyone. The regulator, the auditor, and the rating agencies knew about it. This topic was constantly heard on the board of directors<…>We saw that the bank is operationally profitable, that the bank is increasing this profit, and there was a potential for solving accumulated problems in the future,”- said Alexei Ananiev.

Indeed, it is hard to believe that the regulator did not notice for a long time, and then suddenly “discovered” the problems of the bank, which allegedly required an urgent increase in reserves by 100 billion rubles. What made the Central Bank change its position? Why, after the discovery of a multi-billion dollar hole in the balance sheet of the PSB and a public attack on the owners, the Ananyev brothers are at large, are not defendants in criminal cases, and even got the opportunity to sell their shares in Vozrozhdenie Bank?

Since we do not have clear answers to these questions, we can assume that the introduction of temporary administration into the PSB had reasons not related to the activities of this credit institution. Simply put, on Neglinnaya they wanted to strike not at the Ananyevs, but at one of their partners. It is likely that these were those Promsvyazbank clients whose names and surnames appear in the missing credit files. Given Alexei Ananyev's “defense” past, it is easy to imagine that PSB's “secret” clients were companies associated with representatives of the so-called “siloviki clan” in the broad interpretation of this concept. And they also say that Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev are close to one of the members of the Security Council. If so, then even now on the paradise islands, the team of Orthodox bankers should be extremely careful in securing their obligations to senior comrades.

The Central Bank’s order to increase reserves was issued to Promsvyazbank on December 14, 2017, that is, on the eve of the announcement of the verdict to Alexei Ulyukaev, the former Minister of Economic Development and a prominent representative of the “liberal” clan opposing the “siloviki”. Some will find it absurd to attempt to link the two events. But until recently, a story in which the minister personally comes to the office of a state corporation to receive a bribe could seem crazy. By the way, Ulyukaev's defenders used this circumstance in public opinion to point out the allegedly ordered nature of the criminal case against the ex-minister.

According to rumors, it was not Ulyukaev who was waiting for the money, but a smaller figure. By planting a "pawn", the "siloviki" wanted to send a signal to the "liberals" in the economic bloc of the government. By that time, the heads of large state-owned companies were fed up with unfounded forecasts and the constant search for the “bottom”. But Alexey Ulyukaev personally came to the Rosneft office for money, and therefore the case became more resonant than its initiators expected.

In the history of modern Russia, this was the first "landing" of the current minister. It is easy to assume that Ulyukaev's former colleagues from the Central Bank could not leave this without a reaction, the result is an attack on Promsvyazbank.

Again, this is just a version. Maybe someone will tell us a more reasonable explanation for the events that took place around Promsvyazbank and its owners over the past three months?

In favor of the fact that Alexey and Dmitry Ananiev are affiliated with the "siloviki" there are several facts. First, in December 2017, despite the very real threat of criminal prosecution, the brothers were able to freely travel abroad. Secondly, the defense industry actively took the side of the PSB. After the reorganization, it should turn into a specialized defense bank that will serve the defense industry and will be protected from Western sanctions. Pyotr Fradkov, the son of Mikhail Fradkov, the former director of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, will be in charge of the renewed credit institution.

If everything is as we expect, then we should expect a new round of undercover struggle between the "siloviki" and "liberals", which will intensify on the eve of the renewal of the government. And the question also arises: did the former owners of PSB pay off their clients?

Next time we will try to figure out whose secrets Alexey and Dmitry Ananiev keep, and who can demand a refund from them.

The Basmanny Court of Moscow on Tuesday, September 10, arrested in absentia the former owners of Promsvyazbank - brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev. They are put on the international wanted list on charges of large-scale embezzlement from their former bank. Court sanctions will only work if the bankers are detained and extradited to Russia. Dmitry Ananiev, for example, managed to obtain a residence permit in Cyprus, back in February, his representatives told the Moscow Arbitration Court. Officially, the case file states that the brothers' whereabouts are unknown.

