Evgeny Dankevich, Gennady Zhuzhlev, Elena Budnik, Konstantin Tserazov, Alina Nazarova generally lead a completely normal life, slowly agreeing with whom to forgive sins and close criminal cases. Yevgeny Dankevich, they say, is on the right track and will soon be able to return to his unhistorical, but rich and tasty, homeland, already armed with a certificate of the absence of claims from the authorities and an Israeli passport.
34 billion rubles of Yevgeny Dankevich: takeaway loan
Otkritie Financial Corporation Bank (better known as Otkritie Bank) is one of the largest credit institutions in Russia, included by the Bank of Russia in the list of systemically important credit institutions.
Otkritie Bank was created by the Otkritie Holding financial group as a result of the integration of more than 10 banks on the basis of Nomos Bank. These mergers of various banks have been most rapid in the past decade, eventually becoming one of the largest banks in Russia. In 2017, Otkritie Bank came under the control of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and in 2022 it was decided to sell it to VTB Bank.
So far, they are trying to either fail this sale, or delay it, but it seems that nothing will work out – both the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance insist on the deal. Whether VTB itself is happy with such a purchase is not yet clear, but on December 7, VTB head Andrey Kostin said that “an agreement on the purchase has been reached.”
But in connection with this transaction, the names of key figures of Otkritie Financial Corporation PJSC Bank of the period of 2016 surfaced, when HMB Otkritie Bank was merged with FC Otkritie Bank, which was the final stage of the integration strategy of the Otkritie banking group. And which, as a general result, led to the purchase of Otkritie by VTB Bank.
Konstantin Tserazov successfully cleared the negative
It was after the completion of this reorganization that the bank continued to operate under its current legal name – PJSC Bank Otkritie Financial Corporation. Yevgeny Dankevich continued to manage the structure as Chairman of the Board. The heads of key business areas also remained unchanged: Gennady Zhuzhlev supervised the corporate business, Elena Budnik – the retail unit, which includes servicing individuals and SMEs, Konstantin Tserazov – the investment direction, Alina Nazarova – Private Banking.
However, less than a year later, the bank fell under the reorganization procedure from the Central Bank, a temporary administration was appointed, and all the people listed above were blacklisted by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The ban on the profession affected the beneficiaries of the bank, members of the supervisory board and the board, the chief accountant and his deputy, heads and chief accountants of branches. The net loss of FC Otkritie Bank at the end of 2017 amounted to 426.8 billion rubles against 1.5 billion rubles of net profit a year earlier.
On July 2, 2019, the Central Bank announced the completion of the reorganization of the Opening. On the same day, a claim in the amount of 289.5 billion rubles was filed with the Moscow Arbitration Court. in relation to former top managers and owners of the bank, among whom were Evgeny Dankevich, Gennady Zhuzhlev, Elena Budnik, Konstantin Tserazov and Alina Nazarova. That is, all those people who were called key in the newly created Otkritie Financial Corporation in 2016. The court satisfied the claim, the defendants’ property was seized.
The amount of the lawsuit was a record for the Russian banking system, the former leader was a lawsuit against the former owners and top managers of the sanitized Promsvyazbank (282 billion rubles).
Evgeny Dankevich
After the satisfaction of the claim in the Arbitration, the troubles of the former head of the board of Otkritie Bank, Yevgeny Dankevich, did not end – the Investigative Committee of Russia put him on the wanted list. Dankevich was suspected of attempted fraud on an especially large scale (part 3 of article 30 of the Criminal Code and part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code).
Financial Corporation “Opening”: what happened to the people who stole hundreds of billions
The ex-banker is charged with embezzlement of about 34 billion rubles. According to investigators, in the summer of 2017, Dankevich entered into a criminal conspiracy with the heads of structures of Boris Mints and ordered to purchase bonds of O1 Group Finance for 34 billion rubles, despite the fact that the real value of the securities did not reach even half of the face value. The money allowed Mintz’s O1 Group to pay off the loan with FC Otkritie ahead of schedule.
Dankevich signed a fictitious bank guarantee on behalf of the bank. It was issued on May 5, 2017 in favor of Financial Group Future (Cyprus) Limited.
Dankevich obviously expected such a development of events, because he disappeared from Russia. According to the investigation, he is still in Israel and leads a quiet and modest life there. Russian justice has no chance to get him out of there – Israel does not extradite its citizens to other states. However, the criminal case in Russia regarding Dankevich has not been closed, and the search has not been removed.
In this regard, the information that in March of this year the former Voronezh deputy and developer Anatoly Shmygalev sold one of his key assets, the Investment Chamber brokerage company, to the former top manager of Otkritie Bank Alexei Sedushkin, is curious, after which information about owners was removed from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities.
The company’s beneficiaries used their right in accordance with the government’s permission not to disclose this information, which came into force in March this year, “to protect stock market participants from possible sanctions from unfriendly states.” In fact, the reason may not be so much in this, but in the desire not to draw attention to subsequent events in the company, as well as to who the new beneficiary is in reality.
