Investigation Committee of the Russian Interior Ministry has completed a criminal investigation against the leaders of Russia's largest owner of warehouse property - JSC "Eurasia Logistics". CEO Alexander Volkov and his three subordinates are accused of defrauding the BTA Bank land in the suburbs. They do not admit guilt. A few more episodes for the same defendants have been identified in a separate proceeding, investigation into this matter continues.

 

The head of the investigation team investigating cases of particular importance when the UK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Oleg Urzhumtsev has announced  completion of investigation of the accused and their lawyers in Pre-Trial Detention Facility. As lawyer Andrey Gromakov, representing the interests of chief financial officer of "Eurasia Logistics" Artem Bondarenko told Kommersant , this event was expected, since a few days before that persons had been charged with finalized prosecution.

As it turned out, the final charge was reduced compared with the previous one. It appears to contain only one of eight original episodes - it is associated with the theft of land with total area of approximately 2,5 hectares, located in the Domodedovo district near Moscow from BTA Bank with the help of forged documents. CEO and co-owner of the company, Alexander Volkov, and the head of legal department Denis Vorotyntsev, director of economics Alexei Belov and finance director Artem Bondarenko are accused of fraud in large-scale and forgery. According to the lawyer, it followes from a conversation with the investigator, the remaining seven episodes had been highlighted in the new case; its investigation will also deal with investigation team headed by Mr. Urzhumtsev.

As Kommersant told repeatedly, according to investigators in late January 2009 the main shareholder of Kazakh bank BTA,Mukhtar Ablyazov learned about the decision of state bodies of Kazakhstan to nationalize the bank, which was in crisis. After that, according to investigators, the banker ordered to withdraw most liquid assets from the bank he pledged. Four of those arrested heads of OOO "Eurasia Logistics", according to the case, as well as general director of OOO "IPG Eurasia” Igor Kononkov and chairman of the board of directors of this company Arthur Trofimov (the latter two, as Mr. Ablyazov, are wanted by police) were the executors of this order, since, according to the investigation, their companies also belonged to Mr. Ablyazov.

Gentlemen Volkov and Vorotyntsev, according to investigators, forged the signature of a representative of the Kazakh BTA-Bank and made false contracts to terminate the contracts of pledge entered into by the bank with a dozen borrowers, including JSC "Russian Real Estate, LLC Investholdingstroy, LLC Story-elites, LLC "The project operator “Bylovo”", etc. After this, Artem Bondarenko and Alexei Belov, who had posts in "Eurasia Logistics" and also held the posts of general directors of JSC "Russkaya nedvizhimost" and "Stroy-elite", have signed these fakes on behalf of companies- creditors, and then registered them. As a result, land in the Domodedovo district, estimated at $ 848.2 million in the bank as collateral, was stolen from BTA Bank, according to investigators.