Toguzaev Konstantin Yuryevich

Biography

2023: Arrest in absentia in $8 million embezzlement case

At the end of November 2023, the Tagansky Court of Moscow arrested the former chairman of the board of Lightbank Konstantin Toguzaev in absentia. He is announced in the theft of an amount of $8 million from the accounts of one of the bank's clients.

According to Kommersant, consideration of the petition for absentee arrest passed quickly. The investigator explained that Toguzaev is accused of large-scale fraud, fled from the investigation and left Russia. According to investigators, Toguzaev kept part of the stolen currency for himself, while most of the stolen funds were sold to nine individuals.

Former chairman of LightBank arrested in absentia

According to the sources of the publication, the client in question in the case is Spetsmetroproekt LLC. Toguzaev sold the funds stolen from the company, and transferred part to the account of Mosstroyrestavratsiya PJSC, which is also a client of Lightbank.

Toguzaev stopped appearing at the workplace in February 2018, and a month later the bank's license was revoked. At the time of the recall, the bank's debts to customers amounted to more than 1.7 billion rubles. As the regulator explained, Lightbank worked on a high-risk business model, especially in the field of lending to individuals.

The interim administration, which carried out external management of the bank after the revocation of the license, revealed during the audit of employees "signs of theft of property and concealment of previously carried out operations to withdraw assets by lending to borrowers who obviously did not have the ability to fulfill their obligations, as well as organizations that did not conduct real economic activities." The Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) recovered 1.2 billion rubles from the top management of the bank (including Toguzaev) during the trial.

In addition to stealing customer funds, Toguzaev is also accused of real estate fraud - in 2016, the Lightbank building in a historic mansion on Novaya Basmannaya was sold to the general director of Mosstroyrestavratsiya Natig Veliyev. The investigation claims that the money was not paid, and the IOUs are fake, therefore, the transaction is fictitious.^[1]

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