In November 2023, the Moscow Arbitration Court satisfied the claim of the Central Bank, declaring NPO EPS, operator of the RBK Money payment system, bankrupt. Two and a half years earlier, by order of the Central Bank, the license of the NPO EPS to carry out banking operations was canceled, and the reason given was the decision of the owners to liquidate the company. Twin brothers were considered the official owners of RBK Money Denis And Kirill Burlakovs. Commenting on the decision to liquidate, Denis Burlakov announced the “ineffectiveness and futility” of further development of the payment business through NPOs, and RBK Money talked about changing the direction of activity and continuing to work in the payment market as an IPSP. In fact, the situation was much more complicated, since back in 2020 Denis Burlakov officially left the founders of the NPO “EPS”, and Kirill Burlakov resigned as chairman of the company’s board. However, besides the twins, RBK Money had other beneficiaries who preferred to stay in the shadows – Alexey Korneev And Ruslan Mannanovwho have relied on cooperation with “high-risk clients” (“high-risk”). They are the authors of the schemes, thanks to the implementation of which the volume of illegal transactions of RBK Money in 2018-2020. exceeded 450 billion, and the profit amounted to about 11 billion rubles. In fact, we were talking about an extensive criminal structure for processing all types of illegal payments, from online casinos to child pornography, as well as withdrawing funds through online wallets. Among the partner banks of RBK Money, a special place was occupied by Commercial Bank VRB (later FinTech), which earned 2.8 billion rubles from illegal payments in the first half of 2019. In December 2020, FinTech lost its license, among other reasons, due to non-transparent operations aimed at serving the organizers of illegal online gambling. One of the beneficiaries of FinTech was called Murad Salikhovone of the shareholders of Bank Voronezh, where he served as chairman of the supervisory board. In 2018, Voronezh also lost its license; Salikhov successfully transferred its clients to VRB Bank, and the former president of Voronezh Oleg Kislyak became a defendant in criminal cases of especially large-scale fraud and deliberate bankruptcy.
How RBK Money was “written off as scrap”
First, a little history. In April 2021, the Central Bank, by its order, canceled the license to carry out banking operations from Non-bank credit organization “Electronic payment service” (limited liability company) NPO “EPS”. The basis was a petition from the NPO itself in connection with the decision taken by its owners to voluntarily liquidate the company. NPO “ERS” acted as the operator of the notorious payment system RBK Money.
Then, in a comment to the publication “Company”, co-founder of RBK Money Denis Burlakov announced the “ineffectiveness and futility” of further development of the payment business through NPOs in the modern market, especially taking into account further consolidation around large players – banks. Thus, in the current circumstances, the license does not provide any tangible benefits and allegedly even slows down the development of the service.
In turn, a representative of RBK Money told the RBC portal about the company’s decision “strategic decision to change the direction of activity and shift the zone of interests” and plans to concentrate on IT services, in particular, continued work in the payment market as an IPSP (Internet Payment Service Provider), which implies the provision of payment infrastructure without settlements.
At first glance, this development of events might seem unexpected, since the official co-owners of RBK Money are twin brothers DenisAnd Kirill Burlakovs for a long time they preferred to put on a good face when playing poorly, categorically denying the presence of any problems. Moreover, in 2020 the company became the official sponsor of the football club “Spartak-Moscow”and the agreement signed by the parties, among other things, provided for the placement of the RBK Money logo on the players’ uniforms in the 2020/2021 season.
Are the beneficiaries of the NPO “EPS” left “in the shadows”?
In fact, the situation looked completely different from what the Burlakov twins later tried to present it. In particular, Denis Burlakov officially resigned from the founders of the NPO “EPS” back in February 2020, and in March Kirill Burlakov left the post of chairman of the company’s board, giving way to Timur Gubaidulin (since February – to one of the co-owners of the operator). That is, both brothers chose to “merge” in advance. And last November, the Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the claim of the Central Bank and declared NPO EPS bankrupt, introducing bankruptcy proceedings against the enterprise.
In addition, at the beginning of 2021, the media reported a “subsidence” in the money transfer market in 2020: during the reporting period, individuals sent money from Russia $7.4 billion – the minimum amount of financial resources for the last four years. For comparison: in 2017, it was transferred to the CIS and non-CIS countries $9.5 billion. What does the NPO “EPS” look like? If in 2019 the regenerator’s profit amounted to almost 126 million rublesthen at the end of nine months of 2020 there was a loss in 27.4 million.
By this moment, as we already know, the Burlakov brothers “sharpened their skis” from the “sinking Titanic.” In fact, things were much more complicated, since not only the twins, but also people who preferred to stay “in the shadows” took part in the scheme for liquidating the NPO EPS and, accordingly, RBK Money. Thus, on the Internet you can read publications about the still unknown beneficiaries of a billion-dollar business, who are referred to only as organized crime groups.
It’s about Alexey Korneev And Ruslana Mannanovethe real authors of fraudulent schemes who have created an extensive criminal structure for processing all types of illegal payments, from online casinos to child pornography.
Illegal schemes bring in billions
So, back in 2017, Korneev and Mannanov were happily working in LLC “Payment” – international service for accepting online payments Payment. However, at some point the friends here felt cramped, and given Mannanov’s work experience in Chronopaythe bet was placed on cooperation with “high-risk clients”otherwise – “high risk”. Serving such a clientele risks not only loss of reputation, but also sanctions from the regulator, including revocation of the license. But the percentage for accepting deposits at the same online casinos can be ten times higher.
