In an apartment of an elite residential complex in the west of Moscow, three people were found killed: two adults and an 8-year-old child. 

“According to the investigation, on the afternoon of October 26, 2021, the bodies of a woman, a man, and also a minor child with signs of violent death were found in an apartment in a residential building located on Mosfilmovskaya Street in Moscow,” the ICR Main Investigation Department in the capital reported.



Investigators opened a criminal case on the murder of two or more persons (Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).  

They killed everyone who was in the apartment



According to media reports, citing sources in law enforcement agencies, the identity of those killed has been established: they are the former top manager of Smolensk Bank, 57-year-old Mikhail Yakhontov, his 39-year-old wife and their eight-year-old son.

  • © Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia in Moscow

The body was discovered by the daughter of Mikhail Yakhontov.

Since Sunday, the girl could not get through to her father and therefore decided to come to him in the elite residential complex "Vorobyovy Gory", but no one opened the door for her.

Then she called the housekeeper.

In the corridor, according to sources from Telegram channels, they found Yakhontov's body with a slit throat.

He was lying on his stomach, his head covered with a pillow.

In one of the rooms were the bodies of a woman and a boy.

According to preliminary information, they were strangled.

So far, the investigation does not have an official version of who and why could have dealt with the family so cruelly.

RT sources in law enforcement agencies say that the investigation is now working out several versions, including those related to the man's previous professional activities.

On August 30 this year, the Moscow Arbitration Court officially declared Mikhail Yakhontov bankrupt.

He owed more than 8 billion rubles to the clients of the bank, where he once worked in a high position.

Six years for waste

In 2016, Mikhail Yakhontov was accused of particularly large embezzlement and deliberate bankruptcy of a credit institution (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and article 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Together with him, the persons involved in the criminal case were Pavel Shitov, the owner of Smolensk Bank, and Roman Shcherbakov and Timur Akberov, the bank's top managers.

Back in December 2013, the Central Bank revoked the license from the credit institution, and in February 2014 the bank was declared bankrupt.

According to the investigation, when Shitov and other defendants in the case learned in advance about the upcoming revocation of the license, they deliberately suspended the service of customer accounts, citing technical failures.

At that time, through the Moscow branch of the bank, top managers purchased unsecured securities from the fictitious companies controlled by them, issued loans to fly-by-night firms and alienated the bank's real estate in their favor.

According to the investigation, from 2010 to 2013, Smolensk Bank issued deliberately bad loans to the construction companies under its control in the amount of 2 billion rubles.

So, Pavel Shitov and Mikhail Yakhontov issued a loan to one of the capital's companies in the amount of more than 600 million rubles, although the company was not engaged in financial and economic activities.

At the time of the announcement of bankruptcy, "Smolensk Bank" owed creditors more than 19 billion rubles, of which 12.5 billion rubles - to individuals.

In March 2019, Yakhontov was sentenced to six years in a general regime colony.

The court counted in time the time he spent under arrest during the investigation according to the formula "a day in a pre-trial detention center - a day and a half in a colony."

Shortly before the murder, Mikhail Yakhontov was released.

At the same time, creditors filed claims against Yakhontov himself.

On August 30 this year, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared Yakhontov bankrupt.

According to the materials of the court, the former banker owed more than 8.4 billion rubles to the clients of Smolensk Bank.

The owner and main shareholder of Smolensk Bank, Pavel Shitov, left Russia even before the initiation of a criminal case.

According to the latest information, he lives in Ukraine and is under investigation and on the international wanted list.

In his social networks, Shitov tells how to profitably invest his personal money.

RT tried to contact Yakhontov's ex-colleague, but did not receive a response at the time of publication of the material.

According to RT, Yakhontov's murdered wife's name is Antonina Nosyreva.

She was engaged in entrepreneurship and owned a real estate and transport rental company East Market LLC.

According to the Kontur.Fokus database, in 2018 the Volgograd city administration filed a lawsuit against the company for failure to comply with the terms of land lease and demanded to return about 100 thousand rubles.

And in 2020, a large manufacturer of rolled metal products, LLC Southern Metallurgical Complex, through the court demanded to return more than 2 million rubles from the company for non-compliance with the terms of land lease.

In July 2021, East-Market LLC launched bankruptcy proceedings.