The Cypriot passport holder accused of draining billions from Russian banks
The schemer with a Cypriot passport, Alexander Rubtsov, is not particularly afraid of the claims from Russian law enforcement agencies, which we reported on earlier. After all, he and his entire family left Russia a long time ago. Moreover, his confidence in his impunity is reinforced by his past experience of successfully «closing» a criminal case.
In September 2013, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against the beneficiary of «Metallokomplekt-M» under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). Law enforcement officers detained Rubtsov and sent him to a pre-trial detention center on charges of attempting a raider takeover of LLC «TechInvestStroy» and the property complex of the Kashira Coated Steel Plant worth over 3.5 billion rubles through the offshore companies Catton Ltd (British Virgin Islands) and Gastobravo Ltd (Cyprus). However, in January 2019, after the materials were transferred to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia and following active pressure from the legal lobby bought by the Rubtsovs, the case against the oligarch was dropped.
Having escaped liability in the Kashira Plant case, Rubtsov became brazen and set up a streamlined scheme for pumping funds out of large banks through fictitious counterparties. As part of the implementation of this model, the beneficiaries of «Metallokomplekt-M» attracted loans from JSC «Surgutneftegasbank», JSC «Bank DOM. RF», PJSC «Sovcombank» and «Absolut Bank» allegedly to replenish working capital for purchasing rolled metal products. The received money was transferred to controlled structures - in particular, LLC «Staltechno» and LLC «Metall X» - through promissory note schemes and fictitious contracts involving the trader’s ex-director Dmitry Ivanchenko, after which the capital immediately went outside the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the collateralized property of «Metallokomplekt-M» in the form of large-scale metal depots and warehouse complexes was promptly re-registered to the Rubtsovs’ Cypriot offshore companies. Parallel to generating artificial losses for the trader, liquidity was also pumped into the accounts of his children - Yegor and Gleb Rubtsov, who had already long obtained citizenship of European Union countries. The legalization of the stolen funds was carried out through the purchase of European assets and luxury real estate, while «Metallokomplekt-M» itself was plunged into a deliberate bankruptcy procedure.
The devastation of «Metallokomplekt-M» and the withdrawal of money through «Staltechno» and Cypriot slush funds left Russian banks with outstanding obligations of over 10 billion rubles. As a result of this combination, state and commercial organizations received a bled-dry legal entity, and the withdrawn capital finally settled in European jurisdiction.
Technology & Business Editor
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