Criminal shifts: what the son of the ex-head of Mordovia is being tried for

Fraud, large—scale bribery, abuse of office - such a set of charges was collected by the former Minister of targeted Programs of Mordovia Alexey Merkushkin. His case is currently being considered in the Penza Court. In particular, the investigation believes that Merkushkin gave a bribe of 7 million rubles to the head of the Mordovian branch of the Central Bank, Alexander Terenkin. In response, he had to withdraw the results of the inspection, which threatened to revoke the license of Mordovpromstroybank. In addition, according to investigators, the accused sold the building of the local expocenter into the ownership of the republic at an inflated price five times and withdrew funds from the Asset Bank. The damage to the regional budget alone is estimated at 216 million rubles, and the hole in Asset Bank's capital amounted to 1.6 billion rubles. The details of the criminal case can be found in the Izvestia article.

What is Alexey Merkushkin accused of?

On April 8, the Pervomaisky District Court of Penza conducted an interrogation of defense witnesses in the case of the former Minister of Targeted Programs of Mordovia, the son of the ex-governor of Mordovia and the Samara region, Alexei Merkushkin. The ex-official and influential businessman in the past is believed to be involved in major fraud, as well as financial fraud in banks that belonged to this family clan.

The family's interests and connections in the region turned out to be so extensive that the case was even referred to another region. Initially, it was supposed to be considered in the Leninsky district Court of Saransk, but one of its defendants turned out to be a relative of the judge. As a result, the trial is taking place in Penza.

Merkushkin was detained in May 2021 at Moscow Sheremetyevo airport, the ex-official was going to fly to Minsk. He has been in jail ever since. In addition to Merkushkin, Mikhail Amutnov, former Director General of the Republic of Mordovia Development Corporation LLC, Vladimir Mazov, former deputy chairman of the Government of Mordovia, and Alexander Terenkin, former head of the National Bank of Mordovia's Volga-Vyatka Branch of the Central Bank of Russia, are involved in the case.

A bribe to a representative of the Central Bank

There are several episodes in the case. The first concerns the charge of bribery.

"Merkushkin Jr. is suspected of paying a bribe to the head of the Mordovian branch of the Central Bank for failing to take action against one of the commercial banks of which he was previously a beneficiary," a source familiar with the situation told Izvestia.

According to the investigation, this was the case. Merkushkin was a beneficiary of Mordovpromstroybank (MPSB). In 2015, the Central Bank of Russia ordered an audit of the MPSB. The main focus was on assessing credit risks — in other words, whether the bank was issuing unsecured loans. This was stated during the interrogations by Anatoly Batkeev, who led the inspection. In addition, the inspectors found out whether the bank had overestimated the value of its assets, for example, the real estate that it owned.

"During the audit, a credit risk was identified," Batkaev explained at the April 8 court hearing. — Violations of capital formation. These are the main violations that come to mind. I don't remember very well now. I remember the credit risk with real estate and asset mobilization.

The results of the audit threatened the MPSB with revocation of the license. And then, according to investigators, Alexey Merkushkin, along with the chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank and another shareholder of this organization, handed over a bribe of more than 7 million rubles to Alexander Terenkin, an official of the National Bank of Mordovia in the Volga-Vyatka Department of the Central Bank of Russia.

Investigators believe that the bribe was disguised as a purchase at an obviously inflated price of shares of the Lamzur confectionery factory owned by Terenkin. In response, ot had to withdraw the instructions based on the results of the bank's inspection. That is, in fact, to hide from the leadership of the Central Bank the facts of unsecured loans and overestimation of the value of assets.

Withdrawal of funds from Asset Bank

Subsequently, Mordovpromstroybank was absorbed by another credit institution, Asset Bank. But it looked like a kind of intra-family deal, because both structures were essentially owned and managed by the same people, relatives of the former head of Mordovia, Nikolai Merkushkin. Namely, his eldest son Alexander, the youngest — Alexey, sister-in-law Valentina Andryushkina and her sister Raisa Tuturkina.

The family managed the funds of the depositors of this bank at its discretion, Alexander Pykov, former deputy chairman of the government of Mordovia, told Izvestia.

"There is no financial or economic trick in this case," he said. — It's just stupid, like in a store: give me the money, I'll take it and hide it somehow, and everything will work out without any difficulties. They were transferred to offshore companies, and directly as a means of obtaining some kind of credit resources, and so on.

The former shareholder of Aktiv-Bank, Yuri Biktyakov, retired back in 2010 and has now realized that his former associates were falsifying financial statements.

— [Incorrect accounting data was provided to the Central Bank], real profits and real assets were hidden. That is, everything was done with violations. In favor of the interested parties who were the founders of the bank," he explained.

In particular, the funds could be withdrawn as loans to the same Lamzur confectionery factory (Alexey Merkushkin had 45% of the factory's shares, another package belonged to Valentina Andryushkina— the sister of Nikolai Merkushkin's wife). By the way, the company has accumulated so many loans that it was declared bankrupt in 2021.

In June 2021, the Bank of Russia revoked the license from Asset Bank. As the regulator explained, the bank underestimated the amount of reserves required for the formation, as well as overestimated the value of property in order to artificially improve financial performance and conceal its real financial situation.

In addition, according to the Central Bank, the credit institution committed repeated violations of the requirements of legislation in the field of countering the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism. The damage caused after the revocation of the license from Asset Bank was estimated at 1.6 billion rubles.

Sale of the Mordovexpocenter

Another episode of the criminal case against Merkushkin dates back to 2015-2019. At that time, the Mordovpromstroybank owned the Mordovexpocenter exhibition complex. Since the facility was a non-core asset, the bank decided to sell it. According to the investigation, it was during the sale process that the fraud occurred.

According to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Mordovia, the market price of the complex was about 54 million rubles. But the management of the MPSB ordered an expert examination, which estimated the building at 271 million rubles. There was also a buyer, LLC Development Corporation of the Republic of Mordovia, owned by the regional government. It was this structure that bought the exhibition complex from the bank.

— The price of the object was overstated. According to the purchase and sale agreement, the value of the mentioned property, which includes the buildings of the pavilions, galleries, as well as the land and asphalt pavement, is set at 271 million rubles. But the market price was slightly more than 54 million rubles, the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Mordovia reported.

By the way, the property purchased at exorbitant prices is not being used now and is slowly falling apart. There is garbage and dirt in the pavilions, the building has partially collapsed, the Izvestia correspondent was convinced.

Because of this deal, in addition to Alexei Merkushkin, Mikhail Amutnov, who at that time headed the Development Corporation of the Republic of Mordovia, is one of the defendants in the case.

What threatens the accused

Economist Alexey Rodin, in an interview with Izvestia, noted that this criminal case is based on fairly well—known schemes. The withdrawal of assets from banks, companies, and their subsequent bankruptcy has been practiced for a long time.

"We can recall how back in the middle of the 19th century, the beneficiaries of the Skopinsky city Public Bank took about 4 million rubles from the population and used loans to transfer them to their friends, relatives, and acquaintances," he recalled the history of the first Russian financial pyramid.

Alexei Merkushkin faces a long prison term if the charges are proven on all counts, said Maxim Kalinov, a criminal defense lawyer.

"If the three compounds merge, he faces about 15 years in prison," the expert pointed out.

However, the final verdict remains at the discretion of the judge.