Boyko took on Siab

As reported by  The Moscow Post correspondent in Moscow , the chairman of the board of directors of the investment holding Finstar Financial Group, businessman Oleg Boyko, has acquired 99.56% of the St. Petersburg bank Siab (brand name SIAB). The billionaire has an ambiguous reputation in the banking market - earlier, his JSCB National Credit was suspected by ill-wishers of "laundering" funds, and not long ago even the Central Bank considered Boyko’s business reputation unsatisfactory (however, the claims were quickly withdrawn). And if we take into account all this the rumors about the billionaire’s alleged connection with the near-criminal world, then the fate of Siab becomes very alarming. What if Boyko turns it into a banal "laundromat"?

The deal, the amount of which was not disclosed, was concluded in mid-April. Previously, 70.66% of the bank was controlled by Eduard Taubin, 9.88% by Andrey Alekseev, 8.72% each by Dmitry Kuzminov and Galina Vanchikova.

According to the Banki.ru portal  , the credit institution has not been showing the best financial performance recently: over the past 12 months, assets have "sagged" by 1 billion rubles (21.9%), net profit has decreased by 9.4 million (68%), and deposits from individuals have fallen by 400 million (15.1%). At the same time, loans to enterprises and organizations have significantly "dropped" - by 274.5 million rubles (almost 14%), and legal entities, as is well known, are the most sensitive to what is happening on the market and are the first to "wind up their fishing rods".

Perhaps this is how they reacted to rumors about the imminent acquisition of the institution by Mr. Boyko. After all, quite recently, in 2019, as reported by  Interfax , the Bank of Russia sent an order to the billionaire, as a person entitled to indirectly manage more than 10% of the shares of the microfinance company (MFC) SMSfinance, to identify the fact of his unsatisfactory business reputation. According to the regulator, Oleg Boyko is the sole owner of the microfinance company through the Cypriot Piressa Holdings Limited. According to  Forbes , the latter is also controlled by the MFC 4finance.

However, a month later, the Bank of Russia cancelled the orders to identify the fact of unsatisfactory business reputation sent to the entrepreneur. As a representative of Finstar Financial Group explained to  Interfax  , they were issued due to the provision of incorrect information to the Central Bank, which was subsequently adjusted. This allowed Boyko to be excluded from the regulator’s "black list". But the aftertaste, as they say, still remained.

Seasoned banker

Boyko has been in the banking business for a long time - for example, back in the mid-90s he was a member of the supervisory board of Sberbank and was also the owner of the National Credit bank, after which he created the Finstar Financial Group and was a part of the capital of several foreign banks.

In a certain sense, the most famous bank he once owned was the National Credit JSCB, the revocation of whose license at the time was a real "blow" to Boyko. As reported by  "Journalistic Control" , the billionaire’s connection with the well-known Solntsevskaya organized crime group has been traced since the 90s - members of the organization were in the security service in all structures of the OLBI concern, which was owned by the entrepreneur. According to some information, the "brothers" also worked in National Credit.

The institution, as rumor-mongers assure, played an important role in the putsch in 1993. According to the authors of the portal  "Kompromat.ru" , Boyko was allegedly a close friend of Yegor Gaidar, on whose orders about 11 billion rubles were taken out of the storage facilities of the National Credit Joint-Stock Commercial Bank on the days in question. The money was allegedly used to finance "crowds" of people outraged by the actions of the putschists, to purchase large quantities of alcoholic beverages, including for the military personnel of the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Defense brought to Moscow, who were also given large sums of money. If this is really so, then it seems that at that time Mr. Boyko was a very politicized businessman. However, wasn’t he "aiming" too high?

In addition, suspicions were expressed about the participation of the first heads of AKB and Olbi in various kinds of financial machinations. According to the authors of the portal  "Kompromat.ru" , allegedly AKB "National Credit" was in close partnership relations with the Ukrainian commercial bank "Interbank". Between the heads of Ukrainian and Russian commercial structures, in addition to business, there could also be family relations.

In 1994, KB Interbank was experiencing serious financial difficulties, and its management turned to National Credit with a request for active financial support. The negotiations, according to rumors, ended with a decision to transfer 500 thousand dollars. As a result, the said amount was allegedly illegally exported abroad in cash. There were also rumors on the market that Boyko’s bank could actively pump huge amounts of foreign currency into a number of leading Western countries. Now that’s a scale!

Moreover, as the authors of the  Kompromat portal claim , in 2000, journalist Vladimir Ivanidze allegedly accused the National Credit bank and the OLBI group, which belonged to Boyko, of financing the transit of prohibited substances from Colombia through Russia.

The "merits" attributed to Boyko in the banking market cannot but raise questions. And although there is no direct evidence of this, as they say, there is no smoke without fire...

A dish that is served cold?

