Probusinessbank

2020: Seizure of ex-executives' property

In March 2020, the Deposit Insurance Agency, five years after the license was revoked, decided to seize the property of six former leaders of Probusinessbank for 62 billion rubles.

The arrest was imposed on the assets of the former board member and co-owner of the bank Alexander Zheleznyak, ex-board member Dmitry Dylnov, former board member Alexander Lomov, vice president Vyacheslav Kazantsev. The court did not arrest the property of the former vice president of the bank and Eldar Bikmaev and deputy head of the department Nadir Arifulin and Natalia Zhurkina.

According to the Banksta telegram channel, behind the beautiful figure of 62 billion "there is a complete zero - the bankers have long withdrawn and sold all the property."

2019

Creditors filed 6 complaints to the ECHR about the actions of the DIA

About 200 people of the creditors of Probusinessbank, which lost its license in 2015, filed six complaints with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The applicants are legal entities that are included in the third stage of creditors, the amount of their claims in the bankruptcy procedure of Probusinessbank is about 2.1 billion rubles.

The applicants indicate that due to the actions of the Deposit Insurance Agency, Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1 and Art. 13 of the European Convention, because of which they lost their property and the right to receive effective protection in court. As an example, creditors cite the transfer of DIA assets to Probusinessbank's subsidiaries, calling it illegal: issuance the day before the license was revoked, 1.375 billion rubles. subsidiary banks Express-Volga, Solidarity, Gazenergobank, University Bank and Let's Go! And the removal of DIA two days before the introduction of the temporary administration of its deposit of 500 million rubles. The applicants do not agree with the inclusion of subsidiaries in the register of creditors, and with the refusal of the DIA to give independent creditors access to documents.

Top managers sentenced to three to seven years in prison

In July 2019, the Moscow court issued a verdict in the case of top managers of Probusinessbank, which owed customers 83 billion rubles. The defendants in the case were accused of embezzlement of 2.4 billion rubles. and received from three to seven years in prison.

The accused were Vyacheslav Kazantsev, vice president for corporate business development at the bank, Kirill Artemov, former head of the project financing department, and Sergei Kalachev, general director of the Life collection agency.

To withdraw the stolen funds of the bank abroad, loans were used for shell companies and accounts opened in one of the main washing banks in Latvia, Trasta Komercbanka.

The beneficiaries of the withdrawal of funds from Probusinessbank Sergey Leontyev and Alexander Zheleznyak are in the United States and put on the federal and international wanted list. The likelihood of their extradition from the United States looks unlikely.

2015

License Revocation

On August 7, 2015, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation introduced external management in Probusinessbank. Co-owner of the bank, Sergei Leontyev, then told employees that this was a temporary measure taken by the regulator due to the fact that Probusinessbank allowed a decrease in standards.

In August 2015, the Bank of Russia announced the revocation of its license from Probusinessbank. Such a decision, according to a statement circulated by the Central Bank, was made "in connection with the credit institution's failure to comply with federal laws regulating banking activities, as well as Bank of Russia regulations, the value of all ratios of the adequacy of own funds below 2 percent, a decrease in the size of own funds below the minimum value of the authorized capital."

Probusinessbank (part of the Life Financial Group) (general license of the Central Bank No. 2412) was created on July 7, 1993, served 7.5 thousand legal entities and about 460 thousand private individuals. Probusinessbank was part of the mandatory deposit insurance system, holds positions among the fifty largest national banks in terms of assets. The priority area for Probusinessbank was the provision of products and services for large corporate clients, SMEs and individuals: lending, deposits, settlement and cash services, bank safes, international financing, commission products, money transfers, remote services, operations in financial markets and other areas of traditional banking business.

Bank employee transfers documents on suspicious transactions to the Central Bank

One of the main reasons for the revocation of the license from Probusinessbank in 2015 was the documents transferred to the Central Bank by an employee of the financial institution itself, the Financial Times wrote in December 2022.

Top manager Peter handed over to the Central Bank documents on suspicious schemes with Cypriot offshore companies. He told the FT that he became a whistleblower to the Central Bank, as he feared that he himself could become accused of illegal bank operations. According to Peter, his first meeting with a representative of the Central Bank was held in a bar on the outskirts of Moscow. As a result, these documents were not used in court, but they helped Bank of Russia employees understand where to look.