Serikov, Alexander Alekseevich (b. 19 August 1948) – deputy of the Regional Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, twice elected a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod region (from 2006 to 2011), head of the municipal entity "Rozhdestvenskaya Storona". Former head of the public reception office of Vladimir Putin, former vice-governor for social affairs, former head of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Most-Bank.
By his main occupation a party functionary in economic and public cultural work: before his banking career Alexander Serikov was head of the administration of the Nizhegorodsky District, and before that he headed the district executive committee of the same district; he went through the school of a Komsomol official.
Doctor of Sociological Sciences, member of the Russian Academy of Natural History. Basic education: the Gorky Polytechnic Institute (electrical engineer). He graduated from the Academy under the Government and the President of the Russian Federation, speciality: political scientist.
Member of the Nizhny Novgorod regional branch of the All-Russian political party «United Russia», former member of the regional political council.
Deputy and chairman of the committee on housing policy and urban development of the Regional Legislative Assembly. Elected in single-mandate constituency No. 7.
The essence of the phenomenon
A public figure of municipal level, specialising in the subject of Historic Buildings.
An expert in resolving housing issues, a disposer of appeals from "problem" citizens.
Hobbies
He is keen on home building and exhibition activities. He likes to read. Married. Has two grown-up daughters and six grandchildren. Life motto: "Together we will win!"
Autobiography
Born on 19 August 1948 in the Saratov region.
He finished secondary school No. 114 in the Avtozavodsky District.
In 1966-1971 he studied at the Gorky Polytechnic Institute named after A.A. Zhdanov (electrical engineer).
In 1972-1974 he worked as secretary of the Nizhegorodsky district Komsomol committee and head of a department of the Komsomol regional committee.
From 1977 to 1983 - head of the propaganda department of the Nizhegorodsky district committee of the CPSU.
In 1983-1984 he worked as director of a cotton textile association.
From 1984 he worked in the bodies managing the municipal economy of Nizhny Novgorod: deputy chairman of the Nizhegorodsky district executive committee, head of the housing department of the city executive committee, and in 1990 chairman of the district soviet of the Nizhegorodsky district.
In 1995, on the recommendation of the head of the city administration I.P. Sklyarov, he was elected chairman of the board of the bank “Nizhegorodsky Kredit”. Director of the regional branch of Most-Bank.
From 1999 vice-governor of the Nizhny Novgorod region (under Ivan Petrovich Sklyarov) with responsibility for social problems.
From 2006 to 2011 a deputy of the Legislative Assembly, headed the committee on housing policy and urban development.
Direct speech
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After graduating from the institute, for a long time I was engaged in Komsomol and Party work, agitation and propaganda activities, organising leisure activities for young people and mass cultural events.
Having decided to continue my education, I enrolled in the Academy under the Central Committee of the CPSU, and graduated, accordingly, already from the Academy under the Government and the President of the Russian Federation, where we were all awarded diplomas as political scientists. I defended a candidate's dissertation on an economic subject. At the same time, for over ten years I headed the Nizhegorodsky District as deputy chairman and chairman of the district executive committee, and as head of the administration. |
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Party membership and life
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– Hello, Roman Skudnyakov is in the studio, and the programme "Bez galstuka" ("Without a Tie") is on the air. This man, despite his unremarkable surname, is a very remarkable personality, and the sphere of his activity is extremely varied. Our guest is a deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region, head of Vladimir Putin's public reception office in Nizhny Novgorod, initiator of the project "Old Nizhny: streets and courtyards", doctor of sociological sciences Alexander Serikov.
