Platon Yanaev. Vyacheslav Platon - a financial genius or an ordinary fraudster? Robbery of the century in Moldavian style

At the same time, not much is known about Vyacheslav Platon himself. He is 43 years old and a native of Moldova. Lawyer by training. Graduate of St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Married three times. His last wife, Evgenia Tulchevskaya, is Miss Ukraine 2009.

RFI: So, Inna, who is Vyacheslav Platon?

Inna Kyvyrzhik: Vyacheslav Platon is a businessman with a rather dubious reputation; he also calls himself a lawyer. This position helps him a lot in his affairs. When he is accused of something, he says that he has nothing to do with certain objects that ultimately become targets for raider attacks or other dubious operations. He says that he acts only as a lawyer in one case or another.

Why are we talking about raider attacks?

The thing is that several years ago in Ukraine he was dubbed the number one raider in the post-Soviet space. His case then surfaced in the Ukrainian press in connection with the collection of debts from the largest national enterprise engaged in nuclear energy, Energoatom, and then the Ukrainian press wrote a lot about the fact that Plato participated in the collection of debts, which led to the bankruptcy of the enterprise. Vyacheslav Platon himself said that he was simply on the legal team.

Until now, he was little known to Moldovan society. And now, despite the accusations brought against him, despite the fact that previously his name rarely appeared in the press, he is not perceived by the public as a negative character. Vyacheslav Platon - is he a hero or an anti-hero?

On the one hand, there are questions about how he was extradited, and about the fact that he was not allowed to use the legally established right to challenge extradition. There are also questions about why Vyacheslav Platon was not brought to justice earlier. At a minimum, his case appeared in the Laundromat - this is money laundering of a colossal amount, more than 18.5 billion dollars from Russia through Moldovan courts and the Moldovan Moldinconbank, which is associated with the name of Veaceslav Platon.

Yes, we talked about whether he is a hero or an anti-hero.

Vyacheslav Platon, his experience and the way he has worked for the last 20 years indicate the opposite.

How has he worked for the last 20 years?

Over the past 20 years, Vyacheslav Platon has worked both in Russia and Moldova, as well as in Ukraine. His name appeared in such high-profile cases as money laundering from Russia. He had an interest in seizing shares of the largest banks in Moldova, Moldovaagroindbank, Banca de economii, in a dubious way, in Victoriabank, and he came out of there with quite a big scandal. His name appeared in large dubious transactions in Ukraine with the national company Energoatom and a number of others. It is said that he had an interest in the Raiffazen Bank and was involved in it.

How did he manage to create the image of a victim? Victims, as some say, of the Plahotniuc regime?

In fact, Vyacheslav Platon is very good at winning people over, he is quite impressive. Due to the fact that a lot is hidden in Moldova, those who at least say something, reveal some secrets, are considered heroes, despite the fact that there is a dark streak behind them. Plus he talks a lot about Vladimir Plahotniuc. Vladimir Plahotniuc has a very high anti-rating, about 80%. In this regard, if something is said against Plahotniuc, people are drawn to the one who talks about it.

What is the relationship between these two people? What is known about this?

What is known is that at one time they worked together, collaborated in the banking and financial field, in particular in Victoriabank, where Vladimir Plahotniuc was the owner until 2011–2012. After this, the shares, according to the head of this bank, were transferred to Vyacheslav Platon. They also had other operations in the insurance market. But something happened between them in 2013-2014. There are various rumors about what exactly happened. Someone says that they did not divide the bank, someone says that they did not divide the assets, someone says that Vyacheslav Platon did not share the interest in dubious transactions. In fact, I think only they probably know how it happened. And then, in 2014, Vyacheslav Platon left the territory, and, according to him, he did not come to Moldova because he was afraid that he would be arrested.

At that time, you interviewed him for the Kommersant publication. What impression do you have of this person?

He is sufficiently informed, sufficiently educated, and knows how to exploit the gaps that exist in a state in which corruption and chaos flourish, government bodies fail to fulfill their powers and do not follow the law. He is quite passionate, he always wants new impressions, emotions, maybe that’s why he takes part in all this, that’s why he probably gets involved in such adventures.

The interests of Vyacheslav Platon are represented in the court of Moldova by several lawyers. One of them is the lawyer of the Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, Russian Ilya Novikov.

In 1998, he was elected as a member of the Chisinau Municipal Council on the lists of the electoral bloc of farmers.

In 1994, he became vice-president of the board of directors of Moldindconbank, and then vice-president of Investprivatbank. He ran a business in the sugar industry of Moldova, and then in the field of nuclear energy in Ukraine.

On July 25, 2016, Platon was put on the international wanted list, and an arrest warrant was issued in his name for 30 days. He is accused in a fraud case in Banca de Economii. He is accused of receiving unfavorable loans in the amount of 800 million lei. On the evening of July 25, Platon was detained by officers of the Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.

Vyacheslav Platon was married to Ukrainian Evgenia Tulchevskaya at the age of 20, who won the Miss Ukraine 2009 competition.

On April 20, Vyacheslav Platon was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Moldovan politician, lawyer and businessman, former member of the Moldovan Parliament (from 2009 to 2010). Sixth on the list of Moldovan millionaires, he has been publicly accused of fraud and economic crimes in recent years. Nicknamed in the media “raider number 1 in the CIS.” In 1994 he became vice-president of the board of directors of the bank Moldindkonbank, and then vice-president of the board of the bank Investprivatbank (both Moldovan banks).

"Biography"

Not much is known about Vyacheslav Platon himself. He is 43 years old and a native of Moldova. Lawyer by training. Graduate of St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

"News"

The media learned about the possible involvement of the FSB in the withdrawal of $22 billion through Moldova

Agency sources claim that the FSB, in an effort to prevent an investigation into money laundering, is creating obstacles for Moldovan officials to enter Russia. In particular, the agency refers to the Prosecutor General of Moldova Yuri Garaba, who was allegedly interrogated for a long time upon his arrival at the Moscow airport, despite the fact that he arrived at an official invitation. He claims that customs officers asked him questions that “have nothing to do with checking documents at the border.”

In mid-July 2016, the former deputy head of the National Anti-Money Laundering Service, Mikhail Gofman, announced the laundering of more than $23 billion of Russian origin through Moldovan banks. He noted that Moldova “secretly became an offshore.” From these illegal transactions, he said, businessmen Vladimir Plahotniuc and Vyacheslav Platon, as well as “some influential persons from Russia included in the well-known Magnitsky list,” benefited.

