Millers Vasily Vasilyevich

Biography

2026: Sentence - 6 years in prison for embezzlement of billions of rubles

On February 6, 2026, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Vasily Melnikov, Deputy Chairman of the Board of SB Bank. He received 6 years in prison in the case of embezzlement of billions of rubles from a credit institution.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, the case against Melnikov was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - misappropriation or embezzlement committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale. According to the investigation, the defendant participated in a scheme to withdraw funds from SB Bank under the guise of unsecured loans. The total amount of damage amounted to about 11 billion rubles.

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Фото: Unsplash

In February 2015, the Bank of Russia revoked the banking license from SB Bank. The regulator said that the financial institution pursued a high-risk credit policy related to the placement of funds in low-quality assets. The Bank has completely lost its own funds and due to the loss of liquidity has not fulfilled its obligations to creditors in a timely manner. At the same time, the organization submitted inaccurate reports to the Central Bank. The managers and owners of the bank did not take effective measures to normalize its activities.

The state prosecutor asked to sentence Melnikov to five and a half years in a general regime colony, but the court appointed the defendant six months more. In addition, a fine of 800 thousand rubles was imposed on him. The civil claim declared by the state corporation Deposit Insurance Agency in the interests of the bank in the amount of more than 10 billion rubles was satisfied in full. The arrest of Melnikov's property rights and funds was preserved until the execution of the verdict. The defendant's defense announced its intention to appeal the verdict.^[1]

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