Is it not the surname that makes the man, but the man who makes the surname? – A surname is given by one's parents, and the parents were given theirs by their own parents, so we live with the surname we were given. And as for the unremarkableness of the surname, there have been worse descriptions. In 1977 I was invited to an interview for the post of head of the propaganda department of the Nizhegorodsky district Party committee by Viktor Alexandrovich Karpovich, who was then first secretary of the district Party committee, and before that had been first secretary of the Komsomol regional committee. He had known me before that, because when he was first secretary of the Komsomol regional committee I worked for a year and a half as head of the department of mass cultural work at the regional Party committee, and before I went over from the Komsomol regional committee, Fevralev telephoned Karpychev and said: "You are taking him on for nothing, he lives up to his surname." I come in to Karpychev, and he says to me: "Listen, Fevralev called, he said that you live up to your surname. You know what, let him keep his opinion, but you suit me." True, two weeks passed, there was a ceremonial meeting devoted to another anniversary of Lenin, I was responsible for the organisational and preparatory part, and suddenly only 50 people came to a hall seating 150. Karpychev took me aside and said: "We do not keep traitors on the staff." – In our programme we talk only without a tie; it was probably a courageous decision for you to come today without a tie? – The heat has taken the ties off everyone. Even today at the Legislative Assembly the governor was without a tie. There was one more story in my life on this subject. In August 1972 I came to the Komsomol district committee at the request of the first secretary, Vladimir Bessarab. He says to me: "Sasha, you have come in a shirt and without a tie! And what if you are summoned to the first secretary of the district Party committee?" And all my life, up until my work as a deputy, I wore a tie. – You were born in the Saratov Region, in a village called Koleno ("Knee"). Has the sea been knee-deep for you ever since? – It so happened that at the end of 1946 my mother came from a starving village to Nizhny Novgorod at the invitation of one of her brothers and got a job in the canteen of a military unit, where she met my father. That military unit, which serviced aircraft, was located where the airport is now. Before I was born my mother went from the by then starving city back to the village. I was born in that village, although I was supposed to have been born in Nizhny Novgorod. Quite recently I heard a story when a professor from Germany was visiting me; he told me that the cause of the famine in Nizhny Novgorod in 1948 was that at that time the Soviet Union was feeding Germany, because the Marshall Plan was so powerful that the GDR needed help. And so the Soviet Union gave everything to support the inhabitants of the GDR. Such a revelation is worth a great deal in itself, and a week before that I had no idea that I would have a professor as my guest, that we would drink Russian vodka and that he would tell me such a story.<..> |
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Before his comrades
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– You won the primaries for the elections to the Legislative Assembly, but in the end you did not take part in the race. I have not heard you comment on this in any way…
– I have not commented on this question, and most likely I am now going to comment on it for the first time. It must be said that the people who organised the primaries were dishonest and unscrupulous. At the very least, the number of those recorded as having taken part in the voting turned out to be 250 more than the number of those who came to vote. So the results were made up; it was a discrediting of the primaries as a Party procedure. I, of course, took a negative view of this, but with humility. |
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Guarding the petitions office
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– Do you attribute the increase in the number of appeals to the effective work of the reception office rather than to people having more problems?
– I have long been familiar with the handling of citizens' appeals. Nowadays it is carried out under Federal Law No. 59; in Soviet times there were resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU on handling citizens' appeals, resolutions of the Council of Ministers, and the corresponding laws. That is to say, the work is constantly carried out within the framework of the law. Even in those days the number of appeals was connected with the fact that somewhere something did not suit someone, that somewhere something was bad or very bad. That is the basis of appeals today as well. In the times of Ivan the Terrible there was a petitions office. It is the feedback link between the organs of power, public organisations and parties on the one hand and the population, the voters, on the other. I believe that of the arsenal of means of Party work available to United Russia, the public reception office of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is among those means that may be criticised, but in essence there is practically nothing to criticise them for. At any rate, here in the Nizhny Novgorod Region we work so as to resolve as many of the citizens' questions as possible. – Over the past year have there been any unusual appeals that you particularly remember? – A certain fellow from Dzerzhinsk appealed to us; he is disabled and bedridden. We resolved the matter of an orthopaedic bed for him, and he liked it so much that he also wanted a computer. He was given a computer as a gift, to which he said: "What sort of computer is this you have given me?! Is this really a computer, what kind of resolution does it have?!" And so on, one thing after another… For myself I decided that I would not consider appeals of that kind from him. Because it looks more like extortion than like support. |
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Rozhdestvenskaya Sloboda
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- How is the project to create the Rozhdestvenskaya side, which you head, coming along?
