The Tverskoy Court of Moscow has appointed the first hearing in the case against the former head of the European Express bank Oleg Kuzmin for March 1. There will be few sittings, since Kuzmin has concluded a pre-trial agreement and his case will be considered in a special order. As part of the deal with the investigation, he testified against more than ten owners, managers and employees of Russian banks involved in one of the largest laundering canals - the Laundromat. Among them there were many interesting characters, in respect of whom the investigators and officers of the Internal Security Service of the FSB of the Russian Federation are now actively working (they carry out operational support in the case). In particular, the banker Dmitry Rubinov, through whose banks the French National Front party Marine Le Pen was financed, was among the persons who collected testimony in the "Laundromat case." The evidence of Kuzmin was at the disposal of Ruvcriminal.info.
In the materials of the "Laundromat case" one can often find the name of Dmitry Rubinov; sometimes his business partner, Senator Alexander Babakov, is also mentioned. Witnesses testify that Babakov, being the actual owner of TempBank, was a member of the Laundromat and helped to withdraw money from Russia. In turn, Dmitry Rubinov, participated in the "Laundromat", as the actual owner of the banks "KB Strategy" and "NKB". Babakov and Rubinov were Russian sponsors of the French National Front party Marine Le Pen. On March 17, 2016, Le Pen's confidant, MP Schaffhauser, met with Senator Babakov in Geneva to discuss the financing of Le Pen's campaign. The National Front approved the issue in the summer, and in the fall this bank lost its license, then the loan agreement was transferred to the NKB Bank, both banks controlled by Dmitry Rubinov.
Rucriminal.info introduces readers to a fragment of one of Kuzmin's interrogations dedicated to Rubinov.
“Question of the investigator to the accused: What was the criminal role of the actual owners of the Bank“ Strategy ”Rubinova DG? and Poletaeva M.The. in the "Moldovan scheme"?
Response of the accused: Rubinov D.G. and Poletaev M.The. in 2013 they were the ultimate beneficiaries of the Strategy Bank. I met Dmitry in 2013. I learned later that Dmitry had the surname Rubinov. My meeting with him (Rubinov D.) was accidental in one of the restaurants in Moscow, which I do not remember after the time had passed. In this restaurant, I had already planned a meeting with my acquaintance named Nikita, I don’t know the last name at which the latter was with D. Rubinov. Then Nikita introduced D. Rubinov to me as the owner of the Strategy Bank and subsequently as a relative of a former high-ranking employee of the Ministry economy of Russia, without giving his name. Nikita had his own IT company, whose name I don’t remember, I don’t know the address of its location, since he never had it. Nikita and I often met and discussed the development and maintenance of a banking program for my bank. Due to the fact that ready-made software solutions were very expensive for me, I often used his services. I don’t remember the circumstances of my acquaintance with Nikita. The circumstances of Nikita's acquaintance with Rubinov D.G., I do not know. The purpose of their meeting is unknown to me. At this meeting, Rubinov D.G. I was introduced by Nikita as the owner of the European Express bank. We did not talk about any interbank work and agreed to talk about it later regarding cooperation between our banks. After some time, Nikita arranged a meeting for me at the Bank "Strategy", located on the Savinskaya embankment in Moscow, I do not know the exact address, in order to discuss the work of our banks. In the summer of 2013, I arrived at the indicated address in this bank, where I, Nikita, the head of the security service of the bank “Strategy (I don’t remember his name and surname after the lapse of time), I remember that he was of Slavic appearance, short stature, with bald patches on her head, black hair, and an employee named Tatiana, as far as I remember, from which department of the bank she was, I do not know, met in the negotiation room inside the bank, where they began to discuss various schemes of interaction between our banks (interbank loans, partner opening of settlement accounts to bank clients, buying and selling currency, buying and selling securities, REPO transactions, etc.).
These meetings were held in the same composition three or four times within the Bank "Strategy". At one of these meetings, when discussing the issue of buying and selling non-cash currency, I said that I buy currency on the interbank market and sell it to Moldindconbank, for which either the above-mentioned head of the security service or Tatyana told me that they were already working directly themselves with "Moldindkonoank" and buy for them currency, that is, they also work, as it turned out, with them according to the "Moldovan scheme" and they are not interested in working with my bank. Also, during one of the meetings I learned that the second co-owner of the bank was Roman Poletaev. I was not personally acquainted with this person, I only know that he was a former employee of the Central Bank of Russia, he held the position of deputy head or head of the settlement and cash center in the said bank.
After a certain period of time, maybe a year, after these meetings with the above persons, one of my clients of my bank named Roman, I don’t remember his last name, currently lives in the United States, confirmed to me that Roman Poletaev is a former employee Of the Central Bank of Russia. Also, I learned that my client named Roman was served both as a client in the Bank "Strategy", as well as in the Bank "Baltika", the ultimate beneficiary of which was Oleg Vlasov. Roman informed me that Vlasov O. and Poletaev R. maintain close friendly relations with each other. As a result, the work between my bank and the "Strategy" bank did not take place, due to the unreachable agreements, since my bank was a "small" bank for the "Strategy" bank, and their bank was very "expensive" for me in terms of services. bank. When in 2014. my bank's license was revoked, all my contacts with Nikita immediately ended. Rubinov D., Poletaev R., including the head of the security service of the Bank "Strategy" funds outside the Russian Federation according to the "Moldovan scheme". and Tatiana were aware of all transactions related to the withdrawal of funds I do not know the details of the participation of Rubinov D, Poletaev R., including the head of the security service of the Bank "Strategy" and Tatiana in the implementation of the scheme for withdrawing funds from the Russian Federation, who opened current accounts for clients in their bank, to whose accounts the funds were credited on far-fetched grounds, who else from among the employees of the Strategy Bank, besides these persons, was involved in the withdrawal of funds from Russia, I do not know the amount of funds withdrawn from these banks, as well as what commissions the participants received from participation in this scheme ”.
And here are the testimonies given by one of the witnesses in the “Laundromat case” Pyotr Chuvilin: “Rubinov Dmitry Grigorievich was the actual owner of KB Strategy Bank, maintained close relations with O. Vlasov, previously held the position of head of banking supervision of the Central Bank. Participated in the "Moldovan scheme" from the specified bank. "
To be continued
Timofey Grishin
