“Funny pictures”: where millions of FBK receipts in bitcoins not indicated in financial statements can be “scattered”

An appeal was sent to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Tax Service (FTS) on the appropriation of donations by the leadership of the Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK) * Alexey Navalny. Its author is Ilya Remeslo, a lawyer and member of the Public Chamber. We are talking about donations of FBK in cryptocurrency. From a recent report from the Navalny’s headquarters network, it follows that last year 9.7 million rubles were received into the opposition’s bitcoin wallet. This is six times less than the amount collected in cryptocurrency in 2017 during the presidential campaign of Navalny (57.3 million rubles). According to RT estimates, in 2019, FBK's bitcoin receipts amounted to at least 45 million rubles. Where did the difference of 35.3 million go, remains incomprehensible. Experts suggest that this money could be transferred to non-public bitcoin wallets, so that it would be easier to confuse those who want to check the financial flows of FBK.

Grip loosening

The team of Navalny promises to strike a blow at United Russia in its latest newsletter asking for donations. Three months later, in many regions, elections of governors and local representative bodies of power should be held. The blow is intended for them.

“How strong this blow will turn out is up to you and me,” the Navalny team said in a statement.

The following is a link, by clicking on which you can make a donation.

If you believe the report published by the head of the network of headquarters of Navalny Leonid Volkov, last year a similar blow in financial terms came out one and a half times weaker compared to the presidential campaign of Navalny in 2018.

The campaign itself lasted 16 months - from December 2016 to April 2018, when the Fifth Time of the Year fund, through which cases were conducted, was expelled from the USRLE by a court decision to liquidate it. Volkov published the report first with data at the end of 2017, and then in a separate message the result of the entire campaign was summed up. Comparison will be with the first option as the most appropriate annual. The financial report of the headquarters network for 2018 for unknown reasons was not published.

As Volkov wrote in his blog, now we are talking about "41 regional headquarters and the federal structure in Moscow coordinating the work of the network."

In 2019, the amount of donations to headquarters amounted to 191.4 million rubles, and in 2017, they managed to raise 275.4 million rubles - almost one and a half times more. But then there were twice as many headquarters - 81.

Cryptoruptence

At the same time, according to the report for 2017, the amount of donations in bitcoins amounted to 57.3 million rubles. This is six times more than in 2019, when they collected 9.7 million rubles in cryptocurrency.

It is noteworthy that only in January 2018, the bitcoin-wallet of the non-systemic opposition was replenished by 9.21 million rubles - an amount comparable to cryptocurrency income for the entire last year.

At the same time, donations through PayPal increased - from 27.82 million rubles in 2017 to 35.5 million rubles in 2019 (the system worked until October last year).

Leaky wallet

In a fresh call to donate from Navalny’s team, there is the address of a bitcoin wallet to which cryptocurrency can be transferred.

This is the same Volkov wallet, which was declared as temporary until the election account. But since then to this day it has been used, apparently, only it, in any case publicly.

About how this wallet is replenished before each regular FBK “investigation”, RT wrote repeatedly. During the election campaign, he also received substantial donations.

So, according to RT estimates, from January 1 to December 1, 2019, Volkov’s main bitcoin wallet received 109.6 BTC - almost 45 million rubles at the exchange rate at the end of the year. The main tranches were made during the election race in the Moscow City Duma - from April to September.

In the report of the FBK itself, there is not a word about cryptocurrency receipts. It only talks about online payments, the total amount of which in 2019 amounted to 82.3 million rubles.

And if it is proposed to finance headquarters, including through a link to a bitcoin wallet, then FBK does not have such a form. The fund uses the wording “online transfers through a payment gateway”.

Do cryptocurrency donations fall into this category? If not, then all of them are due to the headquarters, and their amount in the report is 9.7 million rubles. The difference with RT revenues in 2019 is at least 35.3 million rubles. It is not reflected anywhere.

Former deputy head and lawyer of the Moscow headquarters of Navalny, Vitaly Serukanov, suggested that the remaining bitcoins could be cashed and legalized through gasket companies associated with FBK employees.

“I am sure that FBK has more than one electronic wallet, there are still non-public ones,” RT Serukanov said. - The main question is: how much money went through these wallets, how much was lost along the way, and where did it go? Surely they have employees who cash out bitcoins and regularly deposit cash into the accounts of legal entities-gaskets associated with FBK employees. ”

As an ex-employee of FBK believes, one thing can definitely be said: “All this is aimed at confusing a person who will understand financial flows. These amounts can be transferred to some kind of shadow spending. Volkov’s report does not give us any answer to these questions. It’s just “funny pictures”, it’s impossible to call it a report. ”

Leonid Volkov
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Report in pictures

A number of serious financial inconsistencies in the headquarters report were also discovered by lawyer Ilya Remeslo, a member of the Public Chamber.

