Alexey Efimovich Frenkel is a well-known Russian financier who headed the board of VIP-Bank OJSC. In 2007 he was arrested on suspicion of ordering the murder of Andrei Kozlov. Sentenced to nineteen years in prison. This article will review a short biography of a banker.
Childhood
Alexey Frenkel was born in Moscow in 1971. But then the whole family moved to the small city of Volsk (Saratov Region). Parents of Alexei Efimovich still live there, teaching chemistry at a military school. In Volsk, the Frenkel family speaks only with kind words.
Aleksei studied at school number 2. Teachers remember him as a quiet, modest and non-conflict child. In addition, Frenkel possessed curiosity and a sharp mind. Before coming to school, Alexei already knew how to write, read, play chess and knew mathematics very well. And in the seventh grade, the boy did test work for those who studied in the tenth. Periodically, he arranged peculiar tests for teachers, asking complex questions, the answers to which they had to look in the library.
Job
In 1992, Alexei Frankel graduated from the Economics Faculty of Moscow State University and immediately got a job at Russian Joint-Stock Bank. A year later, the young man moved to the financial institution "Oil", where he became head of the foreign exchange department. In 1994-1995, Frenkel took the post of deputy chairman of the bank. At the same time, he served as chief accountant.
VIP Bank
In 2000, Frankel Alex came to the financial institution Visa. Subsequently, the economist renamed it “VIP Bank”, entering the board and board of directors. Also, Alexei Efimovich wanted to include this institution among the participants of CERs (deposit insurance system). But he met stiff resistance in the person of Andrei Kozlov (deputy chairman of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation).
In mid-2006, a license was revoked from VIP-Bank due to violations of the law. Some media reported that by this time all clients of the financial institution had been transferred to Europrominvest for service. According to SmartMoney magazine, the latter was part of the Frenkel Empire, a series of lending institutions that helped entrepreneurs cash out money.
Europrominvest
In 2005, law enforcement agencies became interested in this bank. Then the inspectors were not satisfied with the documents for cash found in the collection vehicle and the cash desk. But they did not apply sanctions to Europrominvest. According to SmartMoney magazine, Alexei Frankel tried to sell the institution to the Israeli credit institution Apoalim Bank, but Andrei Kozlov prevented the deal.
In November 2006, the deputy chairman of the Central Bank revoked the license and Europrominvest. The main reason for this was the transfer by clients of this institution of 38 billion rubles "in the framework of transactions of a dubious nature." After these events, Alexei Efimovich decided to sue for defamation of SmartMoney magazine. The press release issued by VIP Bank emphasized that no Frenkel empire exists, and that the financier’s brother worked at Europrominvest.
The assassination of the deputy chairman of the Central Bank
In September 2006, an attempt was made on Andrei Kozlov. A day later, he died in a hospital. Also, his driver, Alexander Semyonov, died. On the fact of the murder, the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case under article 105 (part 2).
A month later, the alleged killers were detained. And in November-December there were still a number of suspects who, according to the investigation, were intermediaries between the performer and the customer of the crime. At the end of the year, Yuri Chaika said that the Kozlov murder case was opened.
Arrest
On January 11, 2007, the Prosecutor General’s Office told the media about the detention of the customer during operational investigations. In an interview with the Rossiya channel, Chaika did not rule out the possibility of arresting several more people involved in the crime in the near future. On the same day, a banker's lawyer named Igor Trunov said that his client was considered the customer. Frankel Alex was to be taken into custody. On January 12, the Moscow Basmanny court issued permission to detain Liana Askerova, who, according to the investigation, was connected with financial institutions and was suspected of involvement in the crime. And three days later, the same institution decided to arrest Frenkel. The Kommersant newspaper noted that the court considered it unacceptable to leave Alexei Efimovich free, as he could destroy all the evidence in the case and put pressure on witnesses. The accusation of Frenkel was based only on Askerova’s testimony. The financier’s lawyer has repeatedly stated that the girl deliberately stipulates his client.
Partners
According to the investigation, Askerova helped Frenkel in search of hired killers. The girl herself was not very versed in such matters, so she turned to Boris Shafray (Ukrainian businessman). In turn, the entrepreneur went to Bogdan Pogorzhevsky (a representative of criminal structures in the city of Lugansk). And he already hired three killers for five thousand dollars - Alexander Belokopytov, Maxim Proglyad and Alexei Polovinkin. At that time, they earned money in the capital in a private carriage. All three were inexperienced criminals, so they left a lot of traces at the scene of the murder, on which the police came to them. The killers agreed to cooperate and extradited Pogorozhevsky, and he brought the prosecutor's office to Shafray.
