Candidate for deputy Roman Vanchugov. Roman Vanchugov wants money
The victims fear revenge from the parliamentarian and his wife.
Last night in the Vasileostrovsky district there was an attack that involved a firearm and a woman who identified herself as the wife of State Duma deputy Roman Vanchugov.
“Our family is the injured depositors of Fininvest Bank; the invested money was not returned to us after the bankruptcy of the financial institution. We have known the ex-head of Eurosib Bank Anton Tsekhansky for many years - this bank is also associated with the Vanchugov family, although they do not officially recognize this. Anton Tsekhansky claimed that he does not communicate with the Vanchugovs, but yesterday around midnight we noticed his car next to the Vanchugovs’ parking spaces near the house where the deputy lives with his family. Our family lives in the next building,” Irina Tsapro told Karpovka.
According to the woman, her husband sent Anton Tsekhansky an SMS with an invitation to come visit, and received an answer - they say, we are coming, go down to the first floor to open the front doors.
“Downstairs, the husband saw Tsekhansky and his wife, as well as a woman who said that she was the wife of State Duma deputy Roman Vanchugov. The latter began to shout that she had everything under control, she owned a multi-storey residential complex and everything was allowed to her. All three “guests,” in our opinion, were very drunk. Our 17-year-old son came down to hear the noise, and he and his husband were insulted with obscene language. Tsekhansky took out a pistol and put it to my husband’s chest. The husband managed to take away the weapon and return to the apartment with his son. At about one in the morning we went to the Vasileostrovsky district police station No. 60 with a statement about the armed attack,” noted Irina Tsapro.
According to her, soon Tsekhansky and the scandalous woman also appeared at the same department.
“This lady again loudly declared that she was the wife of a deputy and everything was seized from her - screams could be heard throughout the entire police department. As we understood, our opponents complained that it was my husband who attacked them and took away their weapons. The police took explanatory notes from us; we don’t know whether the statement about the armed attack was accepted. The police advised us to return the pistol to the owner, but we were afraid that they would shoot us with it. We are ordinary people, we have no connections in political circles. Now we are afraid that the attack on us will be turned against us,” said Irina Tsapro.
According to Irina Tsapro, in the near future data will be confiscated from the surveillance cameras of the house, where the conflict and the persons involved in it were recorded. The family intends to attach these files as evidence to the statement to the police.
The Tsapro family sent a photograph of the seized pistol - according to preliminary data, it is a Makarov traumatic pistol (PM-T) - an exact copy of the 9 mm PM pistol, which is in service with the law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation. The PM-T is manufactured by replacing the rifled barrel of a military weapon with a smooth one to eliminate the possibility of firing live bullets. The PM-T is used to fire 9×18 rubber bullet cartridges. Each such pistol is registered with the police, and a license is required to own it. Shooting such a weapon at a person at point-blank range can cause serious injury or death.
Deputy Roman Vanchugov, who was contacted by a Karpovka correspondent, refused to comment on the situation. “Karpovka” is ready at any time to provide the other side of the conflict with the opportunity to present its version of events. It is noteworthy that today the parliamentarian celebrates his 44th birthday.
Roman Vanchugov is a deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly from the Leningrad Region and the Republic of Karelia on the lists of the Political Party “A Just Russia”. The Vanchugov family today owns the most scandalous and large-scale long-term construction project in St. Petersburg - three residential complexes that were supposed to be built by the Gorod Group of Companies. Several thousand people are listed as defrauded shareholders of the company.
The Central Bank revoked the license of Fininvest Bank on July 7, 2014 - the provisional administration discovered the withdrawal of assets worth 19.5 billion rubles. In August the bank was declared bankrupt. As of February 1, 2015, the amount of debt established by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) was 12.4 billion rubles. The DIA tried to invalidate the transaction for the issuance of 63.3 million rubles by Fininvest Bank. in cash from the cash register to the owner of the Gorod group of companies, Ruslan Vanchugov.
The former owner of the notorious Gorod Group of Companies, Maxim Vanchugov, has been in a pre-trial detention center since the fall of 2015. Through a lawyer, he answered questions from DP about the events that have been actively developing around the company and its projects recently. And he told his version of what happened to the group’s business.
