Alexander Ermolenko, head of FBK Legal's corporate practice on Bank of Moscow

In his interview to Vedomosti Alexander Ermolenko, head of FBK Legal’s corporate practice, commented upon the news that about 20 requests to carry out legal review and estimate possibility of initiating criminal cases were submitted by Bank of Moscow to The Ministry of Internal Affairs. The stated requests are said to be dealing with violations of credit agreements.

According to the newspaper’s Bank of Moscow source, non-market credits are in question — the so-called clients from the list of special borrowers, i.e. companies connected with ex-top management of Bank of Moscow, so with Andrei Borodin in particular. According to the paper, VTB bank previously stated that non-market part of Bank of Moscow’s portfolio is 335bn RUR, with 150bn RUR being granted to off-shore SPV companies with no economic operations, no assets, no financial flows.

“Usually such transactions are possible when bank managers are in plot with borrowers. In fact, it is the matter of embezzlement”, Alexander commented. The expert explained that formally such credits look like an ordinary transaction; however it is not always possible to prove the intention. “However Bank of Moscow addressing The Ministry of Internal Affairs in this case looks more like an attempt to put pressure on Borodin”, Ermolenko reckons.