Kirill Lyubentsov and Alexander Lukin were found guilty of large embezzlement in favor of their crime boss.
The Tagansky Court of Moscow has sentenced Kirill Lyubentsov and Alexander Lukin, former chairmen of the boards of directors of Rost-Bank and Binbank, to eight years in prison, finding them guilty of especially large embezzlement and abuse. In 2014-2017, they caused damage to their organizations for 10.8 billion rubles by concluding “economically inexpedient transactions” and will now be obliged to reimburse it to their successor – the bank “Trust”. The case states that the bankers committed embezzlement in favor of a person whose case has been separated into a separate proceeding. This is apparently about the well-known financier Mikail Shishkhanov, who lives abroad.
The defendants Lyubentsov and Lukin, who have been under a ban on certain actions for a year, came to the verdict themselves. The announcement of the introductory and operative parts of the judgment took very little time.
The day before, in the debate of the parties, the prosecutor demanded to find both guilty of especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and abuse of power, which caused serious consequences (part 2 of article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), sentencing each to nine and a half years of general regime. The prosecutor also insisted on satisfaction of the claim of the injured party – the legal successor of the credit institutions of the bank of non-core assets “Trust” – for the amount of more than 10.8 billion rubles.
As established in the State Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, from December 2014 to September 2017, bankers Lukin and Lyubentsov together with “unidentified persons” through the commission of unprofitable for Binbank and Rost-bank transactions caused multi-billion dollar damage to the bank “Trust”. Moreover, the crimes were committed during the period of Binbank’s bailout of Rost-Bank, whose activities were terminated in 2018 by merging with Trust Bank.
According to the prosecution’s version, Stratola Investments Ltd, a company controlled by the defendants, received a loan of $40 million (at the then exchange rate – 2.6 billion rubles) from Rost-Bank in September 2015, which it never repaid. Stratola then obtained bonds worth more than 8.1 billion rubles from Rost-Bank for Finstandart LLC, Vale Finance LLC and Finstone LLC, which were stolen, which were stolen.
In the debates, the defense lawyers stated that Kirill Lyubentsov could not have been involved in the embezzlement of the loan issued to Stratola, since he himself only took a job at Rost-Bank in December 2015.
At the same time, the defense lawyers pointed out, there are no documents in the case file indicating Mr. Lyubentsov’s involvement in the issuance of the loan itself. It is true that in his position as chairman of the bank’s board of directors, he extended the loan repayment period three times. However, the defenders pointed out, these actions cannot be considered as the fact of embezzlement, as the money had already left the bank.
Representatives of the defendant drew attention to the fact that the prosecution had not specifically stated the motive for Mr. Lyubentsov’s unlawful actions, according to the investigation. Allegedly, the pre-manager of Rost-Bank embezzled funds not out of the usual personal self-interest in such cases, but out of the desire to “improve the financial situation of the person against whom the case was separated”. Officially, this person remains unidentified, but from other documents in the case it can be inferred that this is the former owner of Rost-Bank and Binbank shareholder Mikail Shishkhanov. He is not being prosecuted personally.
In addition, the lawyers insisted that the investigation has never proved that at the time of making managerial decisions Kirill Lyubentsov and Alexander Lukin knowingly knew that the recipients of the money or bonds would decide not to return or pay them. That means that in the case “there is no evidence confirming the defendants’ selfish motive or intent to commit embezzlement.
In turn, the lawyers argued, the damage caused to PJSC “Binbank” and JSC “Rost-Bank” amounted to only 0.33% of the value of their assets. Therefore, they noted, it is difficult to argue that “abuse of power has led to serious consequences.
The lawyers demanded to acquit the defendants on the charge of embezzlement, and to reclassify the charge of abuse of power from Part 2 to the less serious Part 1. 1. And since the statute of limitations had expired on this charge, the case should be dropped.
The court sentenced the ex-bankers to a year and a half less than the term requested by the state prosecution, taking them into custody in the courtroom. But taking into account the time served in pre-trial detention center and under house arrest, they will have to serve five years each. However, they still owe more than 10 billion rubles to Trust. It should be noted that the defendants are defendants in the arbitration court, and not so long ago in the High Court of London between “Trust” and the founder of O1 Group Boris Mints was concluded a settlement agreement, in which he recognized the obligations on the debts of Stratola and other companies mentioned in the criminal case.