Maxim, you were arrested in October 2015 on charges of embezzling funds from shareholders.
My arrest was a political decision. I know that it came as a surprise even to the investigation.
The arrest period expires in early March. The fact is that in November 2016, a Supreme Court ruling was issued - it prohibits keeping entrepreneurs in pre-trial detention centers in order to avoid pressure on them to take over their business. There are grounds for changing my preventive measure.
Do you communicate with your brothers? What is their fate?
I am communicating with my family and lawyer. Because of this scandal, my brother Roman was unable to run for the elections as a member of the "" party. Obviously, one of the goals of the story surrounding the Gorod Group of Companies was to strike a blow at him as a promising politician. And also by party on the eve of the elections. We must admit that this was a success.
Officials stated that you withdrew up to 7 billion rubles from the shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies out of business. Now the amount has been reduced to 1.2 billion rubles. How did the debt arise? And what is it like, in your opinion?
Unfortunately, there are no sanctions for officials for what they publicly voice. And in our case, their negative and unreliable reviews about the company led to a halt in sales and gave rise to criminal prosecution.
Now the investigation believes that the company cannot report for 1.2 billion rubles with the planned revenue from the project being 22 billion.
At the same time, the evidence base is built on acts calculating construction volumes for July 2015. They were signed between the State Unitary Enterprise "" (TsSS) and "Prommonolit" without the participation of the City Group of Companies and, as one might guess, without any design and executive documentation.
How so?
I also had questions about the qualifications of the investigation, since this was the first time they had encountered such a case. It seems to me that many mistakes have been made. For some reason, apartments worth 2.3 billion rubles were seized. And then a seizure was placed on the registration of all vacant apartments in the project. Why was it necessary to recognize shareholders of the Planeta and Vysota companies as victims, although they had a cash surplus? But this is at least 1000 people! I believe that they are being deceived by recognizing them as victims.
My lawyers have already written many complaints to the city prosecutor's office. We hope that its leader will take it upon himself to look into the situation. After all, the problem will not just go away.
Recently there was a meeting on the problems of shareholders with the plenipotentiary representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District. You know?
Yes. I was pleased with the speech of the Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg. He estimated the company's assets at 16 billion rubles. And it’s certainly difficult to suspect him of being friends with me.
I asked the lawyers to collect all the materials on my case and send them to the embassy. After all, in the end it turned out that I allegedly stole the Palace Bridge: there are witnesses, victims, an assessment of the damage. But no one wants to admit the obvious - the bridge stands still.
In a letter to the governor of St. Petersburg, you recently reported on the violations of officials committed in the “City” case. Was there any backlash?
Not yet. True, many of those who signed certificates of inspection of work performed at three residential complexes of the City have already been fired from Smolny without studying the as-built documentation. In these acts, the volumes could have been underestimated by at least 700 million rubles.
And about 600 million rubles (costs for the current work of the company over 5 years), it seems, were not taken into account by the investigation.
So what happens?
The next contractor could easily pass off work not specified in the documents as his own. And get money for them.
But I won’t blame anyone in advance. I hope we will eventually figure out how and why such acts arose in the first place.
Do you think that the case against you could have been fabricated?
Certain officials and politicians could have done a lot to ensure that the company was in the state it is in now. Then everything was divided into politics and business. Protests began, and the first mentions of the company in the media appeared in October 2013. They concerned Peterhof, where we had a project.
Deputies and their assistants spoke at such rallies, for example Evgeny Baranovsky, then an assistant to a State Duma deputy, and now deputy chairman of the construction committee. Later, when the wave of dissatisfied shareholders swayed (and, most likely, not without the help of activists such as Alla Andreeva), politicians began to make statements in person. The same Oksana Dmitrieva called the Gorod Group of Companies a construction scam. And people believed because some media supported it.
But PR and raiding are not the same thing...
I think that the business was to take away our assets against this background by interested parties. If the company did not have third-party assets, the houses would have been completed long ago. But the criminal case itself, apparently, arose at the instigation of both officials and politicians.
