Pavel Sigal: biography, business, criminal case

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

This person can be called the prototype of Ostap Bender himself, and if the writers Ilf and Petrov lived today, they would definitely become interested in his personality. However, in terms of the degree of enrichment, the rogue businessman Pavel Sigal even outdid the “great strategist”. The material damage caused by him to the state is estimated at far more than one million rubles. The biography of Pavel Segal, no doubt, deserves to become the basis of the plot for some novel with a criminal bias. What was so remarkable about her? Let's take a closer look at this issue.

And I'll go to chemists…

Pavel Sigal is a native of the Ukrainian city of Vinnitsa. He was born on June 5, 1954. The childhood of the future businessman was no different from the childhood of millions of Soviet boys. Pavel Sigal went to a regular school, where the same pioneers studied, and then Komsomol members, as he did. But having received a matriculation certificate, the young man wanted to "taste" an independent life and left his father's house, going to receive higher education in Kazan.

He already knew in advance where he would go. The fact,that the young man, even at school, showed a remarkable interest in chemistry. And he decided to become a student at the Institute of Chemical Technology, which, in fact, he succeeded. Then Pavel Sigal became a graduate student, got a job as a researcher at his native university. But in the second half of the 80s, cardinal changes took place in his biography.

Change of priorities

When Mikhail Gorbachev announced the beginning of perestroika and glasnost, the future "great strategist" put aside the idea of engaging in scientific activities. Sigal Pavel Abramovich decided to go into politics. He initiates the creation of the public structure "People's Front of Tatarstan". Since the theme of security in the sphere of nature was popular in the political life of the late 80s, Segal became the founder and at the same time the head of the state organization Scientific and Technical Center - Ecology. The profile of his brainchild is the creation of environmental regulations and cleaning technologies.

Turning towards business

Some time later, employees of the structure headed by Pavel Abramovich come up with an innovative product - sorbents that can purify water from oil impurities.

Segal begins to actively contact with representatives of large industrial businesses. A chemical institute graduate convinces the heads of corporations in Tatarstan, Chuvashia and Moscow to create a business alliance called the Innovative Hardware and Technology Association (INATA). Pavel Abramovich suggested that his partners earn money by processing medicinal andvegetable raw materials. However, this activity did not bring tangible profits.

Sewing production

Then Segal again decides to change his business priorities and enters special courses, graduates of which receive a new and promising profession in the mid-90s - "anti-crisis manager". Having received the coveted document, Pavel Abramovich proceeds to "resuscitate" the bankrupt clothing factory "Dion" in Kazan, which previously specialized in the production of clothing for the Soviet Army. In the end, he managed to raise the above enterprise from the ruins, and in the spring of 1998 he was reorganizing legal entities, as a result of which the Alton clothing concern appeared.

Gradually, the new brainchild of a businessman covers not only domestic, but also foreign markets. I even had to partially modernize the equipment for the needs of Western customers. But a few years later, the turnover of the clothing business began to decline, demand fell somewhat, so Segal once again began to probe new horizons for entrepreneurial activity. One can only be surprised at how many positions the “great strategist” was able to try out over the years of his many years of work. But a few of them should be mentioned separately.

Scam

In 2002, an entrepreneur from Vinnytsia creates LLC Microfinance Center. As a result, he manages to "unwind" the business and make it prosperous. Pavel Segal's business begins to bring millions in profits. Branches of the Microfinance Center are opening in many Russian regions. Employees of the above structure issued money to clients at 18.5% for a period of 90 days. Moreover, the amount could be up to 400,000 rubles with a little. It would seem that Pavel Sigal earns money in a completely legal way, if not for one circumstance.

In 2013, law enforcement agencies reported that they managed to uncover a fraudulent scheme, as a result of which the attackers were able to illegally cash out maternity capital for a large amount of 10.5 billion rubles. And Pavel Abramovich, the owner of the Microfinance Center, appeared as a suspect. Investigators found that over four hundred companies "controlled" by the businessman that provided credit services were involved in the crime.