– This project is a difficult one; it is not merely socio-economic, it is also a construction project and a cultural one. Positive results have to be achieved not only in clearing the territory and putting buildings, structures and cultural heritage sites in order. This project also sets the task of forming a local community out of those target groups that have their own interests in this territory. We shall have to learn to manage the interests of these target groups. That is why I regard the project above all as a managerial one. And I count on our having enough persistence, administrative support and support from the community for these plans to come off. But I repeat – the project is very difficult. We can build car parks now, put cars in them, open cultural heritage sites to townspeople and tourists, but that will be only a small part of what we want. – What can be said about the timeframe for implementing so global an idea? – Oleg Valentinovich Sorokin, commenting on a similar question, replied that in the West such projects take 10-15 years to carry out. I believe that we must revive the relationships within the local community this very year. The unfolding of construction, I think, should begin next year. First of all at least one car park has to be built, and a place found for a street theatre, so that a fairly large number of people can be gathered. A well-conceived system of cultural and public events has to be created, one that would make it possible to attract many spectators in a modern format. The culture department is now preparing a set of such events in the form of festivals. Among the problem points I would put the earlier decision to build a shopping and entertainment centre on Nizhnevolzhskaya Embankment. The decision was taken long ago, construction has been frozen for two years, and people are deprived of the water, deprived of the riverside. I do not know where people are to come out when the steamers moor, because they run up against an unfinished building. An unfinished building cannot attract anyone, it does the city's standing no good. The reckoning of 600 parking places is also a problem. From my point of view it was made there without justification. Land in common use, that is to say city land in effect, has been taken up for these purposes. I have repeatedly proposed to the city leadership that the owners of the shopping and entertainment centre be obliged to build two floating car parks. And we shall yet discuss this question in detail. – Do you think the idea of creating the Rozhdestvenskaya side will tell on Oleg Kondrashov's reputation, given that several restaurants of the PIR group of companies are located on its territory at once? – There are six restaurants on the territory, and of course, as the owner of this chain, Oleg Kondrashov is interested in increasing its attractiveness. But this question is not entirely appropriate, if it does arise in anyone's head. And what difference does it make whose restaurants they are – Kondrashov's or somebody else's? |
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Theses
Scientific topic: "DEVELOPMENT OF THE HISTORICAL CENTRE OF A LARGE CITY AS A SUBJECT OF SOCIAL DESIGN (ON THE EXAMPLE OF Nizhny Novgorod)"
ASSESSMENT OF THE WORK: 1 Speciality: 22.00.08 Year: 2007 Branch of science: Sociological sciences
The principal scientific propositions formulated by the author on the basis of the research carried out:
- A methodological approach has been worked out to the study of the historical centre of a large city as a socio-cultural core, an internally integrated socio-cultural system possessing specific goal settings and ensuring the progressive development of the city as a whole, and its role in the system of social relations has been made concrete, consisting in the concentration of the country's cultural heritage and of material, financial, intellectual and information resources.
- The features of social reproduction processes in the historical centre of a large city have been determined; their content consists not so much in the components of the material infrastructure of the urban economy, of material goods and services, as in social relations, and also in the human resources that are the substrate of this system, and in the ways of activating these resources in the solution of socio-economic problems.
- In the course of empirical research a representative group of the population has been identified that is oriented towards the preservation and development of the historical centre and that constitutes the core of the substrate and of the reality, a significant social resource of governance.
- The principal participants (groups) in the processes of preserving, developing or modernising the historical centre, their interests and the motives of their behaviour have been determined and described. The base of social support for the advocates of preserving and of destructive modernisation of the historical centre has been determined. Methods have been worked out for assessing the readiness of the city community to take part in developing the territory of the historical centre.
- Methodological principles have been worked out for applying a systems approach to the reconciliation of managerial and public interests on the basis of social technologies which, in devising a concept for the development of the historical centre of a large city, ensure the preservation of its identity so as to forestall crisis variants of development based on destructive modernisation.
- Methods of forming the project activity of the city community within the framework of a conserving model of management have been generalised. On the basis of the methodology of preserving the historical centre, concrete techniques of social design have been worked out, aimed at forming and developing the townspeople's sense of identity.
- On the basis of an approach to goal-setting that takes into account the system-complex of social needs (maintaining existence and reproduction, satisfying social demands and also spiritual needs), a new concept has been brought out for the development of the city's historical centre, consisting in the revival of things held sacred, understood not only in a narrowly religious sense but as a system of values inherent in our people.
