MOSCOW, June 7 (RAPSI) - Igor Krayushkin, former co-owner of Podium, a Moscow-based chain of premium clothes and footwear shops, has accused former Rosbank CEO Vladimir Golubkov of conspiring with his business partner to bankrupt the company, Izvestia newspaper writes on Friday.
Krayushkin, who is the guarantor of his company's loans, is facing multimillion debts.
He told Izvestia that he guaranteed the loans which Podium took out from Rosbank for business development in 1999. The company was first denied a loan for the purchase of a new collection in 2008, when Golubkov became the bank's head. However, the bank soon resumed funding the company.
In 2010 Krayushkin's partner, Eduard Kitsenko, offered him to sell his stake and so get rid of his loan obligations. Krayushkin claims that Golubkov himself gave spoken assurances of this.
After he sold his stake to his partner in 2011, Podium stopped repaying its loans to Rosbank and its assets were moved to unknown destinations. Half a year later, Podium was declared bankrupt and Krayushkin remained the guarantor of loans.
Krayushkin, who believes that Golubkov was somehow involved in his company's bankruptcy, took his case to the Interior Ministry, which is currently looking into this claim.
If it is confirmed, new charges may be brought against Golubkov.
Izvestia writes that the investigators are checking several other complaints filed by former Rosbank clients against Golubkov.
In May, the police arrested Golubkov while he was accepting 5 million rubles ($160,000) as part of a larger $1.5 million kickback from the representative of a private company. The executive was allegedly trying to extort the money from Andrei Kovalyov, a former member of the Moscow city legislature and a rock musician, for restructuring an $80 million debt.
The police believe that Rosbank Senior Vice President Tamara Polyanitsyna was also involved in the deal. Both executives face fines of up to 70 times the bribe amount and prison terms of up to seven years.
Golubkov and Polyanitsyna will remain under house arrest until mid-July.
Golubkov earlier said he was innocent and that his arrest was not linked to a conflict among the bank's executives. He believes the accusations against him stem from a dispute between companies.
Golubkov headed Rosbank from 2008 until May this year.
Rosbank is a private universal bank within the Societe Generale banking group. It provides banking services to private and corporate clients and has over 600 offices in 340 cities and towns across Russia. It is one of Russia's top 10 banks in terms of assets.