According to one version of the Investigative Committee, part of the billions found by the FSB colonel was a “share” of the agency’s top manager who fled abroad.

Officer testimony

Kirill Cherkalin, the former head of the “K” department of the economic security service of the FSB, told investigators about the role of Valery Miroshnikov, the first deputy head of the Deposit Insurance Agency in protecting banks, according to an Open Media source familiar with both of the defendants in the criminal case. His words were confirmed by a source close to the investigation. Now Miroshnikov is in witness status, but Cherkalin insists that it was the DIA deputy head who was the organizer of all the criminal schemes. In addition, most of the record 12 billion rubles that were found from the defendants during the searches, as follows from Cherkalin’s testimony, belonged to the top manager of the state corporation and was only kept by relatives of the special services officer. “In business, a man appeared on whom everyone is hanged,” the colonel's acquaintance emphasizes.

The fact that Miroshnikov received large bribes is said in a statement by the former owner of the Baltic Bank Oleg Shigaev, which is now being checked by the TFR. As stated in his appeal, Miroshnikov allegedly persuaded the leadership of the financial institution to agree to the reorganization procedure under the threat of revoking the license and “inevitable problems with law enforcement agencies”; 1 billion rubles from the funds allocated for rehabilitation were supposedly intended for Miroshnikov and his "curators from the FSB of Russia for organizing and assisting in the implementation of the transaction."

Miroshnikov was at the origins of the formation of the Russian deposit insurance system, worked at the Central Bank and the Agency for the Restructuring of Credit Organizations, whose functions were transferred to the DIA in 2004. Miroshnikov worked in this state corporation from the moment of its foundation: first as a deputy general director, and in 2005 he was approved as the first deputy and oversaw all issues related to the liquidation and reorganization of credit organizations. The authors of a joint investigation of the Proekt publication and The Bell wrote, citing unnamed bankers, that Cherkalin and Miroshnikov offered to keep licenses from their banks and freeze criminal cases regarding the withdrawal of money in exchange for remuneration.

There are three defendants in the case, Kirill Cherkalin and his ex-colleagues: the predecessor Dmitry Frolov and Andrei Vasiliev, the head of the “banking” department. They were arrested on April 25, 2019. Cherkalin is accused of providing "general protection" to commercial structures for a bribe of $ 850 thousand. All three are also suspected of fraud. Kommersant noted that Cherkalin received money for “protection” of the co-owner of Transport Bank, Alexander Mazanov, and was part of a criminal group that stole the proceeds from the sale of luxury housing in new buildings in Moscow.

Черкалин активно сотрудничает с правоохранительными органами. Как писал «Росбалт», офицер раскаялся и попросил заключить с ним досудебное соглашение. «Сейчас в ФСБ приходят бизнесмены, банкиры, которые столкнулись со связкой Фролов-Черкалин и другими взаимодействовавшими с ними сотрудниками. Приходящие рассказывают, какие суммы передали за общее покровительство, услуги. Но из-за отсутствия доказательной базы большинству материалов дать ход не получается. С показаниями Черкалина расследование по некоторым подобным эпизодам, возможно, удастся сдвинуть с мертвой точки», — рассказал источник агентства. Наконец, Черкалин согласился передать государству больше 6 млрд рублей, которые, по словам его адвоката, он получил «из не предусмотренных законом источников». Адвокат Черкалина Владимир Михайлов отказался комментировать ход следствия.