Other than the banksters’ own statements, nothing corroborates the theory that the Central Bank and the Prosecutor-General’s Office were involved in an illegal Probusinessbank takeover. But we can compare it against the events that unfolded back in the day. What we will find out, though, is that Probusinessbank and its co-owners were getting along quite well with the supervisory agencies.

We have already mentioned the promissory notes the bankers issued to a woman whose name was a full match to that of the deputy prosecutor-general’s daughter. Leontiev and Zheleznyak must have been part of the in-group. Otherwise, no one would have entrusted them with their money with literally zero assurance of repayment.

But there is an even more compelling illustration of their closeness to the Central Bank. Before the fraud schemes got exposed, Probusinessbank enjoyed a spotless reputation. One year before they were delicensed, their bank was tasked with rehabilitating the Solidarnost bank, based out of Samara, Russia.

This is an important point.

What is exactly bank resolution/rehabilitation? Suppose there is a failing bank with lots of bad assets that is facing bankruptcy. The Central Bank must decide whether they revoke its license or try and salvage it.

Bank resolution or rehabilitation is precisely an attempt to salvage the bank. A crumbling bank is taken over by a well-reputed bank.

In 2014, Solidarnost was about to get rehabilitated by Probusinessbank. In April 2014, Vedomosti interviewed Zheleznyak on the subject. He admitted that he would prefer acquiring a new bank through the resolution procedure over purchasing them.

According to Zheleznyak, the rehabilitation of Solidarnost helped him gain more than 500,000 new individual customers and 10,000 corporate clients. Besides, he got a well-reputed bank with professionally trained staff, a regional branch network, and a set of ready-made banking products. On top of that, Probusinessbank was rewarded by the Central Bank and the ASV for taking care of Solidarnost’s failing assets. The agencies offered him low-interest rate loans and, therefore, high returns. Simply put, he got hold of much more money.

It turns out the bank resolution/rehabilitation can be rather lucrative. But what are the eligibility criteria?

The bank in charge of the resolution is picked by the Central Bank and the ASV. The exact procedure is largely a mystery. Oleg Tinkov claims one can only bribe their way into snatching the pick.

And this fact does not mesh well with the theory that the Central Bank, the ASV, the Prosecutor-General’s Office, and the presidential office, above all, considered the bankers as the regime’s worst enemies and settled the score with them by seizing their property. Clearly, the Central Bank had been eagerly cooperating with Leontiev, Zheleznyak, and their companies before they found out those guys had been stealing from their customers.