Pugachev Sergei Viktorovich

Biography

2010: Revocation of the bank's license and emigration from Russia

Sergey Pugachev, until 2010 was on the Forbes list, left Russia after the revocation of his license and the bankruptcy of Mezhprombank in 2010. The Investigative Committee opened a case against him on the appropriation of property on an especially large scale.

London detective agency Diligence, in the interests of the Deposit Insurance Agency, bribed butler Sergei Pugachev and tried to convince the ex-banker's lawyer to testify against him in court.

Diligence collaborates with the expensive law firm Hogan Lovells, which was hired by the DIA in 2015, which is looking for assets of fugitive bankers abroad, writes NYT. According to the newspaper, in 2017, the head of Diligence in London, Trefor Williams, met in the bar of the Nice hotel with Pugachev's lawyer Natalya Dozortseva. "Mixing flattery with money offers," he invited her to oppose the client, the newspaper writes. Williams described three options with different rewards: "gold," "silver" and "bronze," writes NYT. "Bronze" assumed that Dozortseva would tell detectives everything she knew about Pugachev; "silver" - will give a statement under oath; "gold" - will testify against the ex-banker in court. In exchange, Williams promised Dozortseva "financial independence" and the opportunity to freely come to and leave Russia thanks to his contacts in Moscow.

Bureau of Investigative Journalism learned about the conversation thanks to a secret recording. The conversation was recorded by Dozortseva herself, who refused the offer of detectives and informed Pugachev about her meeting in advance. Diligence's appeal to Dozortseva was organized by Pugachev's butler and driver Jim Perrishon - an amateur pianist, a fan of Russia and its culture. Perrishon told the newspaper that in exchange for monitoring Pugachev and access to some documents, the firm promised him monthly payments. "I realized that if we can recruit Natalia, we can crush Pugachev," he said. As a result, Diligence, according to Perrishon, did not pay him in full.

2025: Absentee sentence - 14 years in prison

The Tver court of Moscow sentenced in absentia the former owner of Mezhprombank Sergei Pugachev, who is in France, to 14 years in a general regime colony in the case of multibillion-dollar embezzlement and abuse of power with a fine of 800 thousand rubles. Such a verdict in May 2025 was announced by the court, leaving in force the arrest of Pugachev's property. The court satisfied the claim of the injured party - Mezhprombank, withdrawing 28 billion 738 million rubles in favor of the Deposit Insurance Agency.^[1]

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