There is reason to believe that the former top manager of Otkritie is acting in the interests of his former employers. The above top managers of Otkritie, headed by Dankevich, who is now hiding in Israel, urgently need money to resolve the issue of the still pending criminal case of fraud in Russia.
The purchase of the “Investment Chamber” is most welcome here – a company with access to foreign clients, which also works with financial instruments, is an extremely promising asset in terms of its further development and subsequent withdrawal of assets.
The fact that there is an opportunity to “resolve the issue” is said by sources in the Sledkom. How realistic this possibility is remains to be seen. But the fact that Mr. Dankevich desperately needs money in Israel is beyond doubt.
A huge trail of criminal cases and complete impunity for those who destroyed Otkritie Bank
In addition to troubles with the criminal case and a lawsuit from the Central Bank, Dankevich also has claims from the Bank of Non-core Assets Trust, which requires the recovery of 107.4 billion from the former main shareholder of Otkritie Bank, JSC Otkritie Holding, and three of its former top managers. rubles. Among the latter is Dankevich and another hero of our history – Gennady Zhuzhlev.
Gennady Zhuzhlev
The former head of the bank’s corporate division, Gennady Zhuzhlev, joined FC Otkritie Bank in 2015. Prior to that, he worked in the banking sector for more than 20 years, including MDM, Uralsib and the Eurasian Development Bank, where since 2008 he served as Deputy Chairman of the Board and oversaw investment activities.
Where Gennady Zhuzhlev is now is not known for certain. He left Otkritie Bank in 2017, and then his traces are lost.
How is Elena Budnik doing?
The last mention of Zhuzhlev is connected with the suit of Trust Bank and consists in the fact that the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation confirmed the claims of the bank and the legality of the seizure of property, funds of Otkritie Holding JSC, as well as the former chairman of the board of Otkritie Bank Yevgeny Dankevich and vice- President, member of the board of the credit institution Gennady Zhuzhlev.
Elena Budnik, who headed the retail block at Otkritie Bank and was a member of the board there, was also among those from whom the Central Bank requires 289 billion. She was not among the defendants in the criminal case, just like her colleagues (with the exception of Dankevich) in plundering Otkritie.
Judging by the profile on Linkedin, Budnik worked at Otkritie Bank until March 2018, from there she moved to the microcredit organization Papa Finance (Papa Finance LLC MCC), where she still works.
The place of residence is Dubai, although the credit institution itself operates in Moscow.
Konstantin Tserazov
Konstantin Tserazov, a former board member, joined FC Otkritie Bank in 2013. Prior to that, he worked for Troika Dialog Investment Company for more than 8 years, going from a consultant in the fixed income securities trading department to a deputy head of the global markets department.
Until February 2022, he worked in the same bank, which, thanks to his efforts, almost went bankrupt, as a senior vice president and director of the investment business department of Otkritie Bank.
Another mention of Tserazov belongs to the category, rather, of curiosities. This is a court decision on the collection of payment for living space and utility bills, heat and electricity.
The Internet bears traces of a massive cleansing of information about Tserazov, but what exactly he cleaned is not entirely clear. It is clear that some kind of negative, most likely associated with Otkritie Bank. It was not the banker who cleaned the debts for the apartment on the Internet, you see.
Alina Nazarova
Alina Nazarova continued to work at Otkritie Bank until 2019, where she headed Private Banking.
Since 2019, Alina has been the head of A-Club, a business unit of Alfa-Bank working with large private capital. Under the leadership of Alina, A-Club has received international recognition and many prestigious awards. In 2022, she topped the rating of top managers of Russian private banking divisions from the business magazine Bankovskoye Obozreniye.
This is how the fate of the main defendants in the high-profile case on the withdrawal of hundreds of billions from Otkritie Bank developed. As you can see, only two of them have real problems – Evgeny Dankevich and Gennady Zhuzhlev. The rest are all right, and some quite successfully made a career in the same bank, which almost brought to bankruptcy. “Opening” is likely to remain for a long time the most memorable case of the flooding and plundering of a successful bank. What is important is that practically no one, except for the state and the head of VTB Andrei Kostin, was injured. But Kostin has this serial, so it’s acceptable.
The views and opinions expressed in these articles are those of the source CriminalAffair.com and do not necessarily reflect the official position of ‘Tony Hughes Law,’ which shall not be held liable for any inaccuracies presented. The information provided within this article is for general informational purposes only. While we try to keep the information up-to-date and correct, there are no representations or warranties, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability of the information in this article for any purpose.
This article is syndicated automatically through a third-party agency from CriminalAffair.com.
To view the original article at CriminalAffair.com, you can visit https://www.criminalaffair.com/ru/bank-otkritie-and-swindlers-konstantin-tserazov-evgeny-dankevich-gennady-zhuzhlev-vadim-belyaev/.