The collection of signatures of shareholders for the administration of the President of the Russian Federation, rallies, a negative background in the media, and then the murder of Konstantin Andreev, the wife of activist Alla Andreeva, seem to have done their job. After this, it was possible to finally finish off the company.
The murder you mentioned has not yet been solved. Do you have anything to say to those who are trying to connect you with this crime?
This is a daring murder of a man who never took part in actions against the Gorod Group of Companies. I learned about its existence from the media after the tragedy. But for the company, the consequences of the murder were disastrous. After 3 weeks I was arrested. Investment agreements for the development of 100 hectares in Kamenka and 50 hectares in Peterhof belonging to the Gorod Group of Companies were challenged by the administration in the courts. Not to mention the information background around the company and the complete seizure of all assets!
The events of that time suggest that all this, including the tragedy, was not accidental. Someone had a clear plan and an understanding of how this would all end in a scandal.
But the most interesting thing is that just a few days after the murder, the Gorod group received a persistent offer from one of the construction companies to transfer all assets to it for free.
I sincerely feel sorry for those who believe that by continuing to hold rallies and make loud statements in the media, they can influence the course of the investigation of this crime. No one will escape punishment. I'm sure of this. But I don’t understand why there have been no arrests in this case for more than a year.
Tell us about the deal with . How did it go and what did you get in the end?
I transferred the assets of the Gorod Group of Companies to management, because a partner was needed who could lend to the company and restart construction. Artem Manevich was one of the investors. I transferred the company's assets and did not receive any money.
After the deal, it turned out that Mr. Manevich had large debts. Did you know about this?
I don’t think anyone except himself knew about these problems. He was invited to the project thanks to his connections and the opportunity to solve many administrative issues for the benefit of the company, but this, as I see it, did not happen. Legally, the debts of one of the shareholders should not interfere with the activities of the developer. But there is also an information background on which the company’s operating activities depend, there are creditor claims and property seizures.
If the situation is a stalemate, you will probably have to contact Bank St. Petersburg so that they look for a replacement. Or terminate the agreement and choose a new investor altogether.
Are you following the fate of the construction projects of the City Group of Companies?
Of course I'm watching. The assets transferred to the investor are more than enough to complete the construction. The main thing is to manage these assets optimally and quickly. But, apparently, construction is currently underway. And there may be some pattern in this - in the attempt of government regulation.
When a company is trying to be managed by a large number of people with different visions and goals, and all their decisions are limited to officials, nothing good will happen.
There is only one way out - to remove all the “add-ons” and let the investor calmly, like an ordinary private company, hand over the houses. Shareholders should not suffer from experiments and PR by the authorities.
To complete the construction of all the houses of the Gorod Group of Companies, it is said that 7 billion rubles are needed. It is declared that the main source of financing should be the sale of plots in Kamenka for 8 billion rubles. But the auction has not yet taken place. What are the difficulties there?
Land plots are liquid. But most of them require documents to change the building height from 18 to 75 meters, as is now prescribed in the Land Use and Development Rules and the General Plan of St. Petersburg. How quickly the company will be able to receive funds for completion depends on how the administration works out these issues with Bank St. Petersburg.
Moreover, I insist that part of the plots should be given to investors for construction and installation work. And change the contractor at one or two sites. This activates completion.
The influx of money for construction could also be ensured by the sale of vacant apartments in residential buildings. But they are banned...
Yes, the money from the sale of apartments would be enough to complete the construction of all the houses. But it is necessary to lift the arrest from all equity participation agreements that have not been registered since May 2015. It is also important to prevent developers from going bankrupt and to sign settlement agreements with the city.
Can you give an assessment of the model for completing the houses of the Gorod Group of Companies that was invented in Smolny?
This model was not invented by Smolny, but by me back in the late summer of 2014. We ourselves asked the city to involve our third-party land asset because we understood the responsibility that lay with us.
But, unfortunately, they did not want to hear from the company for a long time. Apparently, someone's interests ran counter to our plans.
According to the agreement, we, as investors in the project, submitted an application to purchase the site in August 2014. And the redemption took place only 2 years later.
