On the morning of 28 November 2013, police of the
Interior Ministry for the Central Federal District in Moscow issued a press
release stating that the first deputy CEO of an unnamed bank (первый
заместитель председателя правления банка), as well as the general director of
an unnamed leasing company related to the bank, had been arrested in Moscow on
suspicion of extortion and receiving illegal remuneration on a large scale.
The police press release stated that searches had
revealed that the two individuals had used the bank’s name under false
pretenses in order to extort a total of RUB 8,200,000 (USD 247,000). When an individual businessman, promised by
the bank a commission of RUB 24,000,000 in exchange for intermediating for the
bank in the buying and selling of office space in Moscow worth RUB 219,000,000,
attempted to claim his commission, he was reportedly threatened by the two
officers, being told that if he did not give them RUB 8,200,000 out of his RUB
24,000,000 commission, not only would he lose his commission but the RUB
219,000,000 would not be transferred to the receiver, a leasing company,
causing the leasing company to go bankrupt.
The individual businessman contacted the police, and when he met the
general director of the leasing company to hand over the extorted money, the
general director was arrested immediately, and the first deputy CEO of the bank
soon afterward.
Within an hour of the police press release, RIA
Novosti, citing an anonymous source in law enforcement, identified the bank
as RosDorBank. RosDorBank (ОАО «РосДорБанк»)
is the shortened form of the name Russian Joint-Stock Commercial Roads Bank («Российский
акционерный коммерческий дорожный банк» (открытое акционерное общество)),
one of the first commercial banks in Russia, opened in 1991 to finance road
construction. As of 1 November 2013 the
bank ranked #211 out of 867 commercial banks operating in Russia by assets,
with net assets (after provisions) of RUB 14.92 bln (USD 465 mln).
Later in the same morning investigative authorities
revealed that the two individuals had been released on bail. By early afternoon the press had noted that
the website of RosDorBank identifies its first deputy CEO as Aleksey V. Vinogradov
(Алексей Викторович Виноградов). That
same day, however, RosDorBank issued a press release confirming the arrest of
the manager of its risk department, Vladimir V. Podlipnov (Владимир
Владимирович Подлипнов), but denying the arrest of the First Deputy CEO Vinogradov,
noting that Vinogradov was present at work.
The manager of the risk department, Podlipnov, was one
of five persons on the bank’s management board. His profile has since been removed from the
“Management” page of the RosDorBank’s website, but is still available in Google
cache, and is reproduced below.
Below is an image of the profile data given for
Podlipnov in the cached copy of the English version of the page:
Later on 28 November a video was published showing the arrest of one of the suspects and the finding of a large amount of cash inside his Lada car:
Video of arrest, with finding of money in car
(click to open page, scroll down to start video)
Police have asked for citizens affected by the
activities of the detainees or who have any information about their illegal
activities to contact the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal
District at 6 Shabolovka Street, Moscow, or telephone 8 (499) 764-51-36.
In a noted earlier case, in May 2013 the CEO of Russia’s 9th-largest bank, Rosbank (ОАО АКБ «Росбанк»), Vladimir Golubkov (Владимир Голубков) was arrested for accepting bribes, and the bank’s Senior Vice President, Tamara Polyanitsyna (Тамара Поляницына), was arrested for complicity in bribery.
Sources:
Police press
release: В Москве задержаны
подозреваемые в получении незаконного денежного вознаграждения (2013-11-28
10:17)
RIA
Novosti news article: Топ-менеджер Росдорбанка
задержан в Москве за вымогательство (2013-11-28 10:26, updated 2013-11-28
12:52)
Interfax news article: Зампредседателя
правления Росдорбанка и бизнесмен задержаны в Москве по обвинению в
вымогательстве (2013-11-28 11:52)
Pravo news article: Задержан зампред
"Росдорбанка", вымогавший треть 24-миллионного гонорара
клиента-риелтора (2013-11-29 13:16)
Komsomolskaya
Pravda article containing video of
arrest and finding of money: В
Москве за вымогательство задержан заместитель председателя правления
«РосДорБанка» (2013-11-28)
RosDorBank
press release: Пресс-релиз
(2013-11-28)
RosDorBank
website – Bank management: Правление
Банка
Bank’s ranking
by net assets as of 2013-11-01: Рэнкинги
банков
Bank of
Russia’s data page on RosDorBank: "Российский
акционерный коммерческий дорожный банк" (открытое акционерное общество)
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