Former owner of Delta Bank Nikolai Lagun obtained citizenship of the aggressor country in 2014 – media

The former owner of the bankrupt Delta Bank, Nikolai Lagun, was found to have a Russian passport. A scanned copy of the document was published by the Korotko.O publication. It follows from the document that the ex-banker has had a document on citizenship of the aggressor country since 2014. The passport was issued in Crimea.

The editorial board has obtained a scanned copy of Nikolai Lagun’s Russian passport. The document has the series 39 14, number 043237, and the department code is 910-004. According to the department codes of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, this corresponds to the Federal Migration Service Directorate in the Zheleznodorozhny District of Simferopol, which was formed after the occupation to “document” new “citizens”.

This means that at the time of issue, Lagun not only had access to the infrastructure of the Russian migration system in Crimea, but also knowledge of how to use its capabilities. An attentive reader will notice that series 39 does not have an official decoding in the list of regions. The fact is that passports with such series can be issued in any region when forms with local series run out, the material says.

The publication notes that since in December 2014 the demand for passports in Crimea was, unfortunately, high, and there was no rush to print “Crimean” forms (less than a year had passed since the beginning of the occupation, the status of the peninsula was more than uncertain), they used such “reserve” blanks intended for other regions of the Russian Federation.

” The passport document is visually genuine, contains all the required security elements, has a signature, a hologram and a machine-readable zone. According to its code, the owner’s date of birth is February 16, 1973, place of birth is Chernigov region, Semenovsky district, village Zhadovo, Ukrainian SSR. Obviously, this is what the article is about .

The authors suggest that Laguna needs a Russian passport for several reasons.

” Russia was clearly rapidly ceasing to be a country that would hand over its citizens to Ukraine on extradition request even with an international warrant. Therefore, citizenship was a “good investment in security”. Only a few years ago, law enforcement agencies and state banks were able to calculate the total amount of damage caused by Lagun – it is more than 50 billion UAH “,

The second is the opportunity to live a relatively free life without debt.

Since 2022, Lagun, who is now on the national and international wanted list, has been hiding in Vienna. From there, he joins online court hearings regarding his debts to the state of Ukraine. And from there, he gives instructions to his lawyers in the case of his own bankruptcy as an individual. to write off due to the allegedly dire financial situation. Under such circumstances, a Russian passport is a “spare airfield” for a completely new life, because there are no debts or financial obligations ,” the authors add.

The third factor is the legal protection of Laguna’s assets in Crimea in accordance with Russian legislation. These are land plots on the southern coast of Crimea; construction companies registered in Simferopol and Yalta; tourist real estate in Alushta; equity participation in residential complexes, hotels and restaurants; access to local infrastructure facilities, including water supply and heating networks.

” Now part of it has been rewritten in pounds, part is owned by relatives of the former head of the National Bank, Sergei Arbuzov – but this could well be the price for the opportunity to plunder one of the largest financial institutions under Viktor Yanukovych ,” the article says.

” In fact, this means that Lagun, a citizen of Ukraine, entered into public-legal relations with the occupying state, which directly falls under the signs of a criminal offense according to the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and is defined as “aiding the aggressor” – up to 12 years of imprisonment ,” the authors add.

The fourth reason Lagun likely wanted to obtain a Russian passport is his shared business interests with Kirill Dmitriev, now the Kremlin’s key economic negotiator with the Trump administration and then the director of a Russian private equity fund that is only just gaining political clout.

It was Dmitriev who was Lagun’s key partner in the launch of Delta Bank in the mid-2000s. After that, they jointly withdrew capital through back-to-back schemes using European banks, in particular Meinl and Winter.

It is noteworthy that in 2021, Lagun’s example was followed by almost the closest person in his orbit – the former head of the board of Delta, Elena Popova. Formally, she is the executor of numerous decisions of the credit committee, informally, she is the trusted person and partner of the banker, with whom he has children. confirm in open databases, and a Russian tax ID is registered for him ,” the publication reminds.

Also follow “Pryamy” on Facebook , Twitter , Telegram and Instagram.