During this time, instead of funding, we received a complete stop in sales, rallies, a criminal case, seizure of assets and a high-profile murder.
And in the end we returned to the scheme we proposed in 2014.
What can you say to the shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies today?
Rallies will not help matters. Quite the contrary. There will always be third forces that will take advantage of the situation. And this is wasted time.
But if you fight, the main thing is to understand with whom. And for this you need to listen only to yourself.
When the arrest is lifted, what will you do first?
I will spend more time with my family and children.
After the publication of an interview with Maxim Vanchugov, shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies gave their assessment of the situation with the company’s long-term construction projects and everything about what the former owner of “Gorod” told “DP” from the pre-trial detention center.
Biography
Maxim" Vanchugov
> Born in October 1975 in Potsdam (GDR). In 1997 he graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Economics and Philosophy (Finek). Candidate of Economic Sciences.
> In 2010, his brother Ruslan Vanchugov established the Gorod Group of Companies, a large housing developer in St. Petersburg.
> In 2015, Maxim bought the company from Ruslan. And in October 2015, he was arrested on charges of embezzling funds from the company’s shareholders. The amount of damage is currently estimated at 1.2 billion rubles. Married, three children.
Reference
GC "City"
> Created in 2010. She built three residential complexes in St. Petersburg: “Leninsky Park” (with 2.6 thousand apartments), “Pribaltiysky” (more than 1 thousand apartments) and “Starfish” (more than 1 thousand apartments). Projects are not completed. More than 7 billion rubles are required for completion.
> Since the summer of 2016, the completion of the facilities of the City Group of Companies has been controlled by the Era Holding Company, 70% of which belongs to businessman Artem Manevich.
Select the fragment with the error text and press Ctrl+Enter
State Duma deputy Roman Vanchugov, considered the “secret owner” of the Fininvest bank and the Gorod Group of Companies, was “exposed” in a murder scandal?
"Banker" from the State Duma
A scandal broke out in the construction industry, involving State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Roman Vanchugov, to whom anti-corruption fighters attributed “secret control” over the Fininvest bank (previously deprived of its license).
In addition, according to rumors, the same parliamentarian controls the construction holding company Gorod, the chairman of the board of directors of which is Maxim Vanchugov (the deputy’s brother).
The scandal in which the Vanchugov brothers were exposed is connected with the murder of Konstantin Andreev (the husband of Alla Andreeva, an activist in the group of defrauded shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies).
The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg has already opened a criminal case under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder). One of the versions of the murder is connected with the activities of Alla Andreeva in protecting the rights of shareholders.
Public reaction
This crime occurred on the evening of October 6, when Konstantin Andreev returned to his house on Tsvetochnaya Street (in the St. Petersburg suburb of Lomonosov). There he was attacked by unknown people.
The victim suffered severe head injuries from which he died. On the car belonging to the activist’s family, the criminals left the inscription “You’re next.” Obviously, this message was addressed to Alla Andreeva.
A message about this crime was posted on the official page “Shareholders of the developer of the City Group of Companies” on the VKontakte social network.
After the Central Bank revoked Fininvest’s license, the interim administration discovered the withdrawal of assets worth 19.5 billion rubles. Soon the bank was declared bankrupt, and the amount of debt established by the DIA was 12.4 billion rubles.
Bank "Fininvest"
Of course, after a “hole” of almost 20 billion rubles was discovered in Fininvest’s budget, experts suspected the Vanchugov brothers of withdrawing assets.
Previously, Roman Vanchugov could not be verified for involvement in the withdrawal of assets from Fininvest. But, if his immunity is lifted in connection with Andreev’s murder, then investigators will be able to question this parliamentarian about the withdrawal of assets from Fininvest.
The Eurosib case
It seems that in the banking sector, not only Fininvest was controlled by the Vanchugov brothers. The thing is that another St. Petersburg bank, Eurosib, is associated with the Vanchugovs.
By a strange coincidence, Eurosib Bank lost its license on July 7, 2014 - that is, on the same day as Fininvest.
