Popov Dmitry Aleksandrovich

Biography

2024: Sentence - 5 years in prison for embezzlement of 0.5 billion rubles

The Leninsky District Court of Perm sentenced the former co-owner of the Vitus investment group Dmitry Popov to 5 years in prison for damage fraud of more than ₽504 million. This became known in early August 2024.

According to Interfax, the court found that from 2016 to 2019, Popov, under the guise of concluding loan agreements, stole shares and funds belonging to Vitus Investments LLC and Profit Plus LLC. Loans were not secured and were deliberately non-refundable. As a result, companies were unable to meet obligations to depositors.

Freepik

In addition to imprisonment in a general regime colony, the court sentenced Popov to a fine of ₽500 thousand. He is also deprived of the right to engage in organizational, administrative and administrative activities in commercial organizations for a period of 1 year and 6 months. The court decided to recover from the convict in favor of the victims the full amount of material damage caused.

A criminal case on causing damage to customers of the Vitus group of companies was initiated by the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Perm Territory at the end of summer 2020. Law enforcement agencies began verification activities in the holding back in 2019, when clients of the investment company began to contact the Central Bank, the police and the courts with complaints about non-payment of dividends and non-return of shares after revoking the license from the IC in the summer of 2018.

Popov acquired the Vitus group of companies in 2016. In February 2018, the ownership structure of IC Vitus LLC changed: Popov left the co-founders of the company, while 43.56% in its authorized capital was received by the capital's Volga Capital PJSC, in which he served as deputy general director and was a member of the board of directors.

In July 2018, the Central Bank revoked Vitus's license for market manipulation operations. The subsidiaries of the company - Vitus Investments LLC and Profit Plus LLC - were declared insolvent. Popov himself was also declared bankrupt by a decision of the Arbitration Court of the Kaliningrad Region in July 2019.^[1]

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