The Moscow Presnensky District Court has opened a criminal case against Kirill Yakubovsky, a businessman who used to co-own Expobank and who also owns the Azbuka Vkusa and Coffee House retail chains. This development was reported by Kommersant, which outlines the charges and the broader context surrounding the case.
Prosecutors allege that Yakubovsky acted in collusion with associates to misappropriate approximately $126 million belonging to investors. Prior to the onset of the trial, authorities seized assets reportedly exceeding 4 billion rubles in value linked to Yakubovsky. The seizure encompasses more than 400 commercial properties as well as real estate located in Moscow and in St. Petersburg, including a network of hostels in the latter city.
The criminal case also names Yakubovsky’s former partner Pavel Maslovsky and Svetlana Bezrukova, who previously served as the general director of the PPFIN Holding company. The case was sanctioned by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on May 31. The investigation claims that the implicated individuals orchestrated a fraud on a scale described as particularly large, with the funds allegedly diverted to support the activities of VMHY Holdings Limited, a holding tied to the scheme. The timeline for the alleged scheme spans from 2012 to 2015, during which the accused are said to have credited the stolen sums to financing operations within the holding group.
Investigators report that after interest payments on the loans ceased in the autumn of 2016, the recovered funds were not returned to creditors. Among the investors and creditors named in the case are Mikhail Vishnyakov, a former Expobank consultant, as well as five lending entities. These lenders include Cypriot offshore companies Ashaya Investment Limited LLC, Ari Solutions Corp LLC, Bravey Limited LLC, New Union LLC, and International Commercial Union CJSC. It is noted that Vishnyakov, who died before the trial, provided more than $40 million to the holding company as part of the financing arrangements.
In a separate but related development, Moscow authorities recently concluded a verdict in a case involving embezzlement by a German investor. The two matters together underscore ongoing scrutiny of investment-related fraud and the enforcement of asset seizures in high-profile financial schemes across the Russian capital. The evolving case highlights how investigations track the flow of funds through multiple corporate layers and offshore entities, as well as how court actions interact with assets already identified by prosecutors for potential forfeiture. The broader implication is a reminder of the intense regulatory and legal attention surrounding major business networks in Russia, including cross-border investment structures and the risk exposure faced by large-scale retail and financial entities. The case continues to unfold as prosecutors outline the chronology of transfers, loan arrangements, and the alleged misappropriation of investor capital in the period between 2012 and 2015. This includes both domestic and international financial arrangements and the role of associated offshore entities in the alleged scheme as described by Kommersant with attribution to the investigative authorities.