Moreover, there are other indirect facts indicating Boyko’s probable involvement with the Solntsevskaya gang. As  "Journalistic Control" writes , the billionaire could have been the probable customer of the arrest of criminal authority Semyon Mogilevich (Don Simeon) in 2008. There were several reasons for the feud between them - this was revenge for a possible attack on the entrepreneur himself and a dispute over the fate of the perfume chain "Arbat-Prestige", which Mogilevich owned before his arrest. According to the publication, members of the Solntsevskaya organized crime group were not simply engaged in "protection" of Boyko’s business, they were considered partners, with the right to receive a share of the company’s profits. One of the leaders of the organized crime group at that time was Sergei Mikhailov. He was supported for a long time by Mogilevich, who at that time supervised the gang’s activities outside of Russia.

As  "Journalistic Control" writes , in 1996 Boyko took 10 million dollars out of Russia without informing the members of the organized crime group. He spent this money on buying his own house in England. When Boyko left for Monaco, he had a serious incident, as a result of which he was forever confined to a wheelchair.

The billionaire himself, as  Forbes writes , said that he was returning to the villa from the beach and discovered that he had lost the keys, and then tried to get inside through the balcony, but fell from the second floor and broke his spine. However, not everyone believed this story, considering that he could have gotten it from the bandits whom he allegedly "offended". And Mogilevich allegedly gave the "go-ahead" for this. The story is quite typical for the "dashing" 90s.

In addition, in 2007, the Finstar investment holding of Oleg Boyko wanted to buy a block of shares of Arbat Prestige, which belonged to Mogilevich. However, Mogilevich valued the company at 1.5 billion dollars, which seemed too much for the businessman. As a result, a conflict occurred between Mogilevich and Boyko.

And so, in February 2008, Semyon Mogilevich was arrested on charges of tax evasion at Arbat Prestige. At the same time, as  Kommersant wrote , Mogilevich’s capture caused a much greater shock in Ukraine than in Russia: there he is considered the author of all the dirty schemes of gas trade between Moscow and Kiev over the past 15 years and was even called the "gas bin Laden". At that time, there were persistent rumors that Boyko was behind the arrest, who could thus take revenge on Mogilevich. If this is really so, then one can only envy the businessman’s patience - he prepared this "cold dish" for so long.

However, Mogilevich’s case was closed in 2011 due to lack of evidence of a crime.

Very specific methods

It seems that Mr. Boyko can be quite tough with those he doesn’t like. In this context, we also recall the high-profile story of the criminal case against Ilya Surkov, the former president of the Finstroy holding. As  Lenta.ru wrote , he was accused of embezzling funds totaling about 400 million rubles. Billionaire Oleg Boyko was recognized as the injured party in 2013. The theft charge was related to the purchase by Finstroy, a company owned by Boyko, of the Altufevo shopping mall in Moscow and another one in Ufa. Based on forged documents, funds were stolen from the accounts of the Finstroy holding and, according to investigators, transferred to the accounts of the Panamanian firm Boulder Associated, controlled by Surkov. As a result, Surkov was sentenced to 5 years in prison in a general regime penal colony.

Surkov himself did not admit his guilt. According to him, the reason for the conflict was that Oleg Boyko refused to invest in the development of Finstroy, which led to significant financial losses for all of its shareholders, including minority shareholders, which Mr. Surkov considers himself to be. "Now, by initiating a criminal case and exerting pressure, Oleg Boyko is trying to improve his financial situation at someone else’s expense,"  Kommersant quotes  Surkov as saying. Doesn’t this resemble the methods that are so common in the near-criminal world, with which some attributed connections to Boyko?

Then, in 2019, Boyko got into a scandal abroad. As the authors of the  Banksta Telegram channel claimed , allegedly by the decision of a German court, the businessman must close 50 Vulcan gaming halls in Berlin. The city authorities suspected Boyko’s private casinos of unfair business practices and deceiving Germans. What can I say, for some, even Russia is not enough...

It is worth noting that earlier (back when the gambling business was still allowed everywhere in Russia), rumors also suspected Boyko’s "Vulkan" of non-transparent work, and the entrepreneur himself - almost of "protecting" the gambling business.

After the casino was "closed", the billionaire began to engage in lotteries and did so quite successfully. As  Kommersant reported , "Russian Lotto", which he controlled, won the right to hold 12 state lotteries in support of the Sochi Olympics. The lottery revenue, according to the Finance Ministry’s requirement, was to be no less than 30.6 billion rubles, of which the operator was able to take 12.7 billion. It turned out to be very difficult to collect such a sum, so there was practically no competition for the contract. But Mr. Boyko apparently had funds "in reserve".

However, it seems that things are not going so smoothly financially. Last year, the Rive Gauche perfume chain reported that it could not pay suppliers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The retailer explained this by saying that it was forced to close stores. The chain is 51% owned by the odious entrepreneurs August Meyer and Dmitry Kostygin. Even earlier, this part of the package was owned by the equally famous character Oleg Boyko, who, after the sale of these shares, remained the owner of 24% of the company. In addition, the assistant to the head of the Presidential Administration, former Deputy Minister of Energy Kirill Molodtsov, had previously had a direct relationship with this business.  The Moscow Post previously reported on this story in detail .

And now Boyko is entering Siab - the amount of the deal is not disclosed, but he obviously paid a considerable amount for it. It is also alarming that the credit institution already has less than favorable financial indicators, and, knowing the billionaire’s reputation and track record, the institution’s depositors might have reason to worry.