On Friday, April 19, FSB officers, together with representatives of the police, detained the main shareholder of the Bank “Ugra” - Alexey Khotin. He is suspected of embezzling seven billion rubles. Who is hotin? What is known about the bank "Ugra"? What did financial institution clients complain about? Daily Storm answers the main questions related to the detained banker.
Who is Alexey Hotin?
Alexey Yurevich Khotin is an influential Moscow entrepreneur, owner of oil and banking businesses, an investor in real estate, the main shareholder of Ugra Bank.
Oleksiy Khotin began to build his business with his father in his native Belarus. There they founded the company Belkosmetiks, which specialized in perfume trade. Almost immediately, as soon as the company began to make a profit, the Hotines moved to Moscow.
In the Russian capital, entrepreneurs developed a new tactic: they bought out illiquid chemical enterprises and invested in their reorganization and rebranding. On the basis of enterprises, quite successful companies emerged, such as Helios-M and the Moscow Plant of Synthetic Detergents, which produced Biolan powder.
Over time, having bought a large industrial building from the Mikoms company in one of the districts of Moscow, the Hotins began to rent it for offices and shops. So, businessmen appeared in the role of rentier of the prestigious shopping and business centers of the capital: Cherry Tower, Krasny Bogatyr, Nizhny Novgorod, Technopark Sintez.
In addition to real estate, Hotin has oil assets: a stake in Exillon Energy and Dulisma Oil Company. One of the most important projects of Khotyn Junior is the acquisition in 2016 of a stake in Ugra Bank. However, the crisis of the end of zero and the bankruptcy of other once-wealthy banks had a negative impact on the activities of Ugra. The value of its assets began to fall.
It is also known that Alexey Hotin is a patron of the arts and invests a lot in the development of Russian sports. In particular, Hotin sponsored the Dynamo mini-football club and the Night Hockey League.
According to a recent Forbes rating, the condition of Khotin, 44, is estimated at $ 700 million (154th line of the list). Since last year, the banker's capital has decreased by $ 50 million.
What is known about the bank "Ugra"?
“Ugra” is a private financial institution that was among the top 30 largest banks in Russia. At the end of the first quarter of 2017, the bank ranked 12th in terms of the volume of funds of individuals in the Interfax-100 ranking.
The bank was founded in the 90s by the entrepreneur Anatoly Fomin. Since 2013, Ugra has sponsored the Night Hockey League (NHL), in which games from time to time the President of Russia - Vladimir Putin takes part. In the spring of 2017, the bank ended a sponsorship agreement with the NHL. The organization did not renew the contract. The occasion was the plight of the bank.
At the beginning of July 2017, the Central Bank introduced a temporary administration in “Ugra”, and at the end of the month, it revoked the license from the financial institution.
“The activity of PJSC Bank Ugra was focused on attracting money from the population and placing it in assets of unsatisfactory quality. At the same time, the credit organization did not independently create reserves for possible losses, adequate to the accepted risks, ”the regulator’s website says.
The Central Bank noted that the temporary administration - the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) - revealed the complete loss of capital by a credit institution.
What did the bank customers complain about?
In the summer of 2017, the media wrote that the temporary administration was introduced due to the fact that the regulator had questions from the customers of Yugra in the oil industry and the legal entity involved in real estate. Forbes noted that such assets constituted the fixed capital of Hotin's non-banking business. Journalists were told that the share of affiliated with the owners of the loans was high.
“Many pledges in the bank“ Ugra ”are really connected with Khotin, his managers and acquaintances. An example is Surguttrans Anastasia Makarova (she is also involved in managing Alexei Khotin’s assets): the company laid the oil pipeline from Travyany to Multanovsky field 148 kilometers long in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area - Yugra and forest areas of 101.3 ha and 540 ha in that same area. The loan amount is unknown, “- write journalists Forbes.
In this regard, in 2017, the Central Bank informed the General Prosecutor’s Office six times about the facts of the withdrawal of assets by the credit organization and twice Rosfinmonitoring - about the implementation of suspicious operations by the bank.
“The supervisor in the activities of a credit institution has repeatedly identified operations with signs of asset withdrawal and quality collateral, doubtful transit operations, facts of submission of essentially unreliable reporting data, schematic execution of the requirements of Bank of Russia regulations and violations of the restrictions imposed,” the Central Bank said in a press release.