An investigation into an attempted theft of 120 real estate objects, including 27 historic mansions, has been completed in Moscow

The Investigative Committee has completed its investigation of a criminal case on an attempt to steal 120 real estate objects in Moscow, including 27 mansions of historical and cultural heritage in the city center. The damage from the actions of the suspects exceeds 2 billion rubles. Before the court will appear the former assistant to the head of the Moscow Federal Property Management Agency Anatoly Shesteryuk Sergey Alekseev, ex-chairman of the bank “Moscow Capital” Viktor Krestin, unemployed Sergei Shirokov and businessman Kirill Posashkov, accused of particularly large fraud, writes Kommersant.

The criminal case was opened in 2012 after checking the circumstances under which Moscow Capital Bank was declared bankrupt (the financial institution lost its license in 2009). According to the investigation, the bank issued loans to various LLCs under fictitious guarantees of FSUEs, which were in charge of the buildings. The real estate objects were pledged by the bank.

The case materials include 120 real estate objects, including the 19th century Rogozhskaya Yamskaya Sloboda ensemble (18 buildings on Shkolnaya Street), the 17th – 18th century chambers (Kozhevnicheskaya Street), the Dolgorukovs’ house of the mid-18th century (Kolpachny Lane), Snegirev’s estate in the first quarter of the 19th century (Plyushchikha street), the Leontyevs’ house built in 1830 (Granatny lane), the Naryshkin estate of the 1770s (Solyanka street). The total cost of this property exceeds 10 billion rubles.

Initially, the defendants in the case were the former head of the Moscow department of the Federal Property Management Agency Anatoly Shesteryuk and the deputy director of the Project Management Company Olga Voznyak. According to the testimony, the representatives of “Project”, with reference to the Federal Property Management Agency, forced directors of FSUEs under threat of dismissal to sign fictitious guarantees for loans from “Moscow Capital”. Subsequently, Shesteryuk and Wozniak were transferred to the category of witnesses.

Among the organizers of the embezzlement scheme were the general director of Project Management Company Alexander Dunaev, his brother, co-owner of FinanceBusinessbank Leonid Dunaev, businessman Farid Valeev and others. All of them fled abroad and were put on the international wanted list. In 2014, some of the defendants were detained in Germany and Israel, but the matter did not come to extradition.

In July 2020, the court sentenced the ex-head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Directorate of International Photo Exhibitions Vitaly Strashnov to three years in prison. He was found guilty of complicity in the illegal purchase and sale in 2011 of a three-story mansion built in 1820 on Smolenskaya-Sennaya Square for 74 million rubles at a cost of at least 863 million rubles.