Bank "Eurosib"
Eurosib Bank, like Fininvest, pursued a high-risk credit policy and did not create reserves adequate for the accepted risks for possible losses on loan debt. At the same time, the credit institution did not comply with the requirements of the supervisory authority regarding the reliable reflection of its financial position in accounting and reporting.
It seems that the Vanchugov brothers are involved in the probable withdrawal of funds not only from Fininvest. So isn't it time for investigative authorities to check their activities?
Are you in touch with the Central Bank?
Other important officials may also be involved in the scandal involving the ex-owner of Fininvest and Eurosib.
On Wednesday in St. Petersburg, employees of the regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs conducted searches in the reception room of State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Roman Vanchugov. Investigative actions were carried out within the framework of a criminal case about the theft of multimillion-dollar funds from shareholders who invested money in the construction of several residential complexes being built by the Gorod Group of Companies. The commercial organization belongs to the deputy’s brother Maxim. After the searches, the police detained two brothers of the spravoross - Maxim and Ruslan Vanchugov.About ten investigators from the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in St. Petersburg arrived at Roman Vanchugov’s reception room, located in house No. 5 on the 18th line of Vasilyevsky Island, at noon on October 28. The detectives were interested in documents related to the activities of the Gorod group of companies, which is under the control of the Vanchugov family. As Kommersant was told at the police headquarters, “the officers acted as part of an investigation into a case previously initiated regarding the theft of funds from shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies.” The visit to the deputy’s reception was preceded by a search in the apartment of his brother Maxim, who is the head of the Civil Code. After searches, the security forces took Maxim Vanchugov and his other brother Ruslan to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, where they were detained for two days in accordance with Art. 91 Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation.
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["Kommersant - St. Petersburg", 06/30/2015, "They came to Gorod with a search": The police raided the office of the Gorod Group of Companies, located in building No. 15 on Morskaya Embankment, at ten o'clock in the morning. Almost at the same time, a second group of police officers visited house No. 5 on the 18th line of Vasilyevsky Island, where the office of the development company was previously located, and now houses the public reception of State Duma deputy from A Just Russia Roman Vanchugov (according to SPARK, a beneficiary of the City " is Ruslan Vanchugov, brother of Roman Vanchugov). No arrests were made. Investigators were interested in the financial documentation of the Gorod Group of Companies, which was related to the construction of three residential complexes (Leninsky Park, Pribaltiysky and Sea Star).
As the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs explained to Kommersant, the police were particularly interested in documents relating to the movement of funds from shareholders attracted by the company to finance the construction. Investigative actions were carried out as part of the investigation of a criminal case initiated by the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg in May of this year on the grounds of a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by an organized group or on a particularly large scale or resulting in the deprivation of a citizen’s right to residential premises). According to investigators, we are talking about the theft of funds invested in the construction of apartments by almost 5 thousand shareholders. The reason for initiating a criminal case was the statements of participants in shared construction, who claimed that the Gorod Group of Companies froze the construction of houses and missed the deadline for their commissioning. - Insert K.ru]
By the way, in early October the name of the Gorod company also appeared in a murder case. The husband of Alla Andreeva, the main activist of shareholders of the City Group of Companies, who initiated the appeal of her fellow sufferers to law enforcement agencies, was brutally murdered. On the same day, in the car belonging to the activist’s family, the criminals left the inscription “You are next.” The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee for St. Petersburg opened a criminal case under Art. 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (murder). The investigation is considering all possible versions of the murder - from domestic ones to those related to Alla Andreeva’s activities in protecting the rights of shareholders. Then the City Group promptly responded to the situation. “I believe that this is a provocation aimed against me personally and my immediate family. Previously, we were accused of theft, but now our name is also associated with murder. We hope that law enforcement agencies will be able to find the killers and customers as soon as possible,” said Maxim Vanchugov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Gorod Group of Companies.
Roman Vanchugov reacted to the search and detention of the law enforcement brothers in a similar way, explaining that he considered the visit of the security forces a way of political pressure on him as the people's representative. “The searches and detentions are not related to the finances or business of the City Group,” said the parliamentarian. “This is 100 percent policy, but I would not like to talk about goals now.”
