The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation detained Nikolai Gordeyev, the president of "OFC Bank", co-owned by Vladimir Putin's classmate Nikolai Egorov. Gordeyev is suspected of abuse of authority while running a lending institution. According to the Central Bank estimates, the financial "hole" in the capital of the bank is 17.5 billion rubles.

As a source in law enforcement agencies told Rosbalt, on June 26, 2018 a large group of employees of the Investigative Committee of Russia and operatives ran into searches for Gordeev. After their graduation, he was taken to the UK building and interrogated, then Gordeyev was told that he had been detained. It is assumed that on June 28 Basmanny Court will consider the issue of electing a preventive measure to the president of the bank. Most likely, investigators will ask for home arrest.

The interlocutor of the agency in law enforcement agencies said that the investigative measures took place in the framework of the criminal case instituted in December 2017 under article 201 of the Criminal Code (abuse of authority). "The investigation was started at the request of one of the bank's shareholders," he said. Another source of Rosbalt, familiar with the situation, suggested that it was a partner of the law firm Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners, Vladimir Putin's classmate Nikolai Egorov, who owns 25% of the bank.

Nikolai Gordeyev from 2003 to 2008 was the general director of the St. Petersburg "Imperial Porcelain Factory", and then headed "OFC Bank." He himself and a number of his acquaintances became co-owners of a credit institution. The largest package was found by Nikolai Egorov. He also became chairman of the board of directors of the bank. Under new owners, OFC was extremely active in implementing various commercial projects. He bought up fish farms in the Leningrad and Kaluga regions, and also began to closely cooperate with alcohol companies - Kristall-Lefortovo and Status-groups. The latter structure at one time sold the cheapest vodka at the price, which was produced in Kabardino-Balkaria. Almost all of the bank's loan portfolio was concentrated in Kristall-Lefortovo and Status-groups.

This also ruined the OFK. In 2016, the "cleaning" of the alcohol market began, the "Status Groups" revoked the license, the enterprise declared itself bankrupt. Serious debts were formed at Kristall-Lefortovo. As a result, both companies stopped servicing loans received from the bank. Moreover, the OFC presented guarantees for the payment of excise duty, which were provided to vodka factories from the CBD.

In the spring of 2018, the bank had problems with transfer of payments to customers and payment of funds to depositors. The Central Bank of the Russian Federation introduced an interim administration to the OFC on March 21, and in April withdrew the license from this credit institution.

"Problems in the activities of PJSC" OFC Bank "arose in connection with the use of a risky business model, focused on lending to companies in the production and distribution of alcoholic beverages. At the same time, the bank financed economically interconnected enterprises of this industry, applying various "schemes" for the purpose of formal compliance with the prudential standards of activity established by the Bank of Russia. In addition, PJSC "OFC Bank" repeatedly violated the requirements of the Bank of Russia legislation and regulations in the field of combating the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism in respect of non-compliance with the obligation to identify transactions subject to mandatory control, as well as timeliness and reliability of the information submitted to the authorized body, "the Central Bank said in a message.

At the end of May, the Bank of Russia announced that the "hole" in the OFK capital is 17.5 billion rubles: the bank's assets, according to the results of the survey, amounted to 11.271 billion rubles, and liabilities - 28.775 billion rubles.

It is worth noting that even before the license was revoked, the OFC shareholders had a conflict. Nikolai Egorov announced that he has no access to operational management of the bank and tried to remove from the post of President Nikolai Gordeev. But other shareholders did not support him.