The Rucriminal.info source told a fascinating story in the style of the most famously twisted thrillers. In Belgium, under very strange circumstances, the corpse of a Russian was found with a noose around his neck. He turned out to be a secretive billionaire, the owner of large real estate objects, including in Skolkovo. The struggle for the legacy of the deceased unfolded between his ladies of the heart, behind one of whom there was a powerful cover. Suddenly, the Office of the FSB of the Russian Federation and the General of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation went to the lady's aid. But when billions are at stake, such turns are not surprising. And now everything is in order in our investigation.

Vladimir Shcherbakov was the owner of BVA Bank until 2014 - then the bank's license was revoked. After that, he became widely known in the media as “the beneficiary of the cash reform”. The ex-banker owned a company that was the only provider of fiscal drives needed to run online cash registers, mandatory for businesses since mid-2017.

As sources told Rucriminal.info, in 2017 Shcherbakov unexpectedly died in the Belgian Waterloo, where he lived in recent years. In Belgium, they came to the conclusion that the businessman took his own life. However, experts in Russia considered that not everything is so certain with his death. And neck injuries could not have formed from "a single impact ... of a blunt object", that is, a businessman could be strangled. Subsequent events showed that the version of the murder is highly probable. It turned out that the money received from activities in banks and as the king of cash registers, Shcherbakov invested in the purchase of real estate in the Moscow region. Moreover, he did not buy buildings directly, but shares in the firms that owned these buildings. It is difficult to calculate the value of this property; according to preliminary estimates, we can talk about numbers in excess of a billion. Shcherbakov's heirs were to be his widow Elena Shcherbakova and her daughter. But they thought so. Suddenly, another applicant was found - Oksana Oreshina, who was extremely close with the businessman in recent years and knew all the schemes according to which Shcherbakov's property was hidden. Moreover, it turned out that two years before his death, in 2015, 100% of Vladimir Shcherbakov's share in Omega Holding LLC (a large structure in the ownership scheme of Shcherbakov's assets) passed to Oksana Oreshina, who also owned a stake in BVA Bank ". She also either became the owner or claimed to almost all the objects that belonged to Shcherbakov. By the way everything turned out easily for Oreshkena, it became clear that she had a powerful cover behind her.

In 2018, a claim was filed with the Koptevsky District Court of Moscow to declare the transaction on the transfer of a stake in Omega Holding null and void. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Elena Shcherbakova, ex-wife of Vladimir Shcherbakov. The lawsuit challenged the transfer of the share due to the existence of a marriage contract with different conditions.

And then the "powerful cover" made itself felt. Unexpectedly, this story was taken up by the Directorate of the FSB of the Russian Federation, and then personally the then Deputy Head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, General Dmitry Kakoshin, instructs the Investigative Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Admiralty District of St. Part 4 of Art.159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). "Attempted fraud", according to the investigation, was expressed in the filing of a lawsuit by "unidentified persons" in the Koptevsky District Court of Moscow.

It is completely incomprehensible what relation this story had to Moscow, but Kakoshin was previously the deputy head of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of St. Petersburg and the region.

A year and a half later, a defendant in this case appeared in the case - Elena Shcherbakova became him. In early April, the Oktyabrskiy District Court of St. Petersburg imposed a preventive measure on her in the form of detention. According to the investigation, the marriage contract attached to the civil suit was forged.

As a result, it was the legal heiress who fell victim to the financial litigation of her late husband's companions. There are numerous civil disputes between Shcherbakova and her procedural opponents over the property of her late husband.

Vladimir Shcherbakov himself was persecuted by the investigating authorities during the last years of his life, and only after his death, in 2020, the proceedings in the case were terminated due to the absence of a crime event.

By itself, filing a claim to restore the violated right, as it was in the case imputed to Shcherbakova, cannot be a crime, since otherwise, for each filing of civil claims, a criminal case of fraud should be initiated.

The detention of Shcherbakova in custody is an attempt to transfer these disputes to the criminal plane.

The defense insists that the investigation has chosen too harsh a measure of restraint in this case. The court and the investigation ignored the fact that Shcherbakova did not hide from the investigation and did not interfere with the investigation of the case, did not threaten witnesses and has no such intentions. She has an apartment in Moscow, and a rented apartment in St. Petersburg, where she is ready to serve house arrest while the case is being investigated. In fact, the investigation argued the need to place Shcherbakova in a pre-trial detention center only by the fact that she is also a citizen of Belgium - but this fact, according to the defense, does not indicate her intention to hide from the investigation.

In addition, the lawyer believes that a criminal case, according to the law, should be investigated in Moscow at the place of filing a civil claim, and not in St. Petersburg.

On April 29, the St. Petersburg City Court will consider Shcherbakova's appeal against her as a preventive measure.

To be continued

Alexey Ermakov