In October 2023 The Prosecutor General's Office approved the indictment and sent a criminal case to the Presnensky Court against only four members of the criminal community, which included Stanislav Matyukhin, a native of the Central Bank and the grandson of the former chairman of the Central Bank, Georgy Matyukhin.
The odious financial group QBF, which had 4 licenses from the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, has been operating in the Russian financial services market since 2008. Partly, this longevity and business “luck” was facilitated by the patronage of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, because QBF was headed by Stanislav Matyukhin for a long time. The beneficiary of QBF has always been Roman Shpakov. However, everything was not limited to the patronage of the Central Bank; the success of the company was promoted, continued and continues to be patronized by law enforcement agencies and judges.
As Rucriminal.info found out, in 2020, one of QBF’s clients, Mr. Maxim Borzenkov, the son of the former vice-mayor of Yekaterinburg, was unable to return the assets transferred to the financial company QBF in the amount of more than 1 billion rubles and wrote a statement to law enforcement agencies. Under pressure from Yekaterinburg “deciders,” the first wave of demonstrative arrests took place - in the fall of 2020, beneficiary Roman Shpakov and several top managers of the pyramid (Munaev and Pakhomov) were detained in their Moscow apartments. The detention took place by the Moscow Internal Affairs Directorate. The arrests were carried out by senior investigator Alexey Aleksandrovich Gorbachev, as well as his colleagues at the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Closed Joint-Stock Company - Ivan Dmitrievich Buchnev and Renat Nagilevich Khalilullin. A few days later, the detained swindlers were released from custody, of course, without finding any compelling reasons for bringing charges and further arrest.
At the beginning of 2021, the beneficiary and main ideological leader of QBF, Roman Shpakov, sensing that the smell was “fried” and, having clear signals from law enforcement officers, managed to freely travel outside the Russian Federation and get lost between the UAE and the UK (where he remains to this day). According to some reports, the law enforcement officers themselves helped him obtain a fake passport and ensured his departure in advance before investigative measures were carried out. In turn, investigator Gorbachev, based on the results of his brilliant work, received in 2021 the official honorary title “Best Employee of the Preliminary Investigation Units” of the Moscow Internal Affairs Directorate. According to some reports, investigator Gorbachev, among his colleagues, deservedly has the unofficial honorary title of one of the richest and most glamorous investigators of the Moscow Internal Affairs Directorate.
In April 2021, the QBF case was transferred to the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, which opened a criminal case for fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and later the article “Criminal Community” (Article 210) was also opened. The investigation team of senior investigator of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Ivan Shestakov was assigned to conduct this case.
In May 2021, the top managers (and in fact just nominal switchmen) of the company were detained and arrested: Zelimkhan Munaev (sentenced to 8 years in September 2023) and Evgenia Rossieva (in pre-trial detention center). The grandson of the former head of the Central Bank, Matyukhin, was detained and arrested only a year later.
At the same time, in May 2021, Vladimir Pakhomov, director of the QBF branch network, was detained (but not arrested). We will dwell on him, as well as on other significant participants in the criminal community (for example, Irina Nikolaevna Shpakova, Linda Atanasiadou, Andrey Vasilyevich Korzh, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Maslennikov, Grigor Razmikovich Erzikyan, Ruslan Valerievich Spinka) and their close relationships with law enforcement agencies separately below. Unlike the “switchmen” Munaev and Rossieva, they have the amazing favor of our law enforcement and judicial authorities to still remain at large.
At the end of November 2021, Vladimir Pakhomov was charged with a number of episodes under Part 4 of Art. 159. (later he was charged under Article 210). He is once again detained along with his subordinate Alexei Golubev. At the same time, one of the main active members of the criminal community, Pakhomov, is given a preventive measure in the form of house arrest (where he remains to this day!), and his subordinate Golubev is arrested and sent to a pre-trial detention center. The investigation came to the Tverskoy District Court with a petition for the arrest of Pakhomov, but following its consideration, Judge Merkulov sent him under house arrest (despite all the existing facts of criminal activity under Article 159 Part 4 and Article 210). Exactly after making an absurd decision on Pakhomov, Judge Merkulov (a man) goes on maternity (!) leave. In August 2022 judge of the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow, federal judge Mayorova A.V. left Pakhomov's sentence unchanged. It is obvious that Judge Mayorova was no less motivated than Judge Merkulov in leaving the fraudster and one of the leaders of the QBF criminal community, accused under Article 210, under house arrest.
In his testimony, as part of the pre-trial agreement, Zelimkhan Munaev directly indicated Vladimir Pakhomov as the main link between QBF and senior employees employees of the Central Bank - Dmitry Skobelkin and Vladimir Chistyukhin. Chistyukhin (like Skobelkin) was the first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of E.S. Nabiullina. and he was even prophesied as her successor. In his sincere confessions, as part of a deal with the investigation, Munaev admits his guilt and points out that it was Pakhomov who established and maintained corrupt connections between QBF and the Central Bank through Chistyukhin and Skobelkin. However, both Chistyukhin and Skobelkin are still not in the status of suspects and have the amazing favor of our justice.