Petitions for the arrest of bankers were considered with empty cages for the accused. A representative of Promsvyazbank and two investigators (one for each of the brothers) came to the court. At the same time, the investigators, speaking at the meeting, repeated each other almost word for word. They reported to the court that the case on the theft of 102 billion rubles from Promsvyazbank was being processed by the TFR. The Ananievs were charged with misappropriation and embezzlement of 66 billion rubles and $575 million as part of an organized group, causing property damage through fraud and breach of trust, as well as legalization of criminal proceeds.

“It was established that from December 12 to December 14, 2017 in Moscow Dmitry Ananiev, his brother Alexei Ananiev and other unidentified persons squandered the funds entrusted to them,” investigators testified in court.

The brothers were charged in absentia on 6 September. Then the investigators put the bankers first on the federal and then on the international wanted list.

“Their whereabouts have not been established,” prosecutors said. “The involvement and guilt of the Ananievs is confirmed by material evidence, the testimony of witnesses and the representative of the victim, as well as other collected materials of the case.” At the same time, the prosecutors insisted that the actions of the Ananievs cannot be considered crimes in the field of entrepreneurial activity (not involving detention). “But what about all economic disputes and arbitrations?” - Alexei Ananiev's lawyer Alexander Vershinin was perplexed.

Georgy Krupinin, a representative of Promsvyazbank, who spoke in the trials against both brothers, pointed out that more than 100 billion rubles were withdrawn under 24 securities purchase agreements. “The Ananievs plundered the property entrusted to them,” Krupinin stated.

The Ananyevs' lawyers, in turn, complained that they were not informed about the trial in advance. Representatives of Alexei Ananyev indicated that they became aware of the trial a day before the meeting - and that because the investigators began to look for lawyers by appointment through the Moscow Chamber of Lawyers. Dmitry Ananiev's lawyer found out about the court session only from today's media reports. Instead of an arrest, the lawyers suggested posting a bail or other non-custodial measure of restraint.

The judges in the trials for both brothers took half an hour to make decisions. In fact, repeating the petitions of the investigators, they authorized the arrests of the bankers.

Less than a week ago, the Basmanny Court arrested in absentia another person on the Forbes list - the founder of the largest Russian car dealer Rolf, Sergei Petrov. He was also put on the international wanted list - for the transfer of 4 billion rubles offshore from the funds of his company.

Image copyright Sergei Savostyanov/TASS Image caption Alexei Ananiev said he was not going to leave Russia

The Basmanny Court of Moscow arrested the former co-owners of Promsvyazbank Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev in absentia at the request of the TFR. The key asset of the brothers Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev was Promsvyazbank, in December 2017 the Central Bank decided to sanitize it.

In both cases, the period of arrest will be calculated from the moment of extradition or detention on the territory of Russia.

As the investigator stated in court, Alexei and Dmitry Ananyev are charged with embezzlement of funds in the period from December 12 to December 14, 2017 (the decision to reorganize Promsvyazbank was made on December 15, 2017).

"A criminal case has been initiated against Dmitry Ananyev, Alexey Ananyev and other unidentified persons on the fact of embezzlement by them as part of an organized group of PJSC Promsvyazbank property in the amount of more than 66 billion rubles and 575 million US dollars and their legalization," the investigator said.

"An appropriate criminal case has been initiated against the Ananyev brothers and other unidentified persons on the grounds of a crime under part 4 of article 160 and part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code of Russia," the investigator said.

The investigation claims that the Ananyevs are hiding and have been put on the international wanted list.

The defense of Alexei Ananiev asked the court to choose a measure of restraint for him, not related to deprivation of liberty. Lawyer Aleksey Kirsanov stated that his client was not properly notified of the initiation of the case. He also noted that Alexei Ananiev headed the board of directors of Promsvyazbank and did not participate in the operating activities of the financial institution.