- From the standpoint of systems methodology a scientific analysis is given of the structure and content of the components of resource provision for programme-target management of the development of the historical centre of a large city. It is shown that in the resource provision of programme-target management of the socio-economic development of a territory the key role is played not so much by economic factors, which create the financial and material-technical support, as by social factors, which constitute an information resource and open up, in modern conditions, fundamentally new possibilities for raising the effectiveness of management.
- A fundamentally new understanding of the culture of a society is substantiated which, unlike the traditional notion of it as an exclusively cost-bearing sphere of consumption, should be regarded not only as a systemic aggregate of material and spiritual values but also as a socially elaborated mode of activity of the subjects of management, and, taking into account the significance of cultural values in the real economy, as a practically inexhaustible information synergic resource of effective economic and social development of the country.
- On the basis of the proposed synergetic approach to the resource significance of culture, a scientifically grounded concept has been worked out for the preservation and development of culture and cultural heritage, answering to the modern conditions of the development of market relations.
- The principles, structures, concepts and methods of management investigated and brought out have been refracted into the elaboration and practical implementation of a systemic aggregate of social projects aimed at solving the problems of preserving and developing the city's historical centre. These social projects, resting on the concept of an appeal to the system of values inherent in our people, have revealed mechanisms of effective management of the city's historical centre on the basis of broad participation of the population and of the active sections of the public in these processes, which is an important stage in the formation of civil society in our country.
List of published works
Articles in scientific publications recommended by the Higher Attestation Commission:
1. Serikov A.A. Culture as a synergetic resource of socio-economic development/ Государственная служба, No. 3(41), 2006, p.
2. Serikov A.A. Resource provision of social innovations in state administration/ Bazhin I.I., Serikov A.A. - «Власть» No. 8, M.:2006, pp. 20-24.
3. Serikov A.A. Features of the resource provision of the management of the sphere of culture/ Проблемы теории и практики управления», No. 8, M.:2006, pp. 95-101
4. Serikov A.A. Social problems in the implementation of a strategy of urban development/ Государственная служба, No. 5, 2007
Monographs and articles in scientific collections:
5. Serikov A.A. Social technologies in the management of the development of the historical centre of a large city: Monograph.- N. Novgorod: Publishing house of the Volga-Vyatka Academy of Public Administration, 2007. - 185 pp.
6. Serikov A.A. Management of the development of the historical centre of a large city: methodological aspects. Monograph / Bazhin I.I., Serikov A.A..- Publishing house of the N.I. Lobachevsky Nizhny Novgorod State University, 2005.- 136 pp.
7. Serikov A.A. Nizhny and the people of Nizhny Novgorod: the problem of identity. Monograph / Iudin A.A., Serikov A.A..- Nizhny Novgorod: NISOTs, 2007. – 60 pp.
8. Serikov A.A. A system of innovative social projects as a mechanism for preserving cultural heritage/ Социальные технологии: Актуальные вопросы теории и практики, International inter-university collection of scientific works.- Zaporozhye: publ. GU «ZIGMU», 2006, issue 32, pp. 397-404.
9. Serikov A.A. Innovative social projects in the sphere of culture/ Proceedings of the 1st International conference on social innovation studies, M.: RGIIS, 2006, pp. 363-366.
10. Serikov A.A. Historical continuity in the sustainable development of a city/ Coll. Sustainable development of a city: problems and solutions.- N.Novgorod: VVAGS, 2006, pp. 175-179.
11. Serikov A.A. The strategy of socio-economic development of the urban environment in modern conditions/ «Социальные технологии: Актуальные вопросы теории и практики», International inter-university collection of scientific works.- Zaporozhye: publ. GU «ZIGMU», 2006, issue 30, pp. 228-238.
12. Serikov A.A. Resource provision of state management of social changes/ Bazhin I.I., Serikov A.A. // Materials of the International scientific and practical conference «Innovation studies of state administration: a breakthrough into the future. M.:, 2006, pp. 235-244.
13. Serikov A.A. The economic basis, financial resources and powers of local Soviets of People's Deputies/ Batishchev D.I., Serikov A.A..- Gorky: Publishing house of the N.I. Lobachevsky Gorky State University, 1990.- 40 pp.
