As it became known to Kommersant, a new criminal case has been opened against one of the founders of a large Russian manufacturer of paints and woodworking means, Senezh Group, Alexei Knekov. He is accused of embezzling 139 million rubles from two companies of the holding. According to the investigation, the money was stolen by the businessman with the help of the keys to the Sberbank Online system illegally obtained by him and immediately transferred to one-day companies registered throughout the country. The second person involved in the investigation was the wife of the accused, Olga Knekova, who, according to the investigation, directly formed payments and controlled the withdrawal of funds.

Investigators of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the North-Western District of the capital are investigating a new criminal case against Aleksey Knekov. According to Kommersant, there are currently two episodes of embezzlement in the case materials, which are similar in the way they are executed.

The events described in the case relate to July-August 2018. By this time, Aleksey Knekov had a serious conflict with business partners in the holding, Elena and Vladimir Maksimov, as a result of which he was completely removed from the management of Senezh.

According to the investigation, in response, the businessman decided to reset the accounts of two enterprises that are part of the holding.

After that, according to the investigation, the businessman, together with his wife Olga Knekova, developed a plan to steal funds using electronic keys.

In order to realize their plan, the spouses, according to the case file, contacted Dmitry Studenov, the former head of the security service of the entire holding, who was recently dismissed from the post of general director of Senezh-Distribution and Senezh-Preparations, who was well known to them. And all three, as follows from the case materials, met in Domodedovo near Moscow, where Mr. Studenov lives, in the parking lot of the local shopping center Kvartal.

The Knekovs' spouses, insisting that they acted unfairly with Mr. Studenov, as well as with them, offered to help them "restore justice." According to the investigation, the Knekovs explained to the interlocutor that due to the formalities associated with registration in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, information about the dismissal of Mr. Studenov will come to Sberbank, where the accounts of his former firms are located, with a long delay. And all this time he will appear in bank documents in the same status. Because of this, the dismissed director, as his interlocutors assured, will be able to easily obtain a new access code to the Sberbank Business Online system and then transfer it to the Knekovs. With his help, the spouses said, they will be able to receive allegedly unpaid legal dividends, after which they will reward the "security officer" by paying him 15 million rubles.

Agreeing to the offer, the case says, the ex-CEO on July 24, 2018, accompanied by Alexei Knekov, came to one of the Sberbank offices, where he wrote an application for a new key in connection with the alleged loss of the old one and indicated in the application his phone number for sending passwords to him. After the electronic key was received, Mr. Studenov, according to the investigation, handed it over to his accomplices.

Having gained access to the accounts of both enterprises, Olga Knekova, according to the investigation, from her laptop began to send payment orders she had formed to the bank for withdrawing funds.

The reasons for the transfer of money were different. For example, the first of the payments related to an allegedly executed loan agreement for a total amount of almost 8 million rubles. In the role of recipients of money in the criminal case, some companies such as Superclub, Independent Expert Commission LLC, CCV Group LLC appear, which the investigation considers to be "technical" firms.

In total, in a short time, according to the investigators' calculations, 88.5 million rubles were withdrawn from the accounts of Senezh-Distribution, and 50.5 million rubles from Senezh-Preparations. Attempts by the management of the companies to block illegal access to accounts were unsuccessful, as a result, both companies were on the verge of collapse. Now they are recognized as victims in the case.

Judging by the materials of the case, the investigation was able to find out where the teams went directly to transfer funds - according to the police, this is house 3 on Davydkovskaya Street, where the Knekovs' spouses live.

It is interesting that the Knekovs' spouses, according to Kommersant's information, have not paid off completely with Dmitry Studenov, having given him only 30% of the promised.

And he, after being detained in the summer of this year, entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement and told the police about the scheme of stealing money. He also, according to Kommersant, confirmed his testimony during the confrontation. Moreover, when the investigator told the ex-general director the total amount of the stolen goods, he could not believe in it.

In addition, according to Kommersant's sources, the head of one of the firms used to withdraw funds also confessed.

The actions of Alexey and Olga Knekovyh were qualified by the investigation under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale). However, the spouses do not admit their guilt, claiming that they were not involved in illegal financial transactions.