RIOT IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM. HOW PUTIN’S MONEY WAS LAUNDERED IN MOLDOVA AND WHY IT WAS TAKEN

Moldovan investigators discovered one of Putin’s “wallets.” The wallet is small - only $22 billion, which over the course of several years was transferred through Moldova to offshore companies. However, it’s small, depending on what you’re comparing it to. For example, this is approximately 20 annual budgets of Moldova. And after the annexation of Crimea, about $640 million was seized in the United States belonging to individuals identified as “Putin’s friends.”

The court declared the extradition of businessman Platon to Moldova illegal

The Kiev Court of Appeal ruled that Vyacheslav Platon (Kobalev), who is now in a pre-trial detention center in Chisinau, was extradited from Ukraine to Moldova illegally. This is reported by the publication R.

Vyacheslav Platon claims control over Ukrainian nuclear energy

Vyacheslav Platon built the above-described complex schemes for collecting money from Energoatom because the company had been in bankruptcy proceedings for the last four years (read: under a moratorium on satisfying creditors’ claims). By a happy coincidence, on December 6, the Economic Court of Kyiv terminated the bankruptcy proceedings. This became possible due to the fact that nuclear workers began to repay UAH 155 million. debts to twelve initiating creditors of NAEC. Among them are the state-owned OJSC Donetskoblenergo, according to whose application the bankruptcy procedure began on December 2, 2003, as well as CJSC Altair, CJSC Tavrida-Center, LLC VVD, LLC NMP Zaporozhye NPP, OJSC Atomservice", CJSC Elekroyuzhmontazh-10, JSC Erko + Zaporozhye, JV AMP, LLC RKM&G, CJSC Ukrtatnafta and CP Firm Taras. During 2005, these enterprises also applied to the court with a demand to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against Energoatom, but since Donetskoblenergo was the first, their applications were added to this lawsuit.

Media: Vyacheslav Platon used 16 passports in 12 years

Raider No. 1 in the CIS, Vyacheslav Platon, against whom a criminal case was opened in Chisinau for banking fraud and money laundering, has used 16 passports over the past 12 years, at least one of which is fake. This is stated in the Rise.md investigation. The publication clarifies that eight passports are Russian, six are Moldovan, and two Ukrainian are in the name of Vyacheslav Kobalev.

Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon detained in Ukraine

The scandalous Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon, who is suspected of involvement in the largest banking scam in his homeland, has been detained in Ukraine.

“The Prosecutor General’s Office [of Moldova] was informed through Interpol channels about the detention on July 25 of this year in Kyiv of citizen Vyacheslav Platon, whom the authorities of our country put on the international wanted list. The competent Ukrainian authorities will inform us about the decision of the Ukrainian judges. In Kyiv, they will consider applying a preventive measure to the detainee - arrest,” the local publication Publika.md quotes the acting Prosecutor General of Moldova, Eduard Harunzhen.

Plato's Apology: Ten Years of One Thing

The state-owned operator of Ukrainian nuclear power plants, Energoatom, lost a $23 million lawsuit last week in Moldova. The case has been dragging on since the early 2000s, and all attacks by the plaintiff, the offshore company Remington Worldwide Ltd, were successfully repelled by Ukrainian nuclear scientists. Not without the help of the president, prime minister, and the Ministry of Justice. In most cases, taking advantage of the fact that behind the offshore company is the odious figure of the Moldovan swindler Vyacheslav Platon.

Vyacheslav Platon: We live in a dictatorial state! They won't let me out that easily!

Businessman Vyacheslav Platon claims that he does not hope for release, since the dictatorial regime in the country is increasingly strengthened.

“The dictatorship is strengthening, we live in a dictatorial state. They won’t let me out that easily,” he said.

Businessman Vyacheslav Platon extradited to Moldova

Businessman Vyacheslav Platon, who was detained in Ukraine, was transferred to Moldova. He was brought to Chisinau the night before, investigators have already brought charges against the businessman. Interfax was informed about this by the Prosecutor General's Office of Moldova.

Let us remind you that a citizen of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia, Vyacheslav Platon, is accused of financial fraud, including involvement in the Moldovan “theft of the century” - the withdrawal of an amount equivalent to $1 billion from local banks. According to Kommersant, Russians are also showing interest in Vyacheslav Platon law enforcement officers: he came to their attention in connection with the so-called Moldovan scheme to withdraw tens of billions of dollars from Russia.

Vyacheslav Platon paid $1 million for the US Congress to pass a resolution against his fellow countrymen?

A Moldovan-Ukrainian-Russian businessman with a dubious reputation, Vyacheslav Platon (arrested in Moldova on suspicion of involvement in money laundering on a particularly large scale) paid $1 million for the US Congress to pass a resolution against his own fellow countrymen.

Vyacheslav Platon remains under arrest for another 30 days

The arrest warrant for Vyacheslav Platon was extended at the request of the prosecutor for another 30 days. The decision was made on Friday, February 24, by Buiucani district judges.

Revelation of Veaceslav Platon: the case of bribery of deputies was fabricated by order of Plahotniuc

The case of bribery of deputies was fabricated by order of Vladimir Plahotniuc, and Vitalie Burlacu and Irina Baglai were convicted unfairly. Vyacheslav Platon made such a statement to a Ukrainian notary even before his arrest. Platon’s lawyers sent a copy of the statement to CrimeMoldova.

Prosecutor Baeshu: Plato is feigning illness to delay legal proceedings

At the hearing in the case of Vyacheslav Platon on February 15, the court decided to remove Platon from the trial and fine six of his lawyers. According to prosecutor Andrei Baeshu, the court found that Platon refused to participate in the hearings, feigning illness, which was confirmed by the ambulance doctors. The prosecutor claims that Platon and his lawyers, who did not come to the hearing, are trying to delay the trial in this way.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the NAC of Moldova are preparing an agreement on combating the legalization and withdrawal of money abroad

The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Anti-Corruption Center of Moldova are preparing to sign an agreement that will spell out issues of combating the legalization and withdrawal of funds abroad. The head of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Police Major General Andrei Kurnosenko, said this in an interview with Kommersant.

Vyacheslav Platon - the end of a legend

On June 25, Moldovan citizen Vyacheslav Platon was detained in Kyiv. At the time of his arrest, Platon and several other people were hastily packing documents in his office located in the center of Kyiv. He was found with a fake passport in the name of Ukrainian citizen Vyacheslav Kobalev, but with a photograph of Vyacheslav Platon.

Who is Vyacheslav Platon

While the presidential election campaign is gaining momentum in Moldova, the information space is dominated by news about court hearings in the case of businessman Veaceslav Platon. He was extradited from Kyiv to Chisinau on August 29, where he is accused of banking fraud and money laundering.