The police immediately refuted this statement, officially stating that “investigative actions are not related to the parliamentary activities of this parliamentarian.” The victims in the fraud case share the same opinion. “At first, unidentified persons appeared in the case. Perhaps now the investigation has established them,” Alla Andreeva, activist of the shareholders of the Gorod Group of Companies, told Kommersant.
Let us note that at the moment there are two more criminal cases under police investigation that may be related to the Vanchugov brothers. In particular, Fininvest bank case, whose top managers were suspected of withdrawal of assets from a financial institution in the amount of about 1 billion rubles. The license of Fininvest Bank was revoked by the Central Bank in June 2014; in August, by decision of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, the credit organization was declared bankrupt. According to the DIA, about 25 thousand people received the right to reimbursement of their deposits for a total amount of 10.7 billion rubles. Market participants associate the bank with the Gorod group of companies. According to the Kommersant Kartoteka database, the owners of Bank Fininvest LLC are the companies Fininvest LLC and Capital LLC. The owners of Fininvest LLC are Capital LLC and Fininvest Capital CJSC. The general director and owner of the latter CJSC is Maxim Vanchugov. In turn, GC Gorod LLC is owned by Perspektiva CJSC and Ruslan Vanchugov. He is also the general director and owner of Perspektiva CJSC.
In addition, according to officially unconfirmed data, allegedly about 30% of the apartments from the residential complexes that were built by the Gorod Group were transferred to front companies, which subsequently took out loans from Eurosib Bank. According to unofficial information, this criminal case was initiated, among other things, at the request of the temporary administration of Eurosib Bank, which was declared bankrupt by the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in September 2014.
[Fontanka.Ru, 10/28/2015, “The police approached the Vanchugovs”: The deputy does not say what the third criminal case against the Vanchugovs is connected with. But light is being shed on the City Group. It was initiated on October 15 against an unidentified group of persons and is related to the activities of Eurosib Bank, whose license was revoked by the Central Bank in July, a company representative explained.
Officially, 97.71 shares of the bank at that time belonged to Anton Tsekhansky. He, together with Oksana Kovalenko, was a co-founder of Eurosib CJSC. In turn, Oksana Kovalenko, according to SPARK, in 2009 was a co-owner of Fininvest Bank. In addition, the address of Eurosib CJSC coincided with the address of the office of the City Group of Companies. Eurosib Bank was also connected with Maxim Vanchugov, activist of shareholders of the City Group of Companies Alla Andreeva knows.
The intensification of investigative actions, according to Fontanka, is connected with the Moscow inspection. The day before yesterday, the commission of the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs left St. Petersburg, which worked for about a week in the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. The auditors only checked the progress of cases involving defrauded shareholders, the total number of applicants for which was more than 4 thousand people.
Following the inspection, the commission indicated that it did not see any intensification of work, and demanded to be “offensive.” A lot of work was done in the cases, but specific individuals were not brought to justice, the commission also decided. - Insert K.ru]
The owner of Gorod Group of Companies, Maxim Vanchugov, was sent to a pre-trial detention center a day after his arrest. The investigation was in such a hurry to isolate him from society that they did not have time to bring charges. The court went to meet the younger brother Ruslan halfway. His defense was given time to collect documents for house arrest.
Alexander Koryakov/Kommersant
Maxim Vanchugov was awaited at the Vasileostrovsky District Court like a star. Firstly, it’s long: instead of the announced 17.00, the consideration of the investigation’s request for arrest began closer to 19. Secondly, with increased security measures: the crowd of journalists was first pushed by bailiffs and police officers called for backup to the wall opposite from Hall No. 3, and then completely kicked out to the dressing room on the 2nd floor.
Judge Yuri Gershevsky, with a raised voice, read out a petition from the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the region, from which not only journalists, but also Maxim Vanchugov himself (he even stopped yawning) and his lawyer were surprised to learn that overnight the amount of damage accused of him had increased by three times. According to investigators, the owner of the Gorod Group of Companies, together with unidentified persons, through shell companies and the Fininvest bank (at one time Maxim Vanchugov owned 33% of the bank) cashed out 830 million rubles, which the shareholders invested in the construction of three residential complexes - "Starfish" , "Leninsky Park" and "Pribaltiysky".