14. Serikov A.A. Modern information and library technologies and access to domestic and foreign information. / In the book "Russia at the turn of the centuries", N.Novgorod, 1999
15. Serikov A.A. The Nizhny Novgorod Region: problems and prospects of development/ In the book "Russia and the Russians: the choice of a path", N.Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod Humanitarian Centre, 2000
16. Serikov A.A. Optimisation of the solution of socio-economic problems of the region/ In the book "State regulation of the economy. The regional aspect". Publishing house of NNGU, N.Novgorod, 2001
17. Serikov A.A. New approaches to the training of specialists in the field of economics and management/ Romashova I.B., Serikov A.A. //In the book "Economic security – regional problems". NGTU, N.Novgorod, 2003
18. Serikov A.A. Problems of training specialists for the procurement system / Kim O.Ch., Romashova I.B, Serikov A.A. // In the book "Economic security – regional problems". NGTU, N.Novgorod, 2003
Our own Nizhny Novgorod Tretyakov
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Alexander Alekseyevich Serikov is a banker, but among the Nizhny Novgorod intelligentsia he is known almost more as our own Nizhny Novgorod Tretyakov of the new, reviving generation of entrepreneurs — a patron and protector of the painting (and not only painting) fraternity.
... Alexander Alekseyevich Serikov is also fond of his native architecture. Including the new. Once, while in Paris, he noticed that all the old houses bear plaques with the date of construction of the building and the name of the author of the architectural design. Now Alexander Alekseyevich dreams of such plaques appearing on our Nizhny Novgorod houses too. So far he has realised his dream only once. During the restoration of the building on Rozhdestvenskaya, owned by Most-Bank, a commemorative plaque appeared on the facade stating that this building was erected in 1853 to the design of the architect Urzhumedsky-Gritsevich. Alexander Alekseyevich Serikov is a man of a truly Russian, broad soul, ardently and sincerely in love with the Nizhny Novgorod land, and I think we are all wonderfully lucky that he lives among us — a keeper and champion of genuine Russian culture, of the history of his native city and of the Nizhny Novgorod region. |
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Programme theses for the City Duma elections
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* Support by the city authorities for Nizhny Novgorod enterprises and their production — the main taxpayers and a source of social development.
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"Биржа Плюс Свой Дом". There are guilty parties, but no justice (15 June 2000)
Alexei Truskov, the former director of the Volga-NN real estate agency, has been sentenced by the Avtozavodsky District Court under Article 159 of the Criminal Code to 10 years with confiscation of property. He has also been placed under an obligation to return the stolen money to the victims and to compensate them for moral damages.
This decision will most likely be appealed by both sides. Alexei Truskov did not admit his guilt, while the victims understand perfectly well that little can be got from a convict, and that the cost of an apartment is only a small part of what this firm's former clients lost.
All those who suffered are buyers who wanted to acquire apartments through Volga-NN. For this they deposited money into accounts they had opened at Most-Bank, but the money was stolen and no apartments were bought. In some cases contracts for the purchase of an apartment were concluded, but the sellers, who received no money for them, terminated these contracts through civil suits. In total the victims lost 296 thousand dollars and filed claims for moral damages in almost the same amount, that is, Mr Truskov "owes" almost half a million dollars. It is clear that he will most likely never be able to repay this debt. Still less will he be able to compensate for broken lives, illnesses, deaths: two of the victims died (and they were by no means people of advanced age), an entire family of Moscow residents turned into homeless people who lost not only their shelter but any possibility of earning a living, since they have no residence registration; a pensioner who in her old age wanted to obtain a corner of her own — merely a room in a communal apartment — lost everything and for a long time received no pension until relatives agreed to register her, and she lives wherever she is taken in. Yet the victims are driven not by a thirst for revenge, but only by the wish to get back the money they earned (many even gave up their claim for moral damages). There is a guilty man, but justice has not prevailed.
Meanwhile, even the indictment names other guilty parties, in particular Most-Bank, which, as follows from the indictment, drew up powers of attorney incorrectly, and this made it possible to steal money from clients' accounts, for the citizens were not robbed in the street — their funds were withdrawn from accounts at Most-Bank.
But neither the investigation nor the prosecutor considered it necessary to hold the bank's employees liable. For one simple reason: the branch was headed at the time by Mr Serikov, now the vice-governor. Truly Mr Serikov played the role of an evil genius in the fate of those who suffered: first he signed a cooperation agreement with Volga-NN, thereby opening a broad road for the fraudsters, and now the high position he occupies stands in the way of recognising the bank's guilt.