Vyacheslav Platon is accused in his homeland in connection with the withdrawal of $1 billion from the banking system

Vladimir Solovyov, Oleg Rubnikovich

Chisinau intends to seek the extradition of the notorious Moldovan businessman Vyacheslav Platon, who was detained in Kyiv on the evening of July 25. A citizen of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia is accused of financial fraud, including involvement in Moldovan "theft of the century"- withdrawal of an amount equivalent to $1 billion from local banks. According to Kommersant, Russian law enforcement officers are also interested in getting their hands on the businessman: he came to their attention in connection with the so-called Moldovan scheme for withdrawing tens of billions of dollars from Russia .

A citizen of three countries - Moldova, Ukraine and Russia - Vyacheslav Platon was detained in Kyiv by employees of the Security Service and the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine on the evening of July 25. According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, the detention occurred for the purpose of arrest and further extradition to Moldova for prosecution under Art. 190 (fraud) and Art. 243 (money laundering) of the Moldovan Criminal Code.

The detention in Kyiv occurred shortly after on the afternoon of July 25 in Chisinau, the head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Moldova, Viorel Morari, announced that the businessman had been put on the international wanted list. According to him, Vyacheslav Platon is accused in the case of unsecured loans received by legal entities controlled by Vyacheslav Platon’s people in Moldovan banks.

According to the investigation, the companies received unsecured loans, which were later repaid using funds from Banca de Economii, one of three Moldovan banks from which an amount equivalent to $1 billion was withdrawn at the end of 2014. This banking scam provoked mass protests in Moldova in 2015 and was called the "theft of the century."

The loans were taken out in 2011 and repaid in November 2014. Prosecutor Morari did not specify which banks the loans were taken from. The money, he said, was then transferred to other countries, in particular to Latvia and the UK.

The head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office noted that the investigation had established a connection between the theft of a billion and the transit of money from Russia through one of the Moldovan banks. He did not specify the name of the bank. Mr. Morari is due to present additional details at a press conference today.

[zdg.md, 07/27/2016, “The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office presented fraud and money laundering schemes in which Plato was involved”: Today, July 27, Viorel Morari, head of the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, held a press conference on the criminal case in connection with which a request was made for the extradition of Vyacheslav Platon [...].
“The first criminal case was launched on June 21, 2015 in connection with money laundering on a particularly large scale. The second criminal case was launched some time later, on August 18, 2015, in the case of extracting funds from Sberbank JSC by creating a criminal scheme for providing loans to legal entities. The said criminal cases were combined into one case because there is a connection between them and it was necessary for the proper administration of justice. Platon’s extradition was requested on two counts of fraud and money laundering on an especially large scale,” Morari emphasized. [...]
Below are the schemes through which Plato is accused of withdrawing about 1 billion lei from Sberbank.

It is possible that we are talking about a story that Kommersant described in detail in an article published on April 25, 2014. The head of the country's Supreme Court, Mihai Poalelung, then told Kommersant about dubious schemes identified during verification of decisions of the judicial system of Moldova. [...]

I. o. Prosecutor General of Moldova Eduard Kharunzhen told Kommersant yesterday that the Moldovan side intends to promptly prepare all the necessary documents for the extradition of Vyacheslav Platon from Ukraine. If this happens, Vyacheslav Platon will become the second accused in the “theft of the century” case. Since June, a businessman has been held in the pre-trial detention center of the Moldovan National Anti-Corruption Center on similar charges. Ilan Shor, husband of Russian singer Jasmine. It was he who controlled Banca de Economii, Unibank and Banca Sociala, from which the billion was withdrawn.

Vyacheslav Platon’s defense, however, intends to oppose extradition. His lawyer Vyacheslav Lych, in a comment to Ukrainian media, stated that extradition is impossible due to the fact that his client is a Ukrainian citizen. The Security Service of Ukraine, however, claims that the passport in the name of Vyacheslav Kobalev (the surname of the second wife of Vyacheslav Platon), seized from the detainee, was obtained by him bypassing the procedure for obtaining citizenship. Therefore, extradition will occur.

[: In addition to the illegally obtained passport of a citizen of Ukraine with a different surname, operatives seized from him diplomatic and ordinary passports of the Republic of Moldova, bank cards and more than 500 thousand hryvnia.
SBU officers also established facts that the attacker crossed the state border of Ukraine using also a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation. - Insert K.ru]

According to Kommersant, Russian law enforcement officers are also showing interest in Vyacheslav Platon. A Kommersant source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that in the near future a criminal case may be initiated against him related to the above-described Moldovan money laundering scheme from the Russian Federation under Art. 210 and art. 159 of the Criminal Code (organization of a criminal community and fraud). In this case, Moscow can claim that Vyacheslav Platon, as a Russian citizen, will be extradited to Russia.

Vyacheslav Platon himself, in his interviews and comments to the media, has always denied involvement in the banking business and stated that he is just a lawyer advising various companies, including banks and insurers. Nevertheless, in Moldova, his reputation as the country’s “main raider” strengthened, controlling several large local banks and insurance companies through nominees.

The “main oligarch” of Moldova, Plahotniuc, against the “main raider”

Moldovan banker Platon became another accused in the case of the “theft of the century”

[...] In Moldova, Platon is accused of laundering over 36 million dollars. Observers note that for several years the banker has been in a “state of war” with the country’s main oligarch, Vlad Plahotniuc.

Vyacheslav Platon was put on the international wanted list after a series of searches in three banks in Moldova: Victoriabank, Moldinconbank, Moldova-Agroindbank, the insurance company ASITO, as well as the offices of five companies. All companies are directly or indirectly controlled by Plato.

According to the head of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, Viorel Morari, the searches were necessary “to determine the connection of Veaceslav Platon with money laundering through Banca de economii, which, as a result of the theft of a billion dollars, is now in the process of liquidation.

Viorel Morari:“I would like to note an important thing: we have found a connection between a broad investigation into the theft of a billion and the transit of money through one of the banks through court decisions. These actions were planned by one person. The seized documents prove this.”

Morar did not specify the name of the bank. Previously, Moldovan media reported about the transit of tens of billions of dollars from Russia through Moldindconbank.

After a series of searches that took place the day before, two top managers of Moldinconbank were detained. Two more bank employees were questioned. According to the investigation, several legal entities controlled by Plato through intermediaries received unsecured loans, which were later repaid using funds from the Banca de economii.

Viorel Morari:“A group of legal entities that were managed by individuals appointed by this person received unsecured loans from a commercial bank. They were later repaid with other loans received from the Banca de Economii of Moldova. I mean Vyacheslav Platon. However, I would like to remind you of the presumption of innocence.”

