As Rucriminal.info has learned, there is a criminal group of people operating in Russia that, under the guise of an investment company (IK Freedom Finance LLC), initiates criminal cases against respectable citizens - Russian investors, in fact, takes away funds and withdraws them from Russia. These actions deprive the Russian budget of legitimate money (15% income tax already paid) in favor of members of the criminal group.
This criminal activity involves employees of the Freedom Finance holding and affiliated companies (from the jurisdictions of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Cyprus, Belize, the USA), as well as high-ranking employees of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
Comprehensive information on these crimes and ordered criminal cases was provided to the security forces. However, according to the sources of Freedom Finance representatives themselves, they are supervised by the head of Directorate “K” of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Ivan Tkachev, which is why this situation is not allowed to proceed, and they can do whatever they want.
Read more about Freedom Finance and custom criminal cases
Today, the Freedom Finance company is one of the most active and largest companies in deception and subsequent forceful illegal taking of money from citizens of the Russian Federation. In fact, its activities can be classified as fraud with the aim of seizing funds and withdrawing them abroad. Its services are used by criminals, high-ranking officials, and corrupt intelligence officers.
The main beneficiary and owner of the Freedom Finance group of companies is Timur Turlov. Around his company Freedom Finance, Turlov created a whole network of “laundries” and “transit shops”, which includes both Russian and foreign companies (including W-Empirical Holding Corp.)
The criminal activities of Freedom Finance are confirmed not only by information and certificates, but also by a number of criminal cases, in one of which several defendants give a complete breakdown of the criminal activities of Turlov, his accomplices and schemes, but this information is also not given further progress, - patron of Freedom Finance Finance" Tkachev protects his source of income.
Example of a custom-made criminal case (Link Tkachev-Yarosh-Arkharov)
Currently, the Basmanny Court of Moscow is considering criminal case No. 12302450039000116, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The accused is S.P. Kuleshov.
The injured party is W-Empirical Holding corp. (USA)
Affiliated company – IC “Freedom Finance” (RF)
By all indications, this criminal case is ordered.
The investigator of the Investigative Directorate for the Southern Administrative District of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, who is leading this case, Kirill Arkharov, has long been in the field of view of the VChK-OGPU telegram channel regarding corruption scandals and participation in contracted cases. He acts in conjunction with another well-known corrupt official in the country - the deputy of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for Moscow, General Sergei Yarosh (there is information that they are relatives), who personally supervised and signed the documents on the initiation of the criminal investigation. Yarosh, as is known, does not make moves without Tkachev’s approval.
However, judge Kozlova E.A. has no experience or understanding of the essence of brokerage and trading activities on stock exchanges, which witnesses and the allegedly injured party take advantage of by giving deliberately false testimony. Based on these facts of perjury, an appeal to law enforcement agencies is now being prepared.
Rucrimnal.info sources have at their disposal audio recordings of negotiations between the deputy head of security at Freedom Finance, Eliseev, who, before initiating a case, holds a number of meetings with employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB, and a call with a lawyer, based on which it is obvious that the criminal cases are ordered: Eliseev talks about willingness to pay for the initiation of criminal cases, about patronage at the very top of department “K”, and proposes a scheme for initiating cases.
In addition, the above criminal case is not the only one; at least several other similar criminal cases are known. This indicates a systemic situation in which funds seized with the help of Russian intelligence services and money from Russian officials are sent to the United States.
Recently, a detailed letter was sent to the RF Investigative Committee addressed to Chairman Bastrykin outlining all the information about the Freedom Finance fraud and the illegal withdrawal of funds abroad, as well as about the criminal activities of some of his subordinates. However, to date there has been no response. Just as there is no investigation into the criminal actions of Turlov and his company, although there is more than enough evidence and witness testimony.
As Rucriminal.info wrote earlier, the Main Investigation Department of the RF IC is also investigating the case against three employees of the Directorate “M” of the FSB of Russia: Alexei Tsarev, Sergei Manyshkin and Alexander Ushakov. They are accused of a series of crimes, including receiving bribes totaling over 5 billion rubles. It turned out that it was the Directorate M of the FSB of the Russian Federation that was involved in organizing the initiation and lobbying of this case in the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation. And soon the real owners of QBF received an offer that the investigation and the FSB will focus on the arrested persons and it will cost 0.5 billion rubles. The proposal came from a trusted representative of the Directorate M of the FSB of Russia, Eduard Budantsev. Due to the fact that the real owners (R.V. Shpakov and others) delayed making a decision, a year after the first arrests (May 2021), the company’s General Director Stanislav Matyukhin and his deputy Vladimir Pakhomov were detained (still under house arrest! ). After this, the cost of solving the problem increased from 0.5 billion to 1 billion rubles.
As it turned out, the real owners of QBF delayed solving the problem; they could not (or did not want) to agree, primarily for several significant reasons:
- the greed and arrogance of the head of QBF, R.V. Shpakov, who has been “on the run” since January 2021. We have already written earlier that he managed to leave the Russian Federation using forged documents, not without the patronage of our law enforcement agencies. He was then and still is confident that he can solve the problem with “little blood loss,” i.e. significantly cheaper than the 1 billion rubles announced by Budantsev. ;
- The Administration of the President of the Russian Federation became involved in this case. One of QBF's clients who invested significant funds was a high-ranking AP official who oversees the department's special projects. After a personal meeting, Shpakov returned only part of the investment to him, stalled for time, promising to return the rest. At some point, it became a matter of principle and a high-ranking client connected an administrative resource. After this, it turned out to be not so easy for Budantsev and Shpakov to “resolve the issue” with the security forces;
- Timur Turlov, the founder and owner of the international investment company Freedom Finance, is also involved in this case. This famous character, who also escaped from the Russian Federation, received Kazakh citizenship in 2022 and renounced Russian citizenship, is worth dwelling on separately.
What does the Kazakh investment banker Turlov and Freedom Finance have to do with it?
In 2018, Timur Turlov’s Freedom Finance company received the “Russian Financial Elite” award as the fastest growing broker. In October 2019, the investment company Freedom Finance became the first financial organization from the CIS to receive a listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NASDAQ) under the ticker FRHC, and the company’s founder and permanent leader at that time, Timur Turlov, became one of the most famous investment bankers in Russia.
Timur Turlov was and is a long-time acquaintance, friend and partner of R.V. Shpakov, with whom the latter began organizing his business back in 2008. The name of Timur Turlov often appears in the materials of the QBF criminal case; former QBF top manager Zelimkhan Munaev has already given numerous confessions (volume 239) (Criminal case No. 42201007754000292, sentenced to 8 years in September 2023 and serving his sentence).
Shpakov turned the situation with the QBF criminal case to put pressure on Turlov with various arguments in his favor, in order to create for him the threat of possible criminal prosecution for previously completed transactions in the event of his capture or, in general, Turlov’s non-cooperation with him.
Yaroslav Mukhtarov
Source: www.rucriminal.info