Sergei Kasyanov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the KSG Agro holding, was acquitted in the Dneprovsky District Court of Kiev of charges of complicity in organizing the assassination attempt, detention and prosecution of banker Sergei Dyadechko.
According to the prosecution, in 2013, ex-People's Deputy Alexander Shepelev asked his friend and relative Kasyanov to ensure a transaction of $1.2 million for the subsequent transfer of this money through his godfather Emelyan Zakharov to employees of the FSB of the Russian Federation, so that they would detain and arrest Sergei Dyadechko in a fabricated case and kill him. At that time, Shepelev was hiding abroad from Ukrainian law enforcement officers and was put on the wanted list after the first unsuccessful attempt on the life of banker Dyadechko and on suspicion of embezzling funds from Rodovid Bank.
Therefore, not being able to independently conduct financial transactions, Shepelev seemed to turn to Kasyanov. The latter, in turn, instructed officials of ICD Investment SA to enter into a fictitious loan agreement with Zakharov’s Triumpf Art Promotion LTD in the amount of $1.5 million and, under the guise of providing a loan, ensured the transfer of funds.
The scammers prepared fake documents for Shepelev about the detention and arrest of Dyadechka because of his involvement in financing the preparatory actions of members of illegal armed groups, who on October 23, 2012 organized an explosion at the Kizlyar customs checkpoint in Dagestan, as a result of which they were injured.
However, Shepelev’s plan to detain Uncle failed for reasons beyond his control. Former detective officer of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the North Caucasus Federal District of the Russian Federation, Ruslan Khumakiev, seems to have misled Shepelev, took possession of his money, and all the documents in the case against Uncle turned out to be fake.
Kasyanov was accused of transferring funds intended to pay for the services of the perpetrators of the crime.
The key was to prove whether Kasyanov acted with direct intent to unlawfully imprison Uncle.
Having examined all the evidence, the court found this fact unproven.
The court found that the participants in the described events were indeed Kasyanov, Shepelev and Uncle, who were Ukrainian businessmen in 2012-2013.
Uncle and Shepelev were in conflict with each other.
Kasyanov, on the contrary, was in friendly and family relations with Shepelev - in 2010, their children entered into a de facto marriage relationship and have a common son.
In court, Kasyanov gave his explanations for the recalculation of funds and put forward an alternative version of events. He said that his company actually provided a loan to Triumpf Art Promotion LTD to Emelyan Zakharov. Since the money was not returned, his company initiated arbitration proceedings in the Swiss Confederation.
But Zakharov, in order to avoid any negative consequences and not return the money in 2015, liquidated the company Triumpf Art Promotion LTD and came up with a story for law enforcement agencies that the loan funds were used as means of committing a crime.
The court considers that the criminal conspiracy of the accused Kasyanov with Shepelev is not at all necessary as evidence. And it is even refuted by the recording of their conversation, from which it follows that these persons were on friendly terms, communicated on various topics, in particular, about politics, business, discussed the victim Uncle, with whom both had known for a long time, and that’s all.
Even if Shepelev is found guilty of organizing payment for crimes against Uncle using Kasyanov’s companies, this will not indicate Kasyanov’s guilt. In other words, the prosecution did not prove that the transaction was carried out as an operation to pay for a crime, and not simply, for example, at the request, without knowledge of the real purpose.
Indeed, even in the indictment it is written that in connection with Shepelev’s concealment abroad, at the end of 2012 - beginning of 2013, Kasyanov received at the disposal and management of the money of the Shepelev family in the amount of almost 21 million US dollars to the account of his company ICD Investment SA under the guise of a loan , as well as 4.6 million US dollars and 880 thousand euros in cash, which he placed in his bank accounts, thanks to which he became the actual manager of these funds in the interests of Shepelev.
The court believes that the prosecutor does not prove with anything other than his own assumption that the further transfer of a certain amount indicates Kasyanov’s participation in crimes, and not that he acted simply as a manager of the Shepelev family’s funds.
As evidence, prosecutors provided the court with audio recordings of conversations between Shepelev and Kasyanov. The victim Uncle allegedly bought the flash drive containing these recordings for 500 thousand euros from a stranger who introduced himself either as an agent of the British secret services or as a Russian hacker.
At the end of 2012, Shepelev, for the purpose of secrecy, began communicating with his entourage through encrypted IP telephony communication channels. The hacker claimed to have access to the servers used in the operation of this communication system. The man asked for 500 thousand euros to decipher all the information from Shepelev’s server.
The court agreed with the defense's arguments that the origin of these recordings was dubious and declared them inadmissible evidence. And at the same time, audio files and transcripts of conversations did not indicate that Shepelev or other persons brought to the attention of Kasyanov a criminal plan to illegally detain and bring Uncle to justice.
Let us recall that in February 2018, Shepelev was detained in the Kyiv region, and since then he has been in custody.
On August 3, 2022, the Obolonsky District Court of Kyiv found Alexander Shepelev guilty of organizing the murder of the owner of AvtoKrazBank Sergei Kirichenko in 2003 and sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
On August 7, 2020, the Desnyansky Court of Kyiv sentenced Shepelev to 7 years in prison with confiscation of property for providing unlawful benefits to a guard and escaping from custody.
The Svyatoshinsky, Darnitsky, Kiev-Svyatoshinsky and Shevchenkovsky courts are also considering Shepelev’s other cases of embezzling funds from Rodovid Bank, organizing two attempted murders of banker Sergei Dyadechko, and ordering the murder of Colonel UBOP Roman Erokhin in 2006.