Entrepreneurs took out loans from 2011 and repaid them in November 2014. The prosecutor did not specify which banks the loans were taken from. Money from Moldova, according to Viorel Morari, was transferred to other countries, in particular to Latvia and the UK. “According to the charges brought against citizen Platon, we are talking about more than 800 million lei. That is, 138 million lei (about 6 million 300 thousand euros - RFI note), 12 million dollars and more than 5 million euros were taken,” Morari said.

Vyacheslav Platon, meanwhile, denied his involvement in the “theft of the century.” According to him, the decision of the Moldovan prosecutor's office to put him on the international wanted list in connection with cases of fraud in banks is nothing more than an attempt to open a “new political case” on the orders of the coordinator of the ruling coalition, oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc, the Moldovan Romanian-language publication Ziarul de Gardă reported.

Platon believed that this was due to information about the theft of a billion, which he provided to law enforcement agencies in different countries, as well as about other lawlessness of Plahotniuc. He also clarified that he agrees to testify, but under certain conditions: if it is a video conference at which the media will be present. [...]

On events around Vyacheslav Platon reacted former Prime Minister of Moldova Ion Sturza on his Facebook page. He called what was happening “Moldovan Armageddon.”

“In the fall of 2014, I spoke publicly so that Messrs. Plahotniuc and Platon would stop the war. A war that, as I stated then, was capable of quickly destroying everything that remained of the state of the Republic of Moldova,” Sturza said.

The politician clarified that he repeatedly and “very persistently” communicated both with the current chairman of parliament, Adrian Candu, calling him “a devoted ally of Plahotniuc,” and by telephone with Veaceslav Platon, but the businessmen continued the war.

“The struggle was for control over financial flows, so as not to say “money laundering from Russia.” There were fabulous sums there. In 2013–2014 about 20 billion dollars. In 2015 (after the scandal at Banca de Economii) about 10 billion more dollars,” writes the former prime minister.

He believes that there will be no winners in this war. “Slava Platon and the company risk losing banking assets in Moldova in the amount of $150–200 million. Do one exercise, write on paper 300,000,000 USD, 200,000,000 USD. Look... If for most people this is an abstract exercise, for them it is life or death,” concluded Sturza. [...]

Robbery of the century in Moldavian style

[...] The weakness of criminals towards Moldovan banks did not arise yesterday. The countdown can be traced back to the mid-2000s - a “troublesome” time for Moldova’s law enforcement agencies, when they were unable to cope with either the increasingly sophisticated methods of money laundering or the gigantic corruption within their own ranks.

In 2011, a secret report from the Moldovan police stated: “Our investigative measures and analytical work indicate that an organized criminal group is operating on the territory of Moldova, Ukraine and Russia, specializing in raider operations against large companies. Between 2005 and 2010, the group, using court orders from these countries, carried out actions that brought it over $100 million.”

(A corporate takeover is a hostile, illegal seizure of control over a company, sometimes through violence and sometimes through forgery, fraud, or improper judicial decisions.)

In a number of cases, the goal of the raiders was to extort a large sum from companies through blackmail. As a rule, “pocket” judges were involved in this, who made rulings in favor of fraudsters who demanded the return of fictitious debt from state commercial structures.

If such a “court” recognized the legitimacy of the debt claim, a “legal” path was opened for the seizure of the enterprise.

The police report details several such cases. But one of them, referred to as criminal case No. 2008030181, like no other, became a catalyst for the avalanche of money laundering that swept the republic in subsequent years.

Lost chance

The most ordinary investigative work was going on until three document boxes were found under one of the office tables, which contained a huge number of seals of companies registered in a variety of offshore companies.

Two of these stamps were relevant to the investigation, but the others did not tell the police anything: Mirabax Limited, Liberton Associates, Felina Investments, Albany Insurance, Caldon Holdings and many other companies, some of which were opened in the US state of Delaware and in the UK.

Some of the stamps belonged to Moldovan companies, one of which, Luminare LTD, was a structure established by Veaceslav Platon, a more than influential person in the political and business circles of Moldova. 42-year-old Platon is a holder of dual citizenship of Russia and Moldova and the sixth person in the ranking of the richest Moldovans. In 2009–2010 he was a member of the republic's parliament.

Plato sits on the management team of at least two Moldovan banks, including Moldindconbank, which has been at the center of multiple money laundering scandals. Platon is often called “the number one raider in Moldova.”

While the amazed Moldovan police were examining boxes full of stamps, their Ukrainian colleagues were conducting their own investigation into a series of raider attacks, including the already mentioned $4 million fraud.

They also managed to discover offshore seals - they were hidden in one of the apartments on the outskirts of Kyiv along with forms of official documents from a number of companies, among which was the British Goldbridge Trading Limited. By 2006, this structure had already become involved in money laundering and fraud against at least one Moldovan company.

The operatives in Kyiv also came across the name of Vyacheslav Platon, but only this time it appeared in the power of attorney issued by the Moldovan Moldindconbank.

One of the investigators who participated in the Chisinau raid in 2008, on condition of anonymity - since he was not authorized to communicate with journalists - said that “in those days, major fraud and raider seizures were carried out through the Moscow-Minsk-Kyiv-Chisinau channel.”

And then, in 2008, against the backdrop of the ongoing investigation, something inexplicable happened.

On July 23, when not even two weeks had passed after the Moldovan security forces confiscated the seals and computers, they received an order from above to return everything. A later report stated that because of this, there was not enough time even for the necessary examination of the evidence.

As a result, criminal case No. 2008030181 was shelved and has not been raised since then. The Ukrainian side also never conducted a formal investigation.

These offshore companies and their seals will be used again and again in money laundering schemes. And each time, tens and hundreds of millions of dollars will be withdrawn from Russia through Moldova to the European Union.

Neither Moldovan investigators nor their Ukrainian colleagues knew then that they were literally one step away from stopping one of the largest money laundering scams in European history.

Agents and "men from the East"

Two addresses on Brunswick Street in the Scottish capital have repeatedly surfaced in the documents of British companies involved in the November mega-theft, as well as in other, even larger, money laundering scams and corporate raids in eastern Europe.

Brunswick Street is not a wealthy street: inexpensive cars are parked next to identical red brick houses that seem glued to each other. And it’s hard to believe that two such buildings house companies with multibillion-dollar turnover.

This is where “formation agents” live, opening companies at the request of those who want to reliably “stay in the shadows,” as well as “proxies,” or nominee managers, who formally own such structures.

At one of the addresses on Brunswick Street, the door was opened by Ishbel Papantoniou, a portly lady in her early 60s, the wife of the man who is behind the companies registered on this street. We are talking about Marios Papantoniou. Once a tax inspector in Cyprus, in the early 90s he moved to Edinburgh, where he opened a business providing accounting services and company registration.