BONDARENKO Irina, the weekly "Биржа Плюс Свой Дом", No. 22, 15 June 2000
"It merely provided a workplace"
THE COURT SENTENCED THE FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE REAL ESTATE AGENCY "VOLGA-NN" TO 10 YEARS OF IMPRISONMENT[1]
The Avtozavodsky District Court of Nizhny Novgorod has closed the case of the Nizhny Novgorod real estate agency Volga-NN. Recall that between October 1996 and January 1998, 63 people suffered from the fraudulent activity of Volga-NN, and the total amount of damage came to 1 million 889 thousand 243 roubles.[1] The defrauded clients assessed the moral damage at roughly the same amount. Judge Alexei Sukhodeyev sentenced Alexei Truskov, the former general director of the Volga-NN agency, to 10 years of imprisonment.
The clients who suffered losses consider the sentence severe only in appearance, and it satisfied them only in part. In their view, the former management of Most-Bank (the Nizhny Novgorod branch — NTA) should have been in the dock as well. Recall that during the aforementioned period the duties of director of Most-Bank were performed by Alexander Serikov, now the deputy governor for social affairs. It was precisely the Nizhny Novgorod Most-Bank that, in the opinion of the defrauded clients, played "first fiddle" in this case, since all the clients' payments to the real estate agency Volga-NN took place on its premises. However, as Alexander Serikov himself said during the preliminary investigation, Most-Bank merely provided a workplace. The court therefore found no elements of a crime in the actions of the Nizhny Novgorod Most-Bank, and its employees figured in this case only as witnesses.
According to the investigation materials, with the depositors' money obtained from the fraudulent activity Truskov's wife, Lyudmila Remizova, bought herself a four-room apartment for 70 thousand dollars, which in the end, by decision of the court, was confiscated towards repaying the debts to the defrauded clients of Volga-NN.
Besides the apartment, the court ordered the confiscation of two Volga cars, one of which, by decision of the court, went to one of the clients as compensation for moral damages.
As Gennady Veselov, the leader of the "initiative group of defrauded depositors", told the Nizhny Novgorod Telegraph Agency, two of the injured clients of Volga-NN never lived to see the court's decision. One of them, a 29-year-old woman, died of a grave illness, leaving two small children in the care of their grandmother.
By law, Alexei Truskov may appeal the court's decision within seven days to the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court. Businesspress.ru, citing the Nizhny Novgorod Telegraph Agency, 9 June 2000
Details of the scheme. A systematic pattern
"This story happened at the end of the 1990s, when Serikov was not yet a well-known politician but was making his way in commerce, heading the Nizhny Novgorod branch of Most-Bank — there was such a commercial bank in Russia back then, and it collapsed during the great default of 1998.
In Nizhny Novgorod a real estate agency, Volga-NN, appeared alongside the bank. It had the reputation of a thoroughly respectable company. As the agency's advertising booklet reported, "all settlements in the real estate transactions carried out by the agency are made through clients' accounts at Most-Bank, which guarantees the reliability of the settlements". And people believed that paying for housing through such a well-known bank was a very reliable matter, safer than handing over cash from hand to hand.
The firm's agents brought their clients to Most-Bank. There, in the operations hall, to the left of the main entrance, stood an elegant counter, in no way different from the other similar counters in the hall. Here people opened a personal account at the bank, deposited a certain sum for the purchase of housing (mainly in dollars) and... signed one very cunning power of attorney. Under this power of attorney the agents of Volga-NN were permitted to withdraw funds from that account without limit (that is, the firm could take any sums from the account!) and even, under a special stipulation, to delegate this authority to unnamed third parties.
All this of course looked very suspicious, but the bank's imposing premises and the extreme politeness of the woman sitting behind the counter set the clients at ease. Besides, the powers of attorney were certified by the bank itself. And people meekly parted with their hard-earned money…
As the investigating authorities later established, the counter in the bank's operations hall was nothing but a sham. Behind it sat not an employee of Most, but a member of the staff of Volga-NN, who, immediately after money was paid into the account, gave a signal to her immediate superior, the owner of the firm, a certain Alexei Truskov. On his instructions, the Volga employee in whose name the client's power of attorney had been issued withdrew the entire sum from the account, down to the last kopeck, and handed it over to her boss. That is, to Mr Truskov personally.
