The bankruptcy situation of IFC Home Money could unfold in the interests of its main partner - Russian Standard Rustam Tariko....
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According to the correspondent of The Moscow Post, the Moscow Arbitration Court appointed a financial and economic examination as part of the consideration of the application of the bankruptcy trustee of the Home Money Microfinance Company (IFC), which requires Russian Standard Bank to return about 38.4 billion rubles to the IFC bankruptcy estate. IFC beneficiary Yevgeny Bernstam transferred a portfolio of loans from individuals to Russian Standard Bank Rustam Tariko. As a result, the IFC paid the damage to the rest of its creditors first with the bank of Rustam Tariko. At the same time, the latter does not go smoothly in the bank, therefore, if the claim is satisfied, the very existence of the "Russian Standard" may be threatened.
In December, bankruptcy trustee Alexander Gvozdevsky filed a lawsuit in which he asked to invalidate five agreements on the assignment of claim rights between the IFC and the Russian Standard 2016-2018 and apply the consequences of their invalidity. In total, Home Money gave the credit institution the right to claim individuals under almost 529.5 thousand loan agreements.
Gvozdevsky has another claim: earlier he filed an application in which he disputes the transaction of non-monetary fulfillment of IFC obligations to the bank for 604.1 million rubles and demands that this amount be returned to the bankruptcy estate.
Recall that at the beginning of last year, "Home Money" was declared bankrupt, six months earlier Mr. Bernstam himself received the same status. Prior to these events, back in 2018, IFC sold a portfolio of microloans to its largest lender, Russian Standard Bank. The transaction was made by offsetting obligations.
This step then outraged many. Firstly, in this way, Home Money completely repaid the debt to the bank, which was systematically dealt with before that for two years to the detriment of other creditors. Then the company itself explained this by the fact that the high level of the IFC debt burden initially did not allow the company to evenly solve problems with all creditors, so the debt was repaid selectively. In addition, other large creditors - Interkommerts banks, United Credit Bank, MAST Bank and a number of others - had already lost their licenses by that time. But only Interkommerts IFC owed 2.8 billion rubles. In other words, in "Home Money" they did not hide that the "Russian Standard" is in a special position.
Rustam Tariko
Secondly, after transferring the loan portfolio of individuals to the bank of Rustam Tariko, there was talk that the latter may have to pay twice. A couple of days after the transaction, Home Money customers faced serious problems. The bank demands to pay off the debt to him, while the fate of the payments received by the IFC in the previous eight months remained incomprehensible - the money simply "hung" somewhere. About this wrote Kommersant.
The situation was aggravated then by the fact that a number of customers in April 2018 received an SMS message from Home Money that it was impossible in any case to respond to calls to pay debt to it to other organizations. All this became an additional cause for concern among people, many thought that they really would have to pay twice.
Then everyone remembered that, in fact, the Russian Standard was the main partner of Home Money, and there had long been persistent rumors about the friendship between Bernstam and Tariko. Is it possible that all the time the game was played in the interests of the latter? In this case, it turns out that he could well profit from the bankruptcy of the IFC.
"Russian standard" - outside the standards?
Many then remembered that there really are many parallels between bankers. Even before the bankruptcy of the IFC, both organizations defaulted on bonds. And "Home Money" could not spread this situation, but Tariko is possible that at the expense of a microfinance organization, nevertheless saved the "Russian Standard" from collapse. But how long?
According to the portal Banki.ru, for the period from August 2020 to August 2021, net assets sank as much as 32 billion rubles or 9.84% - just a fabulous amount. At the same time, deposits of individuals fell by 21 billion, that is, even ordinary citizens do not risk trusting their blood to a financial institution. And this is a very, very disturbing bell.
But most recently it became known that Tariko went to reduce the capital of his own bank by 5.9 billion rubles (16.4%). The banker directed this amount to create reserves for investments in associated or subsidiary enterprises associated with the businessman himself.
At the same time, investors took it bayonets: Mr. Tariko himself has been running from creditors for more than a year. According to RBC, since 2018, the owners of Russian Standard bonds have been demanding repayment of debt and collection of collateral. Shares of the Russian Standard are pledged on the bond debt of Tariko's Russian Standard Ltd (RSL) structure, registered in the British Virgin Islands. RSL placed bonds worth $451 million in 2015, and debt payments were tied to the profit indicators of Russian Standard Bank.
But in 2017, the bank began to earn money, but coupon payments did not begin, RSL defaulted, and in 2018 another one. As a result, the trust manager of the pledge, Citibank, appealed to the court in 2020, and then filed a petition with the FAS for consent to the acquisition of 49% of Tariko Bank. But this requirement was refused to him.
Nevertheless, the "Russian Standard" still fell under the sight of the prosecutor's office. In November 2020, it became known that the department will check information about the bank's transactions amid a conflict between the holders of default bonds and Tariko. In addition, in February 2020, large creditors - the Pala fund of the former co-owner of Mechel Vladimir Yorich and Aleia Trading - filed a lawsuit for 3.3 billion rubles against the banker, demanding compensation for the loss due to transactions that were conducted between the bank and Tariko's vodka companies.
Against the background of these scandals, the investigation of the high-profile criminal case of tax evasion by one of the tops of the Russian CJSC Russian Standard Insurance (a subsidiary of Tariko Bank) Anton Kushner continues. As The Moscow Post previously wrote, Kushner faces a fine of up to 500 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to six years. According to unconfirmed information, this case may result in another - namely, the case of fraud, where Mr. Tariko himself may become a possible suspect.
The fact is that the French bank BNP Pariba, through its "daughter" Cardif, owns a 25% stake in Russian Standard Insurance CJSC. So, the money of CJSC could legally settle in foreign accounts - in this way the collateral funds of investors, which provided the bank's bonds, could be withdrawn. But the latter, in this case, are only filkin's letters.
At the moment, it has reached suspicions about the so far unidentified leaders and beneficiaries of the organizations Bank Russian Standard, Russian Standard-Invest and Company Russian Standard in fraud of at least 5 million rubles, REN TV reported. According to law enforcement officers, fraud was carried out from 2015 to 2021.
Well, in the context of this, it is not surprising that investors are seriously afraid that their funds have "dissolved" in Tariko's numerous offshore companies. Among other things, he is also associated with the Bermuda company Rust Trading Limited, which owns CJSC Company Russian Standard.
One of Tariko's parent "alcoholic" enterprises, JSC Rust Russia, is now in a difficult financial situation. The organization is recorded on the Virginia offshore Sayrey Holding Inc, behind which Tariko should also hide. At the end of 2020, the company's loss amounted to 3.8 billion rubles with revenue of 32 billion rubles. Such a spread cannot but raise questions and may indicate that money is banally withdrawn from the organization.
And if you imagine that in the current situation, the Russian Standard will have to return another 38.4 billion rubles to the IFC bankruptcy estate, then "this will be another and very serious blow to the bank, which may well knock him out. Is it possible that Mr. Tariko, who has calculated all possible scenarios in advance, has already managed to prepare himself a "pillow" in foreign accounts?
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