The co-owners of Promsvyazbank allegedly unloaded almost $80 million to another bank they own, after the Central Bank stepped into restructure

Alexey and Dmitry Ananiev allegedly transferred 4.5 billion rubles ($79.5 million) of their own money from Promsvyazbank to Vozrozhdenie Bank — two banks they both co-own — just two weeks after the Russian Central Bank stepped in to restructure Promsvyazbank.

Sources told the newspaper Kommersant that the transfer apparently took place on December 28 or 29, flooding Vozrozhdenie Bank with more money than its average annual balance. A representative for Alexey Ananiev denies that the massive withdrawal took place.

What happened to Promsvyazbank and why would the Ananievs move their cash to Vozrozhdenie Bank?

On December 15, 2017, Russia’s Central Bank announced the restructuring of Promsvyazbank, after discovering violations in its reporting and the destruction of credit history records. A week later, the Ananiev brothers fled Russia. Dmitry said that the Central Bank was imposing unrealistic conditions on Promsvyazbank. Alexey reportedly returned to Russia in January 2018 to negotiate the sale of the brothers’ 53-percent stake in Vozrozhdenie Bank.