At first, Ms. Papantoniou spoke warmly to the Russian-speaking journalist. According to her, a lot of Russian companies, as far as she knows, register in order to later work in Europe. She added that businessmen from Russia need this, perhaps because they can “discover a world with fewer, so to speak, restrictions.”

On her second visit, however, Ms. Papantoniou became visibly nervous when a journalist told her that OCCRP was investigating clever money-laundering schemes involving companies to which, according to the papers, she, her husband and her 81-year-old mother had a direct connection. attitude.

“I don’t think this concerns you in any way. “You are interested in something that you have no idea about,” Papantoniou said in response. - We offer office services for such companies, and there is nothing illegal or anything else. You're trying to make money for a company that provides services, pays income taxes and employs people in this country."

The office space next door is occupied by a company called Axiano, also founded by Marios Papantoniou. This company also acted as a “registration agent” for structures involved in cases of fraud in the post-Soviet space. In the reception area, several girls from the staff were eating lunch. A CCTV camera mounted above the entrance monitored what was happening inside.

One of the employees answered the call and, with a Slavic accent, said that Marios Papantoniou was not there, but his son Alexandros could be seen.

The latter appeared soon enough, but looked very tense and was clearly in no mood to talk. Without changing his facial expression, he answered all questions with one phrase: “You better talk to my father.”

OCCRP reporters made another attempt to talk to Marios Papantoniou to get his opinion on the document signed by Edinburgh crematorium worker Kerry Jane Farrington, whom Papantoniou used as a “confidant” in the companies he opened for businessmen from Eastern Europe and the former USSR .

As a result, they failed to contact Marios Papantoniou, and the journalists left the document with a Russian-speaking employee of his office. After this, he responded unexpectedly quickly with an email, in which, however, he did not answer questions about the involvement of his companies in corruption and violations of the law in this part of Europe.

A gaffe worth half a billion

The fraudulent scheme, which OCCRP described in the project “Russian Financial Mega Laundromat,” was implemented according to a simple algorithm: a company from Russia, wanting to withdraw money to Europe, took on the role of guarantor under a commercial contract between two shell companies. After some time, one of these fake structures filed a claim in a Moldovan court against the “counterparty” for non-payment and asked the guarantor - a Russian company - to fulfill contractual obligations. The “own” Moldovan judge recognized the validity of the demand and ordered the debt to be repaid. After this, the Russian company transferred the money to the “plaintiff,” who in reality played the role of a pawn. As a result, based on the court ruling, the money ended up first in Moldova, and then in a Latvian bank, from where, as “perfectly legal funds,” they could be withdrawn at any time.

Stamps that police could reliably confiscate seven years earlier were again and again placed on documents submitted to Moldovan courts to prove the “legitimacy” of financial claims that eventually totaled $20 billion.

Having started in 2005, by 2012 the group of swindlers had noticeably increased their appetites and level of audacity. Now the amounts of fraudulent transactions were calculated not in millions, but in billions. In ruling on the payment of $580 million, Judge Orindas relied on a crudely falsified document, but his other Moldovan colleagues were equally “inattentive,” which allowed the criminals to withdraw colossal sums from Russia.

The basis for all such verdicts in Moldova were promissory notes. Thus, attached to the case of 580 million was a debt agreement concluded between the Delaware company Albany Insurance and the British Golbridge Trading Limited. The first promised to pay Golbridge more than half a billion dollars, which was certified by the signature of a certain Mrs. Jasse Grant Hester and the official stamp of Albany Insurance. It was an impression from one of the seals that were seized and returned by the police in 2008.

Probably, the criminals changed the spelling slightly each time in order, if necessary, to say that they had “nothing to do with it” and cover their tracks as much as possible.

The Moldovan judge could have prevented a grandiose fraud if he had simply compared the promissory note with the original documents attached to the case, where all the names were indicated in the proper form. In one case, the forgery was even more blatant: the name Golbridge appeared on the receipt, while the stamp in the lower right corner clearly read the correct Goldbridge - with a d in the middle of the word.

But for some reason, Judge Orindas and his other colleagues chose not to notice the outright forgery. Some of these servants of Themis are now under investigation.

All the promissory notes used to withdraw two tens of billions of dollars from Russia contained similar “inaccuracies.”

Dubious banks

Manipulation of the ownership structure began after 2008 - before money laundering began to take off. OCCRP reviewed the documents and found that many offshore bank owners are linked to companies that received huge unsecured loans and later declared themselves insolvent.

The “registration agents” also had to “work hard” more than once. Offshore structures that own banks also turned out to be sensitive to changes in the geopolitical situation. Thus, after the outbreak of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the Ukrainians were quickly replaced by the Russians in the role of proxies.

Meanwhile, citizens of Moldova can only wonder who stole a billion dollars in November.

Former Moldovan Prime Minister Ion Sturza said that representatives of the country's political, cultural and sports elite were involved in corruption schemes, but immediately made the reservation that many of them became tools in the hands of criminals.

“Plato and Shor coordinated and implemented schemes on the territory of Moldova from the outside,” Sturza said on the Interpol program of the Moldovan TV channel TV7.

Sturza also expressed the opinion that when the volume of money laundering reached such a colossal level, the “Moldavian side” demanded an increase in its share, which ultimately led to the collapse of the entire built system.

Veaceslav Platon left Moldova on February 14, 2014 and has not returned since then. He is under investigation as a suspect of involvement in theft from the banks of the republic.

Chisinau journalists Ion Preasca and Iurie Sanduta also took part in the preparation of the material.

Capital flight floods Moldova

Its judicial system laundered $18.5 billion

Documents from the Moldovan judicial system revealed a money laundering scheme for a record amount of $18.5 billion. Presumably, the local Moldinconbank, Moldovan judges, Russian, Ukrainian and offshore companies participated in it in 2010-2013. According to the statement of the head of the Moldovan judicial system, Mihai Poalelunga, a criminal case has been opened in the country. In Russia, sources in banking circles say that the schemes with Moldinconbank are unknown to them, unlike other “Moldovan schemes”. But Moldovan authorities admit that Moldinconbank accounted for four-fifths of the country's foreign exchange earnings.