Moreover, they worked in several Russian regions. For two years, criminals have been making false documents about issuing money to holders of maternity certificates. So they proved the fact of the debt, which was formed in most cases as a result of the acquisition of housing. Then the "fake" was sent to the territorial bodies of the Pension Fund. Moreover, the detectives recorded 80 episodes of criminal activity with the cashing out of money on the mother's certificate.

Business is at risk

Naturally, the "great strategist" was imprisoned for his atrocities. And not only him, but also his accomplices from microfinance organizations. The wife of Pavel Abramovich, who turned out to be a novice in business, had to lead the Center for Microfinance. ATthe most unenviable position were depositors. They massively began to take money, banking structures demanded that the Microfinance Center pay off existing debts ahead of schedule, some branches in the regions refused to cooperate with the head office, whose employees began to engage in outright theft of property.

Under such conditions, Seagal's wife reduced the staff, but the amount of monetary obligations to creditors turned out to be prohibitively high - 1.8 billion rubles. In addition, the detectives seized the “working” documentation of the center and the server, and the Pension Fund stopped paying money for maternity capital. This state body could hypothetically "fork out" almost 200 million rubles, which would fall into the account of a microfinance organization. But Pavel Abramovich's business was on the verge of ruin.

Multi-Director

It should be noted that the Microfinance Center is not the only brainchild of the "great schemer" from Vinnitsa. Back in the early 2000s, he created the structure "Opora Rossii" on an equal footing. She belonged to the number of public associations dealing with small and medium-sized businesses.

Soon Opora Rossii acquired branches in a number of Russian regions, and Seagal headed this organization for a long time, including in the periphery. The businessman also established several large business companies that were part of the Seagal Group concern. We are talking, in particular, about the financial company Sigal Invest, the insurance company Novy Vek, CJSC GKBAvtogradbank, NPF Pravo, collection agency Resursy, insurance agency SME-Insurance, etc. The entrepreneur also managed to become a co-owner of the Ankor banking institution. So the scale of activity and the volume of financial assets of Pavel Abramovich are impressive. What's more, his companies' profits have shown steady growth for a long time.

Outcome

It would seem that a person who stole 10 billion rubles from the state should at least feel remorse and confess to the crime he committed. But Sigal Pavel Abramovich (Avtogradbank) pleaded not guilty to committing fraud.

Some time after his arrest, he began to complain about the deterioration of his he alth. In addition, he complained about the investigators to the prosecutor's office, as if they were extorting a bribe of 1 million euros from him. Then it turned out that the amount of damage caused by law enforcement agencies was somewhat overestimated. At the same time, the figure of 10.5 million rubles was mentioned in press releases, and as much as 30 million rubles in the materials of the criminal case. In the end, the investigators reclassified the article to Pavel Abramovich, accusing him only of illegally receiving interest on loans issued, and the amount of damage was reduced by the detectives to 3 million rubles. Some experts in the field of advocacy agree with the position of law enforcement officers. In their opinion, it is very difficult to prove the guilt of one person when it comes to a whole group of intruders. And the policemen who filed a case against a businessman from Vinnitsa,it failed.

There is another point of view. Lawyers believe that the detectives did not have a special intention to put Pavel Abramovich in the dock. They, they say, only wanted to make him bankrupt, which they succeeded.

Today's state of affairs

And now the businessman's creditors are trying to get their hard-earned money back through arbitration proceedings. A competitive management procedure was introduced for the Microfinance Center. But creditors do not have much hope that Pavel Sigal (co-owner of Ankor Bank) will return the money, since the center's assets are many times less than the amount of debt. The defendant eventually left the Matrosskaya Tishina territory and soon announced that he was going to restore his collapsed empire. But analysts doubt that it is possible to rehabilitate the solvency of a microfinance organization.