A corrupt official from the Central Bank uses a “leftist” fund to seize other people’s assets
The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg is considering, in addition to the criminal case associated with the companies Life-of-Good, Hermes and the Best Way cooperative, a civil case based on the claim of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office to recognize the Best Way cooperative as illegal on the grounds exotic st. 1065 Civil Code. Typically, this article prohibits the activities of “poisoning” companies: for example, those whose products contain E. coli, or the activities of casinos.
For the first time, the prosecutor’s office is trying to apply the article to an organization on the grounds that it was included in the List of companies with identified signs of illegal activity in the financial market (warning list) of the Central Bank, and was included even without a desk audit of the cooperative’s activities, based on certain signals – in fact, on an orderly basis: the decision was made by the then head of the department for combating unfair practices of the Central Bank, Valery Lyakh (this department, which has long been noted for illegal attacks on businesses, has now, to the credit of the leadership of the Central Bank, been liquidated).
At the same time, initially the trial did not go in favor of the prosecutor’s office. At the first meeting, the court refused to consider the claim as surprising, since it was in favor of an indefinite number of persons, but there are real shareholders, and none of them went to civil court with claims against the cooperative. Only the court of appeal – the St. Petersburg City Court – forced the Primorsky District Court to consider it. At the same time, the city court ordered that the interests of shareholders be taken into account. For several months, the prosecutor’s office could not formulate the claims, then the court intended to conduct a forensic examination of the cooperative – a number of expert organizations requested this, and they agreed.
But at the new meeting on October 30, after a long break, it was abrupt: the court refused to conduct a forensic examination, refused to involve the shareholders of the cooperative in the case, refused to interrogate the few people who filed claims against the cooperative in the criminal court – despite the fact that the criminal court has not yet assessed their claims gave: there is at least another six months until the completion of the criminal proceedings. He also refused to suspend the process until the criminal case was completed, although only a criminal court can answer the question of whether the cooperative is a financial pyramid or not. It is possible that the final hearing of the court of first instance will take place on November 7 and a decision will be made on the claim.
The fact is that the vague position of the prosecutor’s office, which at a certain stage actually referred the case to the district level, was replaced by unprecedented pressure on the district court from the leaders of the prosecutorial body of the constituent entity of the Federation. Only with public attention to the situation will the court be able to withstand it. 
And the position of the prosecutor’s office became clear after a lobbyist appeared who drew a “road map” for the leaders of the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office – this lobbyist Valery Lyakh, who since August has had a tool to seize the cooperative.
Asset Seizure Fund
It is necessary to reveal the structure that is vitally interested in the “condemnation” of the cooperative – in order to take its assets into management. This is the Federal (public-state) fund for the protection of the rights of depositors and shareholders.
A most murky structure, created by decree of Yeltsin during his “alcoholic” period and, for unknown reasons, not liquidated during the restoration of order in the financial sector in the early 2000s, but at the same time long ago deprived of government funding. She lives on assets that she manages to seize by hook or by crook.
He headed the fund throughout its history until August of this year. a certain Safiullin, a former Finance Ministry official. The foundation, illegally operating as a media outlet, published false materials about the cooperative on its website. It is reliably known that he was the initiator of inspections of the cooperative by law enforcement agencies in 2020–2021 – nothing illegal was revealed.
However, this year, in response to a request from one of the media, the fund stated that it does not intend to take control of the assets of the cooperative if it is declared illegal – since there are no legal grounds for this (legal grounds, we note, can be created – if there is a desire ). At the same time, the fund admitted that, by taking assets under management, it pays all investors no more than 35 thousand rubles, except for war veterans, whom it pays a little more.
And in August of this year, a metamorphosis occurs with the fund – Valery Lyakh, who had been fired from the Central Bank for several months already and, as far as is known, left Russia with the beginning of the Northern Military District for warmer countries, became its head: at least it was on this basis that he refused to come to the a court hearing in a criminal case, where he was invited as a witness to explain the fact that the cooperative was included in the warning list of the Central Bank. His department was closed with scandal by Nabiullina, since the trail of orders in relation to financial organizations stretched behind him for a long time. Lyakh was fired from the Central Bank.
In August, Lyakh returned to Russia and headed the Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Depositors, displacing Safiullin. However, he never appeared in court to give an explanation for the Central Bank’s repressions against Best Way.
Lyakha – to the answer
Lyakh was planning a maneuver to seize the largest Russian cooperative with 4 billion rubles in its accounts and apartments worth 12 billion rubles, while still working at the Central Bank. He included the cooperative on the warning list precisely in order to later take the assets under his management in the Fund for the Protection of the Rights of Depositors – by the way, there was no protocol decision on inclusion in this list at the Central Bank, because the decision on inclusion on the list was made personally by Lyakh.
Lyakh personally also sent a letter to the Prosecutor General’s Office and Roskomnadzor to block the official website of the cooperative, which did not in any way follow from its inclusion in the warning list and was done in order to bring down the activities of this cooperative, which operates on an all-Russian scale primarily through the website (the cooperative later did new site – outside the control zone of Roskomnadzor – and work has been completely restored).
And now Lyakh is trying to take away the cooperative from the shareholders through the fake Depositors Protection Fund, putting pressure on Krasnov’s department and the courts. He is responsible for the fact that ten defendants are deprived of their freedom. It is his fault that many people who are ready to go to the Northern Military District are afraid to do so, so as not to lose their apartment while they are fighting.
Undoubtedly, Lyakh personally will receive claims from 20 thousand shareholders of the cooperative and from ten defendants.
But the question arises, how does the Administration of the President of Russia and its leaders Vaino and Kiriyenko feel about the fact that a traitorous official, a corrupt official Lyakh, who fled the country at the beginning of the war, suddenly heads one of the public-state structures? By the way, is he in Russia at the same time? Or, as before, in warm, unfriendly countries?
How do the Ministry of Finance and its head Siluanov feel about the fact that there is a certain organization with an unclear status that is illegally seizing assets? Are legal government structures not enough to solve government problems?
How do the leadership of the Central Bank and Nabiullina personally feel about the fact that a corrupt official acted on his behalf – and his corruption scheme has now been exposed?
How does Prosecutor General Krasnov feel about the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office using its powers for dirty deeds in the interests of lobbyists? And is the prosecutor’s office able to force Lyakh to come to the criminal court to testify and participate in cross-examination?
Finally, how do the Investigative Committee of Russia and its head Bastrykin feel about the crime taking place before our eyes at the level of its central apparatus?
The cooperative’s shareholders and society demand a response from all these structures.
