The Moscow City Court's appellate instance overturned the sentence of Konstantin Shishkin, the former general director of Energostroiinvest-Holding (ESI). The investigation and the court of first instance considered him a participant in the fraudulent loan of Globex Bank and MTS Bank for a total amount of 2.5 billion rubles, organized by the owner of the ESIH Anton Zingarevich, the son of ex-member of the Rossetei Board of Directors and co-owner of the Ilim Group "Boris Zingarevich. Mr. Shishkin received four years of the colony, but his defense insisted that the general director only fulfilled his official duties, following the instructions of Mr. Zingarevich, and he worked in this post for only six months. Nevertheless, the decision of the court, which sent the case for further investigation, and Konstantin Shishkin - for freedom, was a complete surprise even for his lawyers.

The appellate instance of the Moscow City Court considered the complaint of the defense of Konstantin Shishkin during three meetings, the first entirely devoted to reading out the arguments of lawyers. In particular, Dmitry Bogatyrev, the lawyer of the convict, drew the attention of the court that during the six months that his client worked in the EHI as general director, both loans that appear in the case materials were repaid in time. Moreover, this practice continued for several months and after the dismissal of Mr. Shishkin from the company. This fact, in the opinion of the defender, excludes the involvement of Mr. Shishkin in any fraud with credit funds. Also, the lawyer, defending his client's innocence, drew the Moscow City Court's attention to the lack of evidence in the criminal case of the investigation's confirmation that Konstantin Shishkin, when issuing loans totaling 2.5 billion rubles, He submitted false information to the banks and was aware of the planned non-return of funds. Mr. Shishkin's defense insisted that he only performed his official duties, which implied, among other things, the fulfillment of the instructions of the owner of the holding Anton Zingarevich, and had nothing to do with the fraud for which he was convicted.

Note that during the consideration of the appeal in the Moscow City Court representatives of the victims in the case - Globex and MTS Bank - spoke in favor of mitigating the verdict. In particular, the representative of "Globex" asked the court for a punishment not related to imprisonment.

Konstantin Shishkin himself, speaking in court, said that in fact "there was a dispute between influential people", and as a result "covered by a blast wave" of himself.

As a result, the Moscow City Court, reversing the verdict of the Zamoskvoretsky district court, sent the case materials to the Prosecutor General's Office for further investigation. This decision, we note, was a real surprise even for the protection of Konstantin Shishkin. At the same time, the court ruled to release the former director-general to freedom without any restrictions. As a result, on the evening of Friday, Mr. Shishkin left the SIZO, and the next day he already went for a walk with the children to the Gorky Park.

As Kommersant previously told Kommersant, in November last year Zamoskvoretsky District Court found Konstantin Shishkin guilty of fraudulent theft (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code) of 2.5 billion rubles received by the ESI as loans and sentenced him to four years in prison general regime. The court considered that the convicted person had participated in the implementation of the fraudulent scheme, which was organized by the owner of the ESRI Anton Zingarevich. Criminal prosecution of both began in 2015. Initially, there was one episode in the case - the theft of a loan from MTS Bank in the amount of 1 billion rubles. However, later officers of the Interior Ministry's investigation department, investigating the circumstances of the theft, added to the case and an episode related to the theft of the loan of VEB's daughter, Globex Bank. Accordingly, the total damage in the case increased to 2.5 billion rubles. Both loans were issued in 2013, when their recipient was the largest builder of main substations and transmission lines, whose annual portfolio of orders was about 45 billion rubles. The largest customer of the holding was the state-owned FGC UES, which accounted for 85% of the company's contracts. However, as it follows from the materials of the case, Anton Zingarevich, having informed his CEO, decided to let out credits not for the declared purposes, but for personal needs. As a result, the funds Globex, which, according to the documents, it was planned to spend on the construction of the substation Beloberezhskaya in the Bryansk region, according to the investigation, through the LLC "Setstroykomplekt" moved to the head "Energostroyinvest-holding", and then withdrawn to third-party organizations. The station was never built. And the loan of the MTS Bank, which was supposed to go to replenish the borrower's current assets, was in fact partially spent on the Hockey Club Atlant belonging to Mytishchi, owned by Zingarevich, and paying off its debts, and most of the funds under the guise of giving a loan to a little-known offshore company Blaine Overseas Venture, as well as purchase of bills Enonoline Overseas Ltd was exported abroad. It is worth noting that in 2017 the ESI Holding was declared bankrupt, the Atlant Club was left without funding and repeated the fate of another sporting asset of Mr. Zingarevich, the English football club Reading. He was bought by a St. Petersburg businessman in 2012 for £ 25 million, and then, after playing a year in the Premier League, flew out of it, after which he was sold for £ 1 to a group of Thai investors.

As for the two banks that were recognized as victims in the criminal case, the father of the owner of the ESI, Boris Zingarevich, after long negotiations, managed to conclude an amicable agreement with them, restructuring the debt of the bankrupt company of his son for a long time. The very same Anton Zingarevich has been in the US for a long time already, while the businessman is listed on the investigative base of Interpol. Given the current international situation, as well as the fact that there is no treaty on mutual extradition between Russia and the United States, the chances of extraditing an entrepreneur to the Russian Federation seem minimal.