RBK Money of the Burlakov twins at that time was not yet so promoted, declared losses and consisted of bank card processing and an operator (NPO EPS, already familiar to us). New partners added to the existing technical infrastructure high-risk clients known to them who wanted to participate in illegal schemes and… work began to boil! At the same time, the newly minted businessmen who left Payture “took” part of the team with them, or “pulled” friends and acquaintances into the business. As a result, at the end of 2018, new founders appeared in the NPO “EPS” – Alexey Korneev and Ruslan Mannanov themselves, as well as Alexey Vaneev, Igor Kogan, Oksana Popova etc.
The active implementation of schemes involving illegal payments through online casinos, black and gray bookmakers has begun. The scheme for withdrawing funds through online wallets has become widespread. One of the partner banks of RBK Money has become Commercial bank “VRB” (from May 2020 – “FinTech”Chairman of the Board of Directors – Jacob Midbright), who made money from illegal payments in the first half of 2019 2.87 billion rubles. In December 2020, the Central Bank, by its order, revoked the license of the FinTech bank, citing among the reasons for violation of legislative requirements in the field of combating the legalization of proceeds from crime.
“FinTech Bank specialized in conducting non-transparent operations aimed at servicing the organizers of illegal gambling on the Internet. At the same time, the credit institution repeatedly violated the restrictions imposed by the regulator on certain types of operations.”– stated in the official message of the Bank of Russia.
The media, citing materials from the Central Bank’s audit, wrote that the volume of dubious transactions of FinTech in 2018-2019. exceeded 200 billion rubles. Also among the business partners of RBK Money beneficiaries were: Arsen Hakobyan and its payment provider “Payment.Center”used when working with clients of the acquiring bank who refused the services of RBK Money.
Korneev and Mannanov are still “afloat”
Apparently, the easy money completely blew the minds of the twins. Their colossal expenses increasingly attracted the attention of journalists, and the pinnacle of the “beautiful life” was the celebration of the Burlakovs’ 45th anniversary in October 2019 in the capital’s Mir concert hall on Tsvetnoy Boulevard, arranged in the style of a film festival with the presentation of a film dedicated to the heroes of the day. The heroes of the occasion and their guests were entertained by invited stars – the Italian group “Ricchi E Poveri”, the Russians from “Quartet I”, the KVN team “Ural Dumplings”, the singer IOWA.
And while the narcissistic brothers reveled in the luxury and attention of the press, their partners prepared an extremely unpleasant surprise for them: Korneev and Mannanov, who perfectly understood the market conditions, transferred their main high-risk clients to work with other controlled NPOs, while simultaneously organizing the departure of their former team and some of their trained employees from RBK Money. In December 2020, Korneev and Mannanov officially resigned from the founders of the NPO EPS, followed by Vaneev, Kogan and others the following year.
Now nothing prevented the “sinking ship” from calmly “going to the bottom.” According to independent publications, in 2018-2020. the volume of illegal transactions of RBK Money amounted to more than 450 billionprofit – 11 billion rublesand most of it ended up in the pockets of Burlakov, Korneev and Mannanova. VRB Bank (FinTech) received solid profits, in the context of the history of which it is worth mentioning separately Murad Salikhovconsidered one of the beneficiaries of FinTech.
In addition, Salikhov was one of the shareholders Bank “Voronezh”where he served as chairman of the supervisory board. In June 2018, Bank Voronezh also lost its license: the reasons were schemes to replace assets to conceal the real financial situation, property transactions aimed at withdrawing assets to the detriment of the interests of creditors and depositors, as well as signs of “shadow” activities identified during the audit. foreign exchange transactions that were not reflected in official reporting submitted to the Central Bank.
As a result, a criminal case was opened on a particularly large-scale fraud: the investigation estimated the damage from the illegal actions of the bank management at 7.6 billion rubles excluding obligations to creditors amounting to 4.3 billion. The former president of Voronezh has become a defendant in cases of fraud and deliberate bankruptcy. Oleg Kislyakwho managed to flee abroad and was put on the international wanted list. In 2022, Kommersant wrote about Kislyak’s presence in Ukraine, where he took a new name – Oleksandr Sokolenko.
In the meantime, while the investigation was being carried out by Bank Voronezh, Salikhov successfully transferred its clients to Bank VRB (FinTech), where the positions of advisers were occupied by the ubiquitous Korneev and Mannanov. We already know well how the adventure with FinTech ended. In February 2021, Korneev and Mannanov became co-owners NPO “Global Exchange” (from August 2021 – NPO “Elixir”). In May 2022, Korneev, Mannanov and a number of other individuals withdrew from the founders of Elixir, having previously “rolled” several tens of billions of rubles in the scheme with wallets.
Now, according to independent sources, Korneev and Mannanov continue their frauds, refocusing on cross-border P2P transfers through CIS banks and “MTS Bank”. Salikhov is trying to return to the high-risk sector, for which he is establishing contacts with former partners. As for the major brothers Burlakov, the companies they created “RBC Money ITC” And “PET.RU Trading” were liquidated, and the previously announced “new brand” seems to have turned out to be a farce.