• Reorganization of Promsvyazbank: why no one is surprised
• The Central Bank of Russia announced the destruction of credit files in Promsvyazbank

The initiation of a criminal case against one of the brothers - Alexei Ananiev - was reported on September 9 by RBC and Kommersant, citing anonymous sources. According to them, he is on the international wanted list. The court confirmed this.

"As part of this case, several episodes of illegal activities of the former owners of the bank, Alexei and Dmitry Ananiev, are being investigated, including the theft of credit files, the completion of 24 transactions for the purchase and sale of securities one day before the introduction of the temporary administration," the BBC reported earlier. in the press service of Promsvyazbank.

The bank commentary stated that its management filed a complaint with the police in 2018: "The Moscow Arbitration Court has already established the illegality of these transactions, in connection with which, among other things, rulings were made to seize the property of the former beneficiaries of the bank, including aircraft and a collection of paintings" .

End of Promsvyazbank Ananiev

In December 2017, the Central Bank decided to sanitize Promsvyazbank. A temporary administration of the Central Bank was introduced in the financial organization. The structures of the Ananiev brothers lost control over the financial organization.

At that time, PSB was one of the 11 systemically important banks, which accounted for more than 60% of the total assets of the Russian banking sector.

The transition of another bank under the control of the regulator was expected by market participants. Experts believed that PSB was at risk due to the large volume of problem loans and the negative information background after the reorganization of Otkritie and Binbank.

• Binbank, following Otkritie, asks for rescue. What's happening?
• A "bank against sanctions" will appear in Russia, it will be headed by Fradkov

A week after the announcement of the reorganization, the Central Bank announced that the credit files of corporate borrowers totaling more than 109 billion rubles were destroyed or disappeared.

Where are the Ananievs now?

The whereabouts of Alexei Ananiev is unknown. According to RBC, he left Russia, but returned in January 2018.

At the end of February of the same year, Alexei Ananiev told Vedomosti that he was not going to leave Russia: “Everything that is important for me in life is here: parents, family, work. I can’t imagine my life in another country - I don’t I left and don't plan to leave.

Image copyright Stanislav Krasilnikov/TASS Image caption Dmitry Ananiev after the loss of the bank moved to Cyprus

Dmitry Ananiev also left Russia after losing the bank. The RBC publication reported that he had left for London.

Ananiev told Vedomosti that he had been planning a trip abroad for a long time due to health problems. In the last months before the reorganization of the PSB, he developed heart problems due to "irregular work and hassle," the banker said.

“I planned to be examined both in Russia and abroad. The last week also added: the business that I created for 22 years, that’s it, it no longer exists,” the businessman commented. “But I don’t agree with how it was covered in the media "It looked like running away. I didn't run away."

In February 2019, a representative of Dmitry Ananyev stated in the Moscow Arbitration Court that the banker received the status of a resident of Cyprus and permanently resides in Limassol.

What is happening with Promsvyazbank?

A month after the transition of Promsvyazbank under the control of the regulator, it became known that on the basis of the PSB a base bank would be created for operations on state defense orders and large government contracts.

The authorities plan that the main bank of the defense industry complex will service at least 70% of contracts under the state defense order. Now Promsvyazbank is headed by Petr Fradkov, the son of former Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov.

The bank is suing the Ananievs for assets as part of debt collection, Fradkov said: "There are projects of the former owners that we are now dealing with, for some of them we have filed lawsuits for debt collection."

As part of interim measures for the bank's claims against the Ananievs and other decision makers, the Moscow Arbitration Court seized their property in the amount of more than 282 billion rubles. The arrest was imposed on apartments, cars, an airplane, several plots of land and a collection of paintings.

The holders of credit notes for a total of 40 million euros, which were issued under the guarantees of the Ananiev structures and offered to wealthy clients, also filed claims against the Ananyevs. The owners of the notes filed a lawsuit in the High Court of London. They demand that the defendants' assets be frozen for an amount equal to their claims. In addition to the businessmen themselves, eight companies became defendants in the lawsuit.