In total, 282 thousand dollars were withdrawn in cash in this way from the accounts of the joint clients of Most-Bank and Volga-NN. This money was collected from the accounts by four employees of the real estate agency in whose names the powers of attorney had been drawn up. These sums, as later turned out, served as a handy financial prop for Alexei Truskov's comfortable life.
As for the clients, they ended up in a simply desperate position! For the most part they were people of modest means, and on the purchase of apartments they spent money often earned by hard labour. After the swindle many of them were left without any means of subsistence and without a roof over their heads: after all, in order to buy a new apartment people sometimes sold their old housing. Some of these unfortunates lead the wretched life of homeless people today…
And what does Most have to do with it?
The deceived people turned to the police for help. In March 1998 a criminal case was opened. And it immediately took on a very strange character. There was a sense that certain very influential figures were trying to hush up the scandal that had arisen. The investigator of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate who conducted the investigative actions for some reason dragged things out, ignored flagrant facts and in the end issued a ruling… refusing to open a case?! But the deceived people had no intention of giving up. In November 1999 the prosecutor's office of the Avtozavodsky District overturned the ruling of the investigator of the Main Internal Affairs Directorate. And on 9 June 2000 the owner of Volga-NN, Alexei Truskov, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. He was also obliged to return the stolen money to the people.
It would seem that justice had been restored.
But former clients of “Volga-NN” believe that not all of those responsible were punished. For some reason the executives of “Most-Bank”, headed by Mr. Serikov, escaped responsibility. Yes, these managers confirmed that they had an agreement on joint work with “Volga-NN”: the real estate agency undertook to bring its own clients to work with the bank. And the bank worked with them as with ordinary depositors. And as for the fact that these clients were ultimately deceived by “Volga-NN”, that is a matter of their relations with the said firm — the bank itself, they say, honestly fulfilled the obligations it had assumed.
Highly dubious arguments!
The lawyers of the public reception office of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Volga Federal District, to whom the deceived people turned for support, completely refute the position of the management of “Most-Bank”. Their opinion states, in particular:
“1. FKB “Most-Bank” certified powers of attorney for foreign currency funds in violation of the law “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control”. Carrying out any settlements on the territory of the Russian Federation between individuals and legal entities in foreign currency is prohibited. The legal currency of the Russian Federation is the rouble.
2. FKB “Most-Bank”, in accordance with the Agreement on joint activity with the real estate agency “Volga-NN”, arranged the withdrawal of foreign currency funds under sub-powers of attorney which… cannot be considered valid, since they were improperly executed.
In addition, the following violations were committed in the documents on clients’ accounts and in the work with them:
- On a bank form, clients were invited to fill in an application for opening a current account in US currency. Such accounts are opened for legal entities engaged in foreign economic activity for settlements in foreign currency. The employees of “Most-Bank”, given the specific nature of their work, were aware of this circumstance.
- For a bank account, the conclusion of a “Bank Account Agreement” is mandatory… In this case no such agreement was concluded, in which the fault of the employees of FKB “Most-Bank” is also discernible.
- By arrangement with the real estate agency “Volga-NN”, the deposit books were not handed over to the depositors but were kept in the operations hall of FKB “Most-Bank”. Moreover, the savings books, bypassing the clients, were handed to the bank’s tellers personally by an employee of the agency “Volga-NN”.
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation qualifies the seizure of registered savings books, for the purpose of using them to take possession of property valuables, as preparation for theft and fraud…
All the elements of a crime — the object, the subject, the objective side, the subjective side — are clearly reflected in the actions of the employees of FKB “Most-Bank”, namely, there are signs that the employees of FKB “Most-Bank” knew about the illegality of the functioning of the agency “Volga-NN”. They foresaw the onset of criminal consequences, namely the unlawful appropriation of the depositors’ funds, and understood that the deposits received by the agency “Volga-NN” would not be returned in any form, including in the form of real estate.
Thus, FKB “Most-Bank” was aware that an unlawful act was taking place”.
