Moscow's Tverskoy Court has arrested in absentia the founder and former beneficiary of FC Otkritie Bank, Vadim Belyaev (now Vadim Wolfson), a court representative told Interfax.

Belyaev has been arrested in absentia for two months. This term will be calculated from the moment of his detention in Russia or his extradition to the country. He is accused of committing a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale), the maximum penalty for which is 10 years in prison.

The founder of the Otkritie financial group, Vadim Belyaev, is 58 years old. The largest shareholder of Otkritie Holding was included in the Forbes rating of the 200 richest businessmen in Russia in 2016, ranking 185th with a fortune of $400 million. In August 2017, FC Otkritie Bank was subject to the Central Bank's rehabilitation.

The rehabilitation of Otkritie lasted almost two years. In July 2019, the Central Bank filed a lawsuit against the former owners and managers of Otkritie to recover 289.5 billion rubles in damages from them. In 2020, Trust, a non-core asset bank, and FC Otkritie Bank filed a lawsuit against Belyaev in New York. They explained their choice of jurisdiction by the fact that Belyaev, according to their data, was living in this city at that time under the name Wolfson. Another lawsuit against the former co-owner of Otkritie was filed in the UK.

In September 2020, the Moscow Arbitration Court collected 289.5 billion rubles from four former Otkritie executives, including Belyaev, as well as from Otkritie Holding JSC. The case concerned losses incurred by the Central Bank during the rehabilitation of Otkritie. In 2021, Trust filed a lawsuit against Belyaev for 156.6 billion rubles in the Moscow Arbitration Court.

In July 2022, the arbitration court declared Otkritie Holding bankrupt, and the bankruptcy procedure was later extended until February 14, 2025.

Belyaev linked the actions of Trust and FC Otkritie with a "desperate attempt" by the Central Bank "to blame the banks' alleged liquidity problems on everyone who could be involved in their ownership or management."

In February 2024, Belyaev, who changed his last name to Wolfson, and his partner Gannon Bond were arrested in the United States. According to the American authorities, they helped VTB Chairman Andrey Kostin evade sanctions. They were later released on bail.

The US Department of Justice announced an indictment in absentia against Kostin. Kostin called the accusations of evading US sanctions groundless, emphasizing that he "did not evade any sanctions."