Tusarbank

2015: License Revocation

In September 2015, the Bank of Russia revoked the banking license from Moscow Tusarbank. Reportedly, the bank pursued a high-risk credit policy and did not create adequate loan loss provisions for accepted risks. Due to the unsatisfactory quality of assets that did not generate sufficient cash flow, the bank did not fulfill its obligations to depositors. The compliance of Tusarbank with the requirement of the supervisory authority to form provisions for possible losses commensurate with the accepted risks led to a critical decrease in the standards for the sufficiency of own funds. The bank has appointed a temporary administration for a period of validity until the appointment of a bankruptcy trustee or liquidator. The powers of the executive bodies of the credit institution have been suspended. Tusarbank is a member of the deposit insurance system.

2019

The co-founders of the bank were obliged to return 14.2 billion rubles

In January 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court, at the suit of the DIA, brought to subsidiary liability four people who controlled Tusar Bank. Among them was the hiding Andrei Efremov. In total, he, together with other defendants, was obliged to return 14.2 billion rubles.

Bank co-founder Andrei Efremov detained in Germany

Co-founder of Tusar Bank Andrei Efremov, who was wanted by Interpol, was detained in Munich. After the deprivation of the license in September 2015, his bank owed clients 17 billion rubles.

Since 2018, it has been listed in the international base of Interpol.

In Munich, the Russian ex-banker arrived from the United States and planned to transit to Dubai. However, instead, he was sent to a local prison, where until 2020 he waited for consideration of the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of Russia for extradition.

The criminal case was initiated by the investigative department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in April 2017 at the request of the DIA. It dealt with the theft of money from three banks at once - "Tusar" (debt 17.2 billion rubles), "Investment Union" (more than 5 billion rubles) and "Pulse of the capital" (730 million rubles). All of them, according to Kommersant, lost their licenses more than three years ago due to a highly risky credit policy, dubious operations to withdraw money abroad in large volumes, as well as a complete loss of their own funds. However, problems may arise with the extradition of Mr. Efremov due to the execution by unknown persons in Berlin of the former field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili.

2020

Germany refused to extradite A. Efremov to Russia and he flew to the United States

The judge had to postpone several first meetings in Germany in the case of the extradition of Andrei Efremov, which took place in the spring of 2020, due to the fact that the Russian side could not provide convincing evidence of Mr. Efremov's involvement in the alleged crime.

The relevant materials of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office were to be prepared and sent by the senior investigator for especially important cases of the Investigation Department (SD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Alexander Bryantsev, who was conducting the theft case from Tusar Bank. However, this never happened. In early April 2020, investigator Bryantsev, together with two deputy heads of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Major Generals Alexander Biryukov and Alexander Krakovsky, was arrested for alleged abuse of office (part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The other day, all three arrest was extended until September 1.

All three are accused by the TFR of illegally transferring businessman Albert Khudoyan from the pre-trial detention center to house arrest in November 2019 and removing the arrest from land plots.

In particular, it was the investigator Bryantsev who acted as the direct executor, who thereby, according to the investigation, wanted to curry favor with the generals, who allegedly hoped to then receive a large sum from the developer. Moreover, after the scandal with arrests from the SD, two immediate bosses of the mister Bryantsev, Andrei Metsger and Sergey Murashov, were dismissed for official violations, and the head of the department, Lieutenant General Alexander Romanov, was dismissed by presidential decree.

After, in addition to the German lawyer, his colleague, who flew from the United States, entered the case, the ex-banker Efremov's chances of being in Russia became completely illusory. One of the decisive arguments against extradition, in addition to the documents never received from Russia, was the statement of the American defender that Andrei Efremov has a residence permit in the United States and he is formally already a citizen of this country. The ex-banker himself also opposed returning to his homeland. As a result, the case ended with the refusal to extradite Mr. Efremov, who, after his release, flew to the United States.

The case over the alleged accomplices of Andrei Efremov

In the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow in May 2020, the trial is underway over the alleged accomplices of Andrei Efremov, including the ex-chairman of the board of Tusar Bank Vladimir Kagan. The defendants in the case were charged with issuing in 2014-2015 deliberately bad loans to one-day firms controlled by them for 1.4 billion rubles. At the same time, as reported by Kommersant, hundreds of barrels with expensive chemical raw materials were indicated as collateral in loan agreements, in which ordinary water actually turned out to be.

2023: Kagan Vladimir - imprisonment for 11 years and a fine of 1.6 million rubles. for fraud on an especially large scale

In early February 2023, a debate was held in the Simonovsky Court of Moscow on the case of bankers from three credit institutions. The defendants are accused of embezzling approximately 1.5 billion rubles by issuing bad loans secured by barrels of "expensive chemical raw materials," which in fact turned out to be ordinary water. Read more here.