Suslov Matvei Aleksandrovich

Biography

2026: Sentence - 12 years in prison for embezzlement

In mid-January 2026, it became known that the Saratov Regional Court found the former chairman of the board of Econombank Matvey Suslov guilty in the case of embezzlement of more than 1 billion rubles. Several top managers of the credit institution were also in the dock.

According to investigators, in 2013, Suslov, together with the head of the legal department of Econombank, Andrei Babich, developed a plan to steal the institution's funds. The money was withdrawn by issuing unsecured non-refundable loans to several controlled organizations and individuals, as well as replacing the bank's liquid assets with illiquid ones. The case file includes Economy Factoring LLC, affiliated with the bank's management. It is alleged that the management of Econombank participated in the deliberate bankruptcy of this company in order to hide the consequences of embezzlement and withdraw assets. In 2014, the criminal group also included the adviser to the chairman of the board Denis Kononov, Alexey Kostin, Maxim Markelov and other persons (a total of 14 people appear in the case).

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Фото: Freepik

In July 2024, the Volzhsky District Court of the city of Saratov sentenced in this case: depending on the role and degree of participation, the defendants were found guilty under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud), paragraphs "a," "b," part 4 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (legalization of funds acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime), part 5 of Art. 33, Art. 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (complicity in intentional bankruptcy), Art. 196 of the Criminal Code. Suslov was assigned 12 years in a general regime colony, Babich and Kononov - 10 years each.

In December 2025, the Saratov Regional Court considered appeals: Suslov's sentence was commuted to 11.5 years in prison, Kononov and Babich - to 9.5 years in prison. Subsequently, the court reviewed the case returned from the cassation. As a result, he found Suslov, Babich, Kononov and the rest of the defendants guilty of embezzlement, but decided to release them from punishment for the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.^[1]

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