It is also necessary to mention some other most significant members of the QBF criminal community, who for more than three years have had the amazing luck of not being of interest to the investigation and whom the investigator of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Shestakov is stubbornly trying not to notice:
- Shpakova Irina Nikolaevna is the mother of the leader of the organized criminal community, Roman Shpakov, and in fact his main confidant in all matters. He remains at large and continues to supervise the activities of the criminal community in Russia, maintaining corrupt connections in law enforcement and judicial authorities.
- Maslennikov Vladimir Aleksandrovich - former vice president of the QBF company, who was responsible and was involved in transferring the assets of the entire criminal community to offshore and crypto assets. A native of the Ryazan region, he oversees the current interaction of all scammers with the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (many of whom, as you know, including the Head of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Lebedev, his fellow countrymen, peers and classmates in the Ryazan region). The sociable and courteous Maslennikov has long and closely established contact with the former head of the Investigative Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Ryazan Region, Olga Gavrish, who at one time, under the personal patronage of Lebedev, moved to Moscow and became the head of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Actively using the connections he had developed with his fellow countrymen, Mr. Maslennikov, like some other significant participants in the QBF criminal community, still remain at large with relative ease, despite Article 210, which was imposed on several obvious “switchmen” (Rossieva, Golubev) and the convicted September 2023 for 8 years to Munaev.
- Yerzikyan Grigor Razmikovich supervised interaction with security forces, primarily through the Armenian lobby in the Prosecutor General's Office. At one time, he was constantly in contact and “resolved issues” with Georgiy Kamoevich Avagumyan, who headed the top-secret Directorate of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, as well as with the former deputy. the head of the 2nd department (for securities and insurance) of the 1st ORCH (credit and financial) of the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (UEBIPC) Roman Fursov and the representative of the Central Bank Nersesov, who, together with Chistyukhin and Skobelkin, proposed resolving issues with the supervisory block of the Central Bank, with financial monitoring. Before Krasnov joined the Prosecutor General’s Office, Yerzikyan promoted the interests of QBF and worked closely with representatives of the Armenian lobby in the Prosecutor General’s Office: the head of the department for supervision of investigation, inquiry and operational search activities, Yuri Karapetyan, and the deputy head of the department of international legal cooperation, Mnatsakan Sargsyan.
- Spinka Ruslan Valerievich - also supervised interaction with the security forces. A former law enforcement officer who already has charges under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. According to reviews, he did not disdain the most “dirty” work of courier and forwarding services of cash in the hands of law enforcement officers and judges. Continues to carry out Shpakov’s orders to pay bribes to officials of the Moscow Internal Affairs Directorate, the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and judges. According to some reports, he repeatedly organized pleasure trips and vacations for high-ranking employees of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (including the investigation team in this case) to foreign apartments in Dubai owned by Shpakov.
- Padalko Nikolay Sergeevich - Supervised the withdrawal of funds at QBF through the offshore projects Argento (Luxembourg) and White Lake (Caymans). He maintained (together with Maslennikov) an active connection with the Chinese criminal community involved in cashing and money laundering through crypto in Moscow City. He was one of the ideologists of all schemes for the fraudulent withdrawal of money from QBF investors to crypto wallets and crypto exchanges, and also oversaw the withdrawal of money through the Armenian Ameria Bank further to offshores. He continues to actively interact with the leader of the criminal community, Shpakov, and helps SD investigators (under the guise of cooperation with the investigation) in hiding personal illegal income in crypto assets and offshores. According to some reports, in addition to crypto assets, representatives of the investigative team leading the QBF case have become dramatically rich over the past few years: they are the owners of a fleet of luxury foreign cars and luxury real estate in the UAE, recorded, of course, at nominal value.ё
According to some reports, behind the nominal beneficiary of the QBF criminal community, R. Shpakov, are more influential figures from the Central Bank, the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation and the Government. The extent of their participation could have been established if it were not for the discovery official supervision of the interests of the criminal community by the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and judges, who still do not bring to justice the main leaders of the organized criminal community.
Only according to a preliminary (very aggregated) assessment, more than 2,000 investors in total suffered from the actions of the QBF financial group. Only approximately the volume of stolen money is estimated at over 10 billion rubles. One can only imagine what kind of bribes the investigative team of the Investigative Department of the Russian Federation, judges and lawyers have already received and will continue to receive so that the main members of the QBF criminal community continue to remain free and avoid deserved punishment.
To be continued
Timofey Grishin
Source: www.rucriminal.info