The detained businessman did not testify and declared his non-involvement in the case. However, Askerova, learning about Boris’s arrest, began to look for a lawyer for him, which attracted the attention of investigators. After the arrest, she told the operatives about the murder’s customer, Frenkel.
Indictment
According to media reports, Alexei Efimovich completely denied any involvement in contract killings. Attracting his person to this case, he considered "a provocation of the Central Bank against a strong opponent." In addition, the financier associated his arrest with the court hearing scheduled for January 15 regarding the revocation of the license from VIP Bank.
In early 2007, Alexei Frenkel was charged with organizing the murder of a deputy chairman of the Central Bank. According to NTV, the main motive for the financier was revenge on Kozlov for recalling licenses from Sodbiznesbank and VIP Bank. Allegedly after the closure of these institutions for money laundering, the financier who participated in their creation suffered multibillion-dollar losses.
Notes by Alexey Frenkel
In January 2007, Kommersant reported on the banker's plans to make allegations of corruption against a number of Central Bank officials. Alexei Efimovich wanted to do this before his arrest, but did not have time. The newspaper’s editorial office received a letter from Frenkel in which the financier accused the Central Bank staff (without giving names) of money laundering during the bankruptcy proceedings of Panemstroybank, Roskomeveranbank, as well as the banks of Regional Perspective and BBC Dee.
According to Alexei Efimovich, the Central Bank “… regulates a rather profitable cash-out market. Those who carry out this operation and regularly pay, he has mercy. And those who refuse to go to the panel are punished. ” According to Frenkel, the Central Bank intentionally created and maintained the illusion that most banks in the Russian Federation are engaged in money laundering. This was done with the aim of opening the Russian market to foreign institutions and further withdrawing billions of dollars abroad.
At the end of the same month, the hero of this article sent a letter to Kommersant “On Overseers and Oversight”. The summer of 2006 is when, according to some reports, Alexei Frenkel wrote it. Bank corruption in the deposit insurance system and the Central Bank became the key thoughts of the message. Also, the financier described the methods of giving bribes in the supervision of the Central Bank. In fact, in the text of the note, Alexei Efimovich named the names of several officials suspected of committing crimes. This is Andrei Kozlov, the former head of the licensing department, Mikhail Sukhov, and deputy director for cooperation with Rosfinmonitoring Viktor Melnikov. Based on Frenkel’s letter, Kommersant concluded that the financier’s goal was not specific charges, but indications of systemic omissions in banking supervision leading to corruption. The publication also reported that the Central Bank refused to comment on topics related to the charges of the hero of this article and corruption.
It should be noted that the letters of Alexei Frenkel immediately after publication became scandalous. And on this indicator, the third message, entitled "Whose banks you will be?" interrupted the previous two. It was published in the media on February 6, 2007. In a note, Alexei Efimovich disclosed the functionaries of the Central Bank, serving the interests of groups that are engaged in cashing money. The publication of the message did not contain the names of banks and surnames - journalists replaced them with initials. But even so, it was easy to find out who was hiding under them (for example, the murdered Kozlov appeared in the note as “A. A. K.”). This letter, like the previous two, was sent to the press by Alexey Mamontov, head of the Interbank Currency Association (Moscow). At the same time, he emphasized that this text is a denomination from the first two messages made on the basis of the inability to confirm the allegations.
Sentence
On March 1, 2007, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office appealed to the Basmanny Court with a request to extend the arrest of the suspect. Alexey Frenkel (banker) instructed his lawyer to apply for his transfer to another pre-trial detention center. The fact is that after several publications in the media, a real threat loomed over the life of the banker. Frenkel's request was granted. Soon the financier was transferred to the Sailor Silence prison.
In May 2007, the investigation into the murder of Andrei Kozlov was completed. Six accused were given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with all the materials of the criminal case, numbering sixty volumes.
In November 2008, the hero of this article was sentenced to nineteen years in prison. Other defendants received different terms - from six years to life. Twelve months later, the court dismissed the cassation appeal of the financier, and the verdict entered into force. At the moment, Alexei Efimovich Frenkel is serving a sentence in a maximum security colony PKU IK-8 in the city of Labytnangi (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District). The banker will be released at the end of 2027.