The head of the Supreme Court of Justice (SCC) of Moldova, Mihai Poalelunge, told Kommersant about dubious schemes identified during the audit of decisions of the judicial system of Moldova. At the beginning of the year, his attention was attracted by dozens of court orders (analogous to writs of execution in the Russian Federation) from judges of various instances. All of them concerned the collection of large debts ($180-800 million) from Russian resident companies in favor of companies of various jurisdictions, including offshore companies. Copies of several orders, including a document on the recovery of $200 million in favor of the British Seabon Ltd from the Russian LLC Omega, LLC Limex and a resident of the Gagauz village of Kongaz, citizen of Moldova Viktor Agapiev (dated December 14, 2010 and issued by the chairman of the court of the city of Comrat, Gagauzia , Sergei Gubenko), is at the disposal of Kommersant.

The head of the Supreme Court of Justice says that he knows of a total of 33 orders, 24 genuine and nine false: their forms contain the numbers of previously issued orders in other cases, and the signatures of the judges are forged.

The District Commercial Court of Moldova set a record: its judges issued “three or four orders” to transfer funds outside Moldova for $500 million each.

How the scheme worked

“A Russian company that intended to launder money opened an account with Moldinconbank. The company to which this company allegedly owed money filed an application with the Moldovan court for a court order to collect the debt from the company in the Russian Federation and the Moldovan homeless person,” explains the head of the VSP of Moldova. The order, as a rule, was transferred to a specific bailiff, who came to the bank exactly at the moment when the funds arrived in the account. There are two perpetrators in the case, one was arrested and does not admit guilt, and the second is cooperating with the investigation. “As far as I know, not a single amount was kept in the account (at Moldinconbank. - Kommersant) for more than 15 minutes. After that, the money went offshore. This is pure money laundering. According to the documents that I saw, the total amount is $18.5 billion. But they say that more has passed,” says Mihai Poalelunge.

Judges were one of the key links in the scheme and issued orders with a lot of violations, says the head of the Supreme Court. “Decisions were made on the basis of copies of documents. In some cases, the copies were legalized in a dubious manner - one seal for 20-30 pages. When I found out about this, I gathered all the chairmen of the courts of the republic and discussed the situation. We compiled a summary of judicial practice and last week sent materials to the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the Supreme Council of Magistrates (oversees the activities of judges. - Kommersant),” said the head of the Supreme Court.

The materials formed the basis of the criminal case: it was opened at the end of last week on the laundering of $18.5 billion; there are no suspects or accused yet. The Moldovan National Anti-Corruption Center (NCAC) is also involved in the investigation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation told Kommersant that they had not yet received any requests from the Moldovan side in connection with this investigation, and the scheme itself, described by the head of the VSP, “is new, and so far there have been no investigations related to such a withdrawal of funds.”

The Kommersant survey did not reveal any Russian bankers or officials aware of the details of what was happening. The name Moldinconbank is not heard among them. “It is known that there are Moldovan banks that provide laundering services, but my sources cited other players as examples,” says a representative of a Russian bank from the top 10. “There are no bankers among my acquaintances who would cooperate with this bank,” says a top manager of another large bank. “If we were talking about large-scale interaction, this would be known,” says another Kommersant interlocutor.

In search of economic meaning

Kommersant's interlocutor in one of the Moldovan supervisory authorities, on condition of anonymity, said that the National Bank is aware of the situation, since such large sums could not fail to be noticed there. According to him, in 2013, Moldinconbank accounted for 81% of Moldova’s total foreign exchange earnings, and of the $18.5 billion withdrawn since 2010, $10 billion came in 2013.

In the Russian Federation, large suspicious transactions in the public field are associated with banks doomed to imminent closure: despite the fact that “transit” business cannot exist without the capacities of large multi-branch banks, the direct participation of large banks in withdrawal schemes has never been recorded. This week, a number of Russian media outlets pointed to the existence of correspondent relations with Moldinconbank Russian bank "Zapadny", whose license was revoked by the Central Bank of Russia on April 21. But the scale of laundered funds announced by the Central Bank (2 billion rubles) is not comparable with the scale of abuses described by the Moldovan authorities. There are no indications of Russian counterparty banks of Moldinconbank in the documents of the head of VSP.

Capital export

In a report to the State Duma on April 22, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev estimated the role of dubious capital in the overall outflow at 20-30% (“sometimes up to 40%”), which corresponds to $12-25 billion per year. If the statement of the Moldovan judge is true, Moldova in 2010-2013 provided about 50% of the “transit capacity” for the outflow of capital from the Russian Federation, that is, it was the main channel. However, sources in financial circles previously explained to Kommersant that schemes involving Moldova were not the main ones, but clients of not only Russian, but also Ukrainian, Kazakh, Belarusian, Lithuanian and Latvian banks could use this country as a channel for capital expatriation.

At the same time, judging by the documents of the Moldovan courts, Moldova was the “last link” in the export chain. In all the schemes, documents for which Kommersant has at its disposal, the final recipient was not an offshore company, but a British company with real, albeit non-public, management. For example, in a court order dated November 21, 2011, the Telenesti court sent $500 million to the accounts of Edinburgh-based Westburn Enterprises - its director Marios Papantoniou, who also heads the secretarial company Axiano, worked as the chief tax inspector of the revenue department of the Cyprus government in the 1990s. London Seabon is headed, according to UK information disclosure sites, by Oleksiy Romanyuk - this is the first and last name of the vice president of the Ukrainian subsidiary of UniCredit. Other companies that are beneficiaries of Moldovan schemes also really exist and do not look like fly-by-night companies. At the same time, well-known corporate disputes lie behind at least some of the court orders that Mr. Poalelunge considers dubious. Thus, the Kiev LLC Energoalliance argued with Moldovan energy enterprises in 2010 for amounts similar to those specified in this particular order ($30 million).

Perhaps the loud scandal in Moldova (in whose economy there are physically no funds comparable to the declared amount of the three-year “transit”; they can be generated either in the Russian Federation and Ukraine, or in the EU or China) is an accident associated with the personality of the head of the judicial chamber. When asked by Kommersant why he was the first to sound the alarm, and not the anti-corruption agencies or the National Bank of Moldova, the head of the Supreme Court replied: “I am responsible for the judges. I don’t know about the rest. Billions were laundered. I don’t think they didn’t know about it.”

It is not yet known what the investigation in Moldova will lead to. The press service of the National Bank of Moldova told Kommersant that they do not have official information about the opening of a criminal case regarding money laundering through Moldindconbank. They clarified that the regulator supervises the banking sector and will take “appropriate measures” in case of violations of anti-money laundering procedures. “The case is at an early stage. We and the National Anti-Corruption Center are investigating it,” Eduard Kharunzhen, head of the anti-corruption prosecutor’s office, told Kommersant. He did not disclose details, citing the secrecy of the investigation. NAC spokeswoman Angela Starinski was unable to comment on the situation, citing the absence of the head of the service for the prevention of money laundering in the country.

