Lavrentyev Alexander Sergeyevich

Biography

2023: Arrest in the case of embezzlement of 900 million rubles

On June 26, 2023, it became known that the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR) is investigating a criminal case on the embezzlement of almost 900 million rubles from the funds of the Financial and Industrial Bank (Finprombank). As part of operational measures, Alexander Lavrentiev was arrested, who held the position of deputy head of the credit department in Finprombank.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the case is related to the issuance of large non-repayable loans to individuals, which were not serviced until the bank revoked its license in 2016. The largest of them is a $11 million loan issued to Andrei Vdovin, co-owner of ATB Bank and the ABC of Taste network. At the same time, Vdovin was arrested in absentia in 2018 and put on the international wanted list as part of an investigation into the embezzlement of a total of $13 million in the ATB itself.

Alexander Lavrentiev, ex-deputy head of the credit department, was arrested in the case of embezzlement of 900 million rubles in Finprombank

The TFR began investigating the circumstances of a particularly large embezzlement in Finprombank (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) after representatives of the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) appealed to law enforcement agencies with a request to give a legal assessment of the activities of the management of the credit institution. The case is conducted by the first department of the department for the investigation of crimes against state power and in the field of economics of the main investigation department of the TFR. The same department, as it clarifies, since Kommersant November 22, 2017 has been conducting another case of Finprombank - about the fraudulent embezzlement of funds of a credit institution on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) with damage of 5.6 billion rubles.

After the merger of the two named cases, it became known about the arrest of Lavrentiev. He was charged with embezzlement, and the Basmanny Court of the capital, at the request of the investigation, authorized the conclusion of the financier in the pre-trial detention center. Lavrentiev himself does not admit guilt. It is also noted that they tried to bring Alexander Lavrentiev to subsidiary liability at the suit of the DIA, but the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District refused this without recognizing him as the controlling person of the bank.^[1]

2024: Sentence - 6 years in prison for embezzlement of ₽8,6 billion

On December 12, 2024, the Meshchansky Court of Moscow sentenced Alexander Lavrentiev, former deputy director of the credit operations department of the Financial and Industrial Bank, to six years in a general regime colony for embezzlement of ₽8,6 billion. In addition to imprisonment, he was fined more than ₽1 million.

According to Interfax, the court fully satisfied the civil claim of the Deposit Insurance Agency against Alexander Lavrentiev. The former top manager of the bank was found guilty of embezzlement committed by a person using his official position organized by the group on an especially large scale.

The investigation established that Alexander Lavrentiev acted as part of an organized group, which included persons from among the shareholders controlling the credit institution and its property. He acted as a representative of the bank when concluding transactions, freely signing irrevocable loan agreements with borrowers without proper security.

In the period from 2014 to 2016, Alexander Lavrentiev and other members of the group organized the theft of bank funds by concluding contracts for the sale and purchase of securities with a controlled foreign company, as well as contracts for issuing large deliberately bad loans to individuals.

The Financial and Industrial Bank lost its license in September 2016. The Bank of Russia substantiated the decision by the fact that the bank did not timely fulfill its obligations to creditors due to the unsatisfactory quality of assets that did not generate sufficient cash flow.

A criminal case on embezzlement of bank funds was initiated in the fall of 2017. The investigation established all the circumstances of criminal activity and collected the necessary evidence of the defendant's involvement in the theft of bank funds.^[2]

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