This opinion speaks of the powers of attorney by means of which, as we remember, money was withdrawn from the accounts. It is emphasised here that they were “improperly executed”. And that is putting it mildly. The powers of attorney were not notarised, had no round bank seal, and sometimes they even lacked… the signature of the person who was actually entrusted with disposing of the sums held in the account! Nevertheless, this worthless piece of paper was accepted by the bank’s tellers, who duly issued considerable sums of money against it to the agents of “Volga-NN”.
Moreover, this work was done, among others, by the head of the client operations department of “Most-Bank” herself, T. E. Mazina, who can hardly be suspected of the inexperience that would explain the passing of such crudely concocted trust documents.
Was this the initiative of Mazina herself, or of the tellers subordinate to her who had entered into collusion with the agency “Volga-NN”? Doubtful, especially if one takes into account the large-scale violation of currency legislation on the part of the bank, mentioned in the opinion of the lawyers from the presidential envoy’s reception office. Approval for illegal acts of this kind can be given only at the level of the bank’s management, no lower. It was most likely at the same level that the instruction to work with dubious powers of attorney was given.
In this respect the cooperation agreement between the head of “Volga-NN”, Truskov, and the head of the Nizhny Novgorod branch of “Most-Bank”, Serikov, looks very curious. There turned out to be… two such agreements. They bear one and the same date and two genuine signatures. The difference between them is only in a few points of mutual obligations. One document contains no grounds whatsoever for placing employees of “Volga-NN” on the premises of “Most-Bank”, while the other does (this refers to the counter in the bank’s operations hall where an employee of the agency sat and which was in no way different from the other similar fixtures in the hall; that is what trusting people “fell for”, believing that their documents were being processed by an employee of “Most” and no one else).
Despite the date indicated in both documents, it is logical to assume that one agreement came into being earlier than the other. The second most likely appeared later, after the criminal case was opened: the document under which no separate counter for “Volga-NN” was envisaged was urgently replaced with the one in which such services on the part of the bank were described in detail.
Such manipulation strongly suggests that the management of “Most”, or more precisely Mr. Serikov personally, is seeking to escape responsibility for misdeeds which he knew perfectly well about and deliberately allowed in the institution entrusted to him. One can only guess what personal share he had from the fraudulent operations of “Volga-NN”.
The deceived people have collected more than one legal opinion testifying that “Most-Bank” was in collusion with the swindlers from “Volga-NN”. Nevertheless, the officials whose duty it is to supervise compliance with the law on the territory of our region are in no way willing to react to these people’s appeals. High-ranking officials to this day fob them off with formal replies stating that the case is closed, the culprit has been punished, and no facts of unlawful acts on the part of Serikov and his subordinates have been established. <..>" http://merunet.ru/2010/06/kak-serikov-topil-lyudej-v-volge/
Telephone
- Tel./fax 419-22-00
Website of A. A. Serikov’s project series “Old Nizhny. Streets. Courtyards”
Address of the reception office
- Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhegorodsky District, Rozhdestvenskaya., bldg. 38E
Interesting facts
- A record number of times — 13 — he was elected a deputy at the city and district levels.
- "Adores the boys’ choral chapel, formerly directed by Lev Konstantinovich Sivukhin, whom he deeply respects. It was Serikov who in his time “won back” for the chapel the former building of the district committee of the CPSU on Minin Square, and it was he who initiated the awarding to Lev Sivukhin of the title “Honorary Citizen of the City of Nizhny Novgorod”.
- To A. A. Serikov’s lecture series and to the project “Old Nizhny — to the Young” as a whole, the Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of the Nizhny Novgorod Region V. N. Lunin gave the following assessment (archive) : "I would not be speaking against my conscience if I said that this project has no equal in significance, in the strength of its impact on a person".
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Fourth place in the ranking of criminal cases goes to A. Serikov, deputy of the Regional Legislative Assembly. A. Serikov turned out to be implicated in apartment machinations. "Most-Bank", of which he was the director, carried out settlements on the transactions of the real estate agency "Volga-NN". The agency deceived 63 people. The amount of damage was 1 million 889 thousand 243 roubles. The general director of the agency received ten years of imprisonment. The initiative group of deceived clients declared that the only person who ought to end up behind bars was A. Serikov, since "Most-Bank" played