Russian lawyers believe that banking sector regulators could and should have paid attention to the transfer of gigantic amounts. At the same time, according to Oleg Ponamarev, partner of the legal bureau DS Law, it is possible to bring the heads of companies from the Russian Federation to criminal liability only if we are talking about the laundering of funds obtained by criminal means.

Having remained in the shadows for a long time, and only occasionally appearing in news feeds, Vyacheslav Platon, this time found himself in the spotlight of international media

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And not surprisingly, several countries would like to get hold of the “raider number one” detained at the end of June in Ukraine for interrogation - Moldova, Russia, the USA, the site reports

What is the reason for such increased interest in this, as he calls himself “a simple banking consultant”? In order to understand this, you need to consider the person of Vyacheslav Plato himself. Unfortunately, while studying his history, we did not find a single mention of him in a positive way, so the portrait turns out to be somewhat gloomy. What can you do - you can’t paint a white swan with black paints.

We will present individual episodes from the life of Platon-Kobalev, and readers themselves will be able to try to put together a complete portrait from these individual strokes.

How Plato judges judges

At first glance, it is surprising that with so many dark deeds, many of which can be found in open sources, Vyacheslav Platon managed to avoid punishment. Almost all criminal cases against him were sooner or later closed. The secret here is simple.

The way he deals with disobedient judges is very clearly shown by the story of Judge Klim, which occurred in 2013.

It all started with the fact that Judge Nikolai Klima did not support the demand of one Ukrainian company (backed by Platon) to withdraw 24 million lei from the account of the Chisinau City Hall, which at the exchange rate on that day was almost 2 million dollars.

Attempts to solve the problem through a traditional bribe did not work, either the judge was honest, or the case was so complicated, and the judge was afraid that this might come back to haunt him, but it is important that in the end the company affiliated with Plato did not receive the money.

Since it was not possible to obtain the necessary court decision with the help of money, Plato had in his arsenal a lot of other ways to force the judge to make a decision “correctly”. And then, in the spring of 2013, in Chisinau, huge advertising panels appeared at several key intersections, on which, against a scattering of dollar bills, two judges were depicted, one of whom was Nikolai Klima, and all this was accompanied by the inscription - “The most corrupt judges in Moldova".

Naturally, such an incident could not but have consequences. A serious scandal arose in the media, and the mayor of Chisinau, Dorin Chirtoaca, directly pointed to “raider number one” Veaceslav Platon as the initiator of the installation of these panels.

The events developed as follows - on May 15, at approximately 23:30, the judge’s car hit a pedestrian and fled from the scene of the accident, and the witnesses who were driving behind him recorded everything on a video recorder and then contacted the police. Inspectorate employees arrived at the judge’s home and found his car in the parking lot in the yard with signs of damage, and the judge himself was intoxicated.

The end of his career, and perhaps his free life, clearly loomed before the judge. But that was not the end of the story. The fact is that those who came up with this diabolical plan did not take one thing into account. They calculated everything, found out when the judge would be home in a tipsy state, found a car of the same color, made the same license plates, hit a pedestrian and filmed everything on video, sent a young man with a bat who dented the judge’s car in the parking lot. They didn’t take into account only one thing: the judge’s neighbor installed a video camera to monitor his car, Klim’s car was also included in the frame, and all that ill-fated day it remained in the parking lot, including the moment when they used a bat to make traces of a “collision” with a pedestrian. .

This accidental video saved the judge's career and reputation. The Prosecutor General's Office, at the request of the head of the Supreme Court of Justice, opened a criminal case of intimidation of a judge and putting pressure on him in connection with his professional activities.

Later they were detained, the role of the driver of the fictitious car was played by a lawyer, the “victim” of the collision was portrayed by an officer of the special forces “Fulger”, and the “witness” of the collision was the senior inspector of the criminal police of the Riscani district. And only the person who invented this operation remained behind the scenes and escaped any punishment.

How to steal a bank

While some bandits are thinking about how to rob a bank in order to get rich quickly and once, others are thinking about how to steal the bank itself and regularly receive income from it. Of course, banks are not stolen from buildings or vaults, banks are stolen from shares. This happened with the largest Moldovan bank, Moldova Agroindbank (MAIB), which, according to experts, occupies approximately 1/4 of the entire banking system of Moldova.

Naturally, such a tidbit cannot go unnoticed. Attempts to capture it have been going on for more than a year, and the capture was carried out in several waves. Interestingly, Vyacheslav Platon himself, responding to accusations of raider attacks, replied that this was just a “normal corporate conflict.”

MAIB raiders have attacked before, but the largest operation was carried out by Plato in 2011. Then, as a result of his actions, Factor Banka (Slovenia), Venture Holding (Holland), Adriatic Fund (Holland), Druga d.o.o and Logar Milena, who were among the founders back in the mid-2000s, lost their shares.

The scheme was, like everything that Plato does, wise and thoughtful, but at the same time, as is typical for this creative person, it had some shortcomings. It looked like this: the MAIB shareholder companies had some debts to third parties. In fact, whether there were actually debts and, if there were, whether they corresponded to the declared amounts, was never established, however, on the basis of these allegedly existing debts, an arbitrator from the city of St. Petersburg (Russia) makes a decision to confiscate the shares of foreign investors in benefit the creditor company.

Further, in order to legalize this transaction and give it legal force in Moldova, a judge from the Bendery Appeals Chamber, located in Causeni (Moldova), joins the case, who considers the claim and confirms the decision of the Russian judge. It is interesting that this judge, in principle, did not have the right to consider such a case, since it falls within the competence of the Economic Court of Appeal.

As a result, the shares of Moldova Agroindbank came into the possession of several new shareholders.

But the seemingly well-thought-out and flawless operation unexpectedly encountered resistance from the National Bank of Moldova. The National Bank blocked blocks of shares belonging to shareholders - owners of a share of 39.58%. It is interesting that the reason for blocking the shares was not the questionable methods of obtaining them, but the fact that the NBM saw consistency in the activities of the new shareholders, indicating that there is one person behind them, which contradicts the legislation of Moldova, which prohibits ownership of a stake of more than 5% without permission National Bank.

As a result, the National Commission on Financial Markets decided to cancel the right to these shares and sell the shares belonging to 19 owners and amounting to 39.58% of the bank's capital.

The shares were put up for auction, although so far it has become known (unofficially) the name of the only investor who wished to purchase them, he was 21-year-old Yegor Platon, the son of “raider number one”. As Vyacheslav Platon himself explained in one of his interviews, his son considered MAIB attractive for investment, so he gave him the amount necessary for this.