“I believe Leonid Volkov simply put the rest of the money in his pocket and hid it somewhere,” the expert believes. - Anyone can add the number of transactions (for 2019. - RT ) and count them at the rate. It will turn out a much larger amount than Volkov shows. ”

The craft expressed confidence that "the remaining amount was not spent on the activities of FBK in 2019."

“There is no evidence to support this - documents and bank statements,” the lawyer argues. - Ready to declare on record: this money was not spent on the needs of FBK. If Volkov believes otherwise, let him sue me. There we will deal with great pleasure in all these vicissitudes. ”

In addition, the expert drew attention to the fact that the income and expenses in Volkov’s report actually converged to a penny: they collected 191.4 million rubles and spent 191.4 million rubles (including 8.8 million rubles frozen by investigators in the FBK case) .

“Usually this does not happen, there should be some kind of balance, unspent funds,” he explained in an interview with RT. - And there is no specifics: instructions on how much specifically to which account the extracts were received. All that remains is to believe in the word to Volkov and his report, which consists of two pictures. ”

Financial tides

With these doubts, Ilya Remeslo turned to law enforcement and tax authorities.

“I sent appeals to the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Federal Tax Service on this issue so that this situation would be given a proper assessment,” the lawyer said.

However, there is a reason for the trial, and not one.

So, everyone who donates to the headquarters of Navalny Bitcoins automatically agrees to the offer with the nonprofit organization “Headquarters for the Protection of Citizens' Rights.

According to RT sources in law enforcement agencies, the “Headquarters” may be involved in laundering money obtained by third parties in a criminal way. The criminal “FBK case” under the relevant article (paragraph “b” part 4 of article 174) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was instituted by the Investigative Committee of Russia in August 2019.

Financial investments in the "Headquarters", as RT found out in its investigation, are engaged in, inter alia, the commercial company Tide Country LLC. It sells merchandise FBK, and the company belongs to the staff lawyer of the fund Evgeny Zamyatin. Last year, he deposited 8.6 million rubles into his account from his own funds, the origin of which is not obvious.

In particular, according to RT, in 2019, the company spent 10.8 million rubles in donations to four controlled funds for the “protection of citizens' rights” in the regions (including the “Staff”) and payments to 132 employees of the Navalny team.

The total revenue of the company last year, according to financial data available to RT, amounted to 15.4 million rubles, and expenses - 17 million rubles.

Volkov’s headquarters report for 2019 states that the profit of the fundraising store amounted to 6.5 million rubles, and the total salary budget for Navalny’s headquarters was 80.9 million rubles (this is the main expense item). In total, according to Volkov, we are talking about more than 180 employees.

In the report for 2017, there are no data on the number of employees. Their salaries then also occupied the first line in expenditures - 80.64 million rubles, while the headquarters, we recall, was twice as many.

Cryptocurrency Pocket Cycle

As already mentioned, according to the former FBK lawyer Vitaly Serukanov, millions of unknown origin coming to the accounts of controlled funds and personal accounts of the Navalny team can be, among other things, a cryptocurrency - “FBK’s second budget”.

This assumption is supported by the fact that FBK employees have more than one commercial company - they exist both in Russia and abroad, and tens of millions of cashed bitcoins have been repeatedly deposited into the accounts of controlled organizations, experts say.

So, according to the Ministry of Justice, bitcoins were legalized through the Fifth Season of the Year fund, during the presidential campaign of Navalny. An inspection of the department showed that 164 million rubles passed through the accounts of this fund in 2017.

“The fund raises funds in bitcoins, which provides for anonymity of transactions, while anonymous donors are forbidden to deposit money into the accounts of registered presidential candidates,” the Justice Ministry said.

In 2018, on the basis of this argument, by the decision of the Meshchansky court of Moscow, the "Fifth season" was liquidated.

A similar fate can be expected for the Headquarters Citizens' Rights Protection Fund, where Navalny’s team is now urging to transfer donations, including bitcoins.

The Arbitration Court of Bashkortostan (the fund is registered in this republic) was supposed to consider the bankruptcy case of the "Staff" on June 9. The inter-district inspection of the Federal Tax Service No. 40 appealed to the court with a corresponding statement. The reason was the tax debt of the fund in the amount of 4.2 million rubles.

Judging by the file of arbitration cases, the trial was again postponed - this time until September 8.

In the event that the "Headquarters" is declared bankrupt, its funds will go to pay off debt to creditors.

The FBK can not know about it, since the bankruptcy petition of the "Staff" was filed back in February. Therefore, the current statement by Navalny’s team about the intention to spend the collected donations to promote “smart voting” looks at least ambiguous in relation to its own supporters.

* The Anti-Corruption Fund is included in the register of NGOs performing the functions of a foreign agent, by decision of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation of 09.10.2019.