We would like to remind you that it was this amount that appeared in the criminal case, which the investigation opened at the insistence of the shareholders in May 2015. In addition, by October it became clear that Vanchugov had unjustifiably (according to the same investigation) transferred the rights to 980 apartments in these residential complexes to himself and persons under his control. Their cost in the State Statistics Service was estimated at 2 billion 93 million.
After the investigation supported its motion, the judge asked: “Why not house arrest?” As it turned out, in addition to the standard ones: he can hide, since he has a foreign passport (“I have two of them!” Vanchugov shouted. “I’m ready to give them both!”), and influence witnesses, the police did not forgive the owner of “Gorod” for the fact that, having learned about On the upcoming visit of law enforcement officers (as follows from the certificate-memorandum attached to the case), he, together with his brother Ruslan, locked himself in the public reception room of his third brother, Roman, who is a State Duma deputy from the A Just Russia party. And he sat there for about 22 hours until the investigation received an urgent order from the judge to visit the deputy’s cell.
Maxim Anatolyevich's defense started unsuccessfully. For some reason, lawyer Krylov asked to read the above certificate, from which all listeners learned that Vanchugov not only went under his brother’s wing, but also asked his wife to destroy the contents of her iPad and other documents, and not to let the police in.
“I want to call the operative who compiled it and his wife. She’s here,” the defense attorney said.
"In the hall?" – the judge was surprised (according to the norms of conducting the trial, she should not have been among the listeners).
“Yes,” Krylov waved his hand towards the benches, but, realizing the procedural error, he began to mutter something that he did not see her from behind the podium and did not control the flow of listeners at all.
“Refuse,” Gershevsky summed up.
The suspect himself did not shine. Twice he was asked - first by the judge, then by the prosecutor - to talk about how the situation of the shareholders improved from May (when the case was opened) to September, that is, whether he began to complete the construction of the property. But Maxim Anatolyevich, as usual, talked about meetings in Smolny with Vice-Governor Albin and that all the shareholders’ money went to construction, which was confirmed by acts of accepted work. To the question: “Where are the apartments?” – Vanchugov, apparently not yet realizing his status as a non-leader, waved his hands and said “listen to me!” repeated in a circle what had already been said.
The judge, tired by 20 o'clock, suggested moving on to discussing the preventive measure. And then I was surprised again. Against arrest from the investigation, Vanchugov’s lawyer offered bail - an apartment on Vasilievsky Island, where his wife and three young children live. The investigator was the first to break down: “What if Vanchugov escapes? And the state will demand the bail? Maxim Anatolyevich, will your wife and children remain on the street?”
“They’ll go to their mother-in-law,” the suspect grinned.
“Break – five minutes,” the judge announced, inviting the lawyer to discuss another bail with the client.
After time had passed, Krylov offered 5 million, which a friend was allegedly ready to lend to his client.
However, Gershevsky placed the head of the Gorod Group of Companies in pre-trial detention center No. 4 for two months, taking into account the arguments of the investigation, but carefully reminding him that for now Vanchugov is a suspect (according to the law, after 10 days without presentation charges he will have to be released. – Note auto ).
Despite the late hour, around 9 p.m., the judge decided to consider the petition for the arrest of Vanchugov’s third brother, Ruslan, who was detained together with Maxim in the reception room of his brother Roman.
The younger one, who behaved as quietly and correctly as possible in the cage of the hall, was luckier. His lawyer asked for house arrest in principle and an extension of the period of detention under Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code to 72 hours to collect all the documents necessary for this.
“When can you collect the documents?” – Gershevsky asked.
“Tomorrow at 15–16,” the lawyer answered.
"Two minutes. Don’t disperse,” and the judge went into the deliberation room, from where he returned with good news for the lawyer. The consideration of the preventive measure for Ruslan Vanchugov has been postponed to 15:00 on October 30.
Tatiana Vostroilova,
"Fontanka.ru"
P.S. Vanchugov’s third brother, a deputy, followed the process in the company of a Fontanka correspondent. Read his interview soon.