In turn, Yegor Platon indicated in the documents that he would use $40 million received from his father as a gift to purchase shares in the bank. The publication Rise, conducting, came to the conclusion that the funds received as a gift from Plato the Younger from Plato the Elder “went through a complex money laundering scheme. Previously, the same scheme was used for the secret transfer of $20 billion from Russia to the European Union through a number of Moldovan banks , in which Plato appeared as a shareholder."

The likelihood that the National Bank of Moldova will approve the purchase of a large stake in a strategically important bank for Moldova by such a dubious shareholder is extremely low. But this does not mean at all that Raider number one, if free again, will abandon his attempts and will not find new moves to attack Moldavian banks and Moldova Agroindbank in particular.

Basked on a peaceful atom

The financial genius of Vyacheslav Platon helps him force not only banks to work for himself, but also seemingly enterprises that were not initially intended to make a profit for individuals, especially those with foreign citizenship.

The history of profit at the expense of the Ukrainian nuclear monopolist stretches back to 1999. It was in 1999 that a small company, VVD LLC, through the mediation of a citizen of Moldova, Belopolsky O.B. began to cooperate with Energatom. And although VVD was a small and unknown company, its owners were hidden, since the official owner of the company was the offshore company Gentwin Systems. In itself, having an offshore company as an owner is not a crime, although perhaps the management of Energatom should think about why their future partner has hidden the real owners.

The deal that VVD offered to the nuclear giant was, at first glance, mutually beneficial and completely legal. According to the concluded contract, the company supplied low-pressure rotors (LPR) for turbines, and did not even ask for money for this, but only received rights to the debts of Moldovan consumers. That is, it could collect money from economic agents of Moldova who had debts to the Ukrainian side.

The first inexplicable detail in this matter is the replacement of the barter form of payment with a monetary one. How this became possible and at what stage of the signing of the contract the substitution took place, especially without the consent of the management of Energatom, is now impossible to restore, but after that the contract amount appeared absolutely clear - 18 million US dollars.

The parties to the contract were Energoatom and Gentwin Systems, VVD LLC acted as the official intermediary. The total amount of the transaction increased due to the addition of payment for VVD services and customs duties and reached 98 million hryvnia. About 40 million of this amount were paid according to obligations. But then interesting events began to happen.

In 2002, a comprehensive inspection of the equipment was carried out at the Energatom enterprise, which established that the four RNT supplied by VVD LLC were not new and modern equipment, but were produced about ten years ago and were intended for the Crimean nuclear power plant, which was planned to be built back in Soviet times, in the late 80s, but this idea was abandoned in the early 90s. In subsequent years, giant low-pressure rotors were simply lying around in the open air at the site of the planned construction of a nuclear power plant.

In order to sell this rubbish, Belopolsky, together with his companion Vyacheslav Platon, produced false registration certificates, which contained false information about the year of production and other characteristics.

Based on the results of the inspection, Energatom contacted Ukrainian law enforcement agencies. However, this did not help much, and the VVD company that went to court won the case in 2002 and received a court order to recover 60 million hryvnia from Energatom in its favor. The Kiev Court of Appeal and the Higher Economic Court of Ukraine upheld the decision.

As a result, the VVD company received another 5 million hryvnia. And only after this did information surface that Gentwin Systems had been liquidated back in 2001. Apparently Plato and his companions planned to cover their tracks in this way, but were too hasty. This was followed by a series of proceedings in Ukrainian courts of various levels. The scammers involved new companies, also registered offshore, to which the debt obligations of the already liquidated original company were allegedly transferred.

This continued until an annex to the contract, signed on October 12, 2001, appeared in the case materials, according to which the parties agreed that in the event of any conflict situations, they would be resolved in the court of St. Petersburg. But here the combinators seriously made a mistake, forgetting that the company Gentwin Systems (Ireland), which allegedly signed this annex to the contract as one of the parties, had already been liquidated at that time on 10/12/01.

The story of bringing the Ukrainian nuclear monopoly to bankruptcy dragged on for many years and led to huge losses for the state-owned enterprise. In this case, Plato’s main talent was fully demonstrated - the ability to negotiate with judges and resolve issues in his favor.

Platon - manager of the super laundry

In mid-2014, many media outlets wrote about colossal money laundering from Russia, including from budget funds. There were various estimates ranging from 18 to 46 billion US dollars. The uniqueness of the situation was that almost all of these funds were pumped through Moldovan banks.

Everything was cooked up in the style of “Raider Number One” - false contracts, shell companies, dubious court decisions. In the Russian press, the scheme, in which the technical part was thought out by Plato, was called the “Moldavian scheme”.

The very existence of the criminal scheme became possible after the appointment of Vladimir Yakunin as president of Russian Railways, who soon after taking office appointed Andrei Krapivin as his advisor. In turn, Krapivin lobbied for the appointment of proteges of the Solntsevskaya criminal group - Boris Usherovich and Valery Markelov - to key positions in Russian Railways.

The cashing out and money laundering scheme involved banks controlled by Krapivin, Usherovich and Mareklov - Interprogress, STB, Incredbank, as well as Baltika, actually controlled by the Solntsevskaya organized crime group. However, since 2008, the rules of the game in the Russian banking market have changed, and working through Russian banks has become increasingly dangerous. Then it was decided to involve the foreign banking system. And here two Moldovans came to the occasion, who had long collaborated with the Solntsevskys and guaranteed the provision of a reliable roof in Moldova.

Plato took upon himself the development of the entire laundering and cashing scheme, plus he promised to influence the Moldovan courts to obtain the necessary decisions.

True, the Moldovan side ultimately ruined the entire well-thought-out operation. Vlad Filat, who protected the “Solntsevskaya” laundry, seeing what fantastic sums were pumped through Moldova, decided that he, too, could withdraw some money on the sly. It didn't work out a bit. Dealers began to use the established scheme to withdraw, but this time Moldovan money.

Thus, using the same routes and schemes invented by Plato, approximately one billion dollars was stolen from Moldova. And if for Russia the loss of 40 billion, although sensitive, is not fatal, then for small Moldova the theft of 1 billion led to real collapse. Three banks were closed, the leu collapsed and mass protests began in the country, lasting more than a year. The situation was stabilized only by the summer of 2016.

As a result of the case, former Prime Minister of Moldova Vlad Filat ended up in prison. The Prosecutor General's Office found evidence of Vyacheslav Platon's participation in banking scams and he was put on the international wanted list precisely for this reason.

Of course, this is not the complete story of the actions of raider No. 1. Investigators from different countries and journalists continue to investigate the turbulent work history of Vyacheslav Platon. There is no doubt that these investigations, as well as the trial he is about to face, will reveal many new pages.