Another question is that a criminal case against them could have been initiated as early as December 2017. Just a week after the start of the reorganization, the regulator announced that it had collected materials for the criminal prosecution of top managers of Promsvyazbank. Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank Vasily Pozdyshev reported that the materials are related to the loss of part of the credit files from the PSB in the amount of 109 billion rubles. In addition, apparently, the day before the collapse of the Ananyevs, through the offshore company Promsvyaz Capital B.V., they completed a series of transactions to buy back bank shares from structures related to them. Simply put, billions were withdrawn from him in exchange for worthless pieces of paper. All these operations were carried out by a certain foreign citizen, who was allegedly hired by the PSB two days earlier and who received a power of attorney personally from Dmitry Ananiev.

The missing credit files appeared to be related to the brothers' non-banking business. Unjustifiably generous loans to their own companies registered offshore, in fact, caused a hole in the balance sheet of Promsvyazbank. We remember how, after the breakdown of this credit needle, problems began in the Belaya Ptitsa agricultural holding, the Russian Forest Group, as well as the large Extra M printing house near Moscow. The business was arranged in such a way that, having lost constant financial support from a friendly bank, the companies went bankrupt, leaving thousands of people without work.

Later, apparently, the missing dossiers were found, having fallen into the hands of the temporary administration of the bank. But the “ring” transactions with PSB shares and the withdrawal of funds from the Vozrozhdenie bank controlled by Ananyev, from where the cash was taken out almost by carts, have not gone away. However, the criminal case against the former owners of Promsvyazbank appeared only when they finally broke with Russia, leaving no significant assets here.

Freedom in exchange for silence

Dmitry Ananiev left the territory of the Russian Federation almost the same day with the advent of the temporary administration from the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) to the bank. By phone, he convinced journalists that this was not an escape at all, they say, he went abroad for treatment. Alexey Ananiev left the country at the same time as his brother, however, in February 2018 he returned and announced that he was going to live in Russia. “I didn’t have such a question in principle - to stay or not to stay. Because everything that is important for me in life, it is here - parents, family, work. I can’t imagine my life in another country - I didn’t leave and I don’t plan to leave, ”he said in an interview with the Vedomosti newspaper.

Apparently, plans have changed since then, which is why Russian law enforcement agencies will have to look for a fugitive banker through Interpol. Today it is obvious that the short return of Ananiev Sr. to Russia was associated with the sale of the IT company Technoserv, which belonged to him, a major contractor under government contracts. The former banker said then that he and his brother decided to divide the business: Dmitry got everything related to finance, as well as the PSN Group construction company, Alexei became a 100% owner of Technoserv. In 2018, he sold 40% of his IT giant to the state-owned VTB Bank, and pledged another 49% in the same bank. So now Alexei Ananiev in Russia, apparently, is no longer holding anything.

On September 10, it became known about the lawsuit of the updated Promsvyazbank against Technoserv for 3.4 billion rubles. VTB, it seems, is not going to pay, linking the loss received by PSB with the mistakes of the previous management. And now, while the two state-owned banks will butt heads with each other in courts because of the debts of the Ananyevs, the brothers will be able to calmly arrange their lives in a new place. Probably, they will also ask for political asylum in London - it was not for nothing that they shook out the “dirty linen” of the Russian financial regulator to the public.

Everything that the former owners of Promsvyazbank are accused of today seems to be true - both schemes with shares and loans to affiliated companies. There was also a story with the reorganization of Avtovazbank, which, together with a bag of state money, was transferred to the PSB for "recovery". The Ananievs allegedly used this money to patch up a hole in their credit institution, which is why the state had to save Avtovazbank again. Although in fairness it must be said that the brothers themselves did not plan to “tear the ends”. In his first interview after leaving Russia, Dmitry Ananiev said that negotiations with the Central Bank's supervisory bloc regarding the problems of the PSB continued for two years. The banker brothers were looking for emergency options for raising capital and were even ready to sell their shares at deep discounts. The decision of the regulator to introduce temporary administration into the bank, reduce its capital to 1 ruble and save it completely at the expense of state money came as a surprise to them.

cage key

Dmitry Ananiev almost openly speaks of an allegedly well-established scheme for the destruction of private Russian banks, attributing the leadership of this scheme to Elvira Nabiullina's deputy Vasily Pozdyshev. Over the past three years, the Central Bank really slammed dozens of credit institutions, now it seems to be trying to give them a new life under the leadership of their top managers. Bank "Yugra", "Trust", Tatfondbank, "FC Otkritie", Binbank - these are just those that are still well-known. The mechanism has been worked out. First, the auditors “suddenly” find a multi-billion dollar hole in the bank’s capital, which could not be noticed before only for a good reward (wasn’t this money found by law enforcement officers in the apartments of former colonels Dmitry Zakharchenko and Kirill Cherkalin?). Further, the owners of the bank are put out on the street, and the interim administration begins to master the billions generously provided by the Bank of Russia - salaries to top managers, payment for services of law firms, legal costs, business trips. Until 2017, it seems that managers from the Deposit Insurance Agency were engaged in such a “recovery”, now it is being done by the Banking Sector Consolidation Fund (FCBS). As they say, the same eggs, only in profile.

It is clear that state managers are trying to return the money to the bank that was shot down. The new management of Promsvyazbank filed a civil lawsuit against Dmitry and Alexei Ananiev, under which the court seized their property, including Moscow apartments and the Bombardier plane. But will this be enough to recover 282 billion rubles? If the brothers had been arrested in Russia in December 2017, the chances of a positive resolution to this issue would have looked more obvious.

By the way, in some rehabilitated banks, the costs of the work of the interim administration may be several times higher than the amount that it manages to recover from the former owners and borrowers. Vasily Pozdyshev recently admitted that the losses of the regulator from reorganization through the FKBS range from 750 billion to 1.44 trillion rubles (it is noteworthy that he could not name the exact amount, the “scatter” is 2 times). Apparently, no one will name the losses of the state from the reorganization of banks according to the old scheme, through the DIA. A real feast for state bankers!

The Ananyevs continue to be carriers of iconic compromising evidence. They also know something about the leadership of the Central Bank, which could "hold" the materials for the criminal case. And about the power bloc, which allowed them to leave the country after the story with carts of money and the export of paintings arrested in favor of the state bank. Not only were the brothers allowed to show off with their assets to their heart’s content, but their company Technoserv was also bought out for money, instead of just being taken away from Magomedov’s inmates. Why did this happen? There are few options. Either behind the Ananievs there is a person of unknown power to whom they returned the money through a deal with VTB, or this is a cunning calculation in order to devalue their compromising evidence. Who will believe the offended fugitives in Europe? Vaughn Chichvarkin and Khodorkovsky tried, but did not really get through to anyone.

The DIA's efforts to collect debts from fugitive Russian bankers are best illustrated by the lawsuit with the former owner of Vneshprombank, Georgy Bedzhamov. At the suit of the agency, the London High Court limited the former banker's spending to 90,000 euros per month. The rest should go to pay off his debts (the hole in the capital of Vneshprombank was 210 billion rubles). Now the unfortunate Bedzhamov has to live in a rented apartment. True, not in Biryulyovo, but in Monaco. The other day, he asked the court to allow him to spend 246,000 euros on rental housing - they say, otherwise he and his family will be put on the street. The judge granted this request, obliging the DIA to compensate Bedzhamov's legal costs for 40 thousand pounds. It seems that instead of protecting depositors, the agency, which exists on the money of the Russian state, feeds the British judiciary.