As it became known to Kommersant, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested in absentia the alleged beneficiary of a number of bankrupt insurance companies, Mikhail Grishin. The largest among them are “Podmoskovye” and “Moskovia”, whose debt to creditors is several billion rubles. In the meantime, according to Kommersant, Mr. Grishin is charged with embezzlement of more than 300 million rubles. from the little-known IC YuzhUralZHASO, whose ex-general director Tatyana Belova was also taken into custody in absentia along with Mikhail Grishin. and the former general director of IC “YuzhUralZhASO” Tatyana Belova were considered at short intervals by the same judge of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow, Elena Lenskaya. In both cases, the arguments of the investigation about the need for arrest and the objections of the lawyers were absolutely identical. The first argued that the guilt of the defendants was confirmed by the testimony of the representative of the victim, witnesses, as well as documents from the Central Bank and the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA). By remaining at large, the investigator argued, defendants could cover up the crime, put pressure on witnesses, destroy documents, or otherwise interfere with the investigation. In turn, the defense asked to choose a milder measure of restraint for their absent clients, referring to the fact that “the investigator’s arguments are unfounded and unfounded, they were not documented, and the alleged crime was committed in the field of entrepreneurial activity.”

A criminal case on embezzlement on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the defendants of which are ex-insurers who went on the run, was initiated by the TFR on July 22, 2021 at the request of the DIA, which is dealing with debts of IC YuzhUralZHASO. According to investigators, in 2019, shortly before bankruptcy (the license was revoked in January 2018), Mikhail Grishin acquired it, and Tatyana Belova was the company’s CEO until the collapse. Together with the co-founder of this insurance company, Denis Buryakov, who was arrested in April 2022 by the same Basmanny District Court, they are believed to have withdrawn over 300 million rubles from it. (DIA requires in arbitration to recover from the persons who controlled the company about 460 million rubles), because of which its clients could not receive the payments due. It should be noted that on September 19, 2022, the court unexpectedly changed the accused Buryakov, who, although he did not admit guilt, but, according to his defense, actively interacted with the investigation and testified, the measure of restraint to house arrest.

According to Kommersant, Denis Buryakov spoke about the role of Mikhail Grishin and Tatyana Belova in this case. However, his defense claims that the investigation already had enough information about them and the transfer to house arrest had nothing to do with his testimony, especially since the investigator insisted on extending the real arrest. Under house arrest, as follows from the relevant decision, the accused was indeed transferred solely at the initiative of the court. However, less than a month later, the court of appeal reversed this decision, again sending Denis Buryakov to a pre-trial detention center. His lawyer Nikolai Freytak, who represents him, told Kommersant that the decision of the Moscow City Court has been appealed. The defender refrained from further comments.

According to Kommersant, the investigation allegedly already has information that the alleged organizer of the crime literally put such maChinations on stream at one time. Their essence was that Mr. Grishin, through affiliated persons, bought up insurance companies that were in a pre-bankrupt state, pumped them with clients’ money, as a rule, through the sale of OSAGO policies, which were eventually stolen. This happened, for example, in the history of such once large players in the insurance market as Podmoskovye and Moskovia (both lost their licenses in July and August 2017, respectively). Liabilities of the first OSAGO at the time of the collapse were estimated at 1 billion rubles. The debts of Muscovy under OSAGO amounted to about 2.7 billion rubles. After the arrival of the so-called funeral team with papers instead of compulsory insurance policies, the owners of 154 thousand contracts remained. The Russian Union of Motor Insurers (RSA) had to pay off the victims, which provides insurance companies with OSAGO policies. In addition to “Moskovia” and “Podmoskovye”, there are several other smaller insurance companies on this list, the ownership of which is attributed to the same Mikhail Grishin. In total, according to the participants in the investigation, the estimated damage from the theft committed by him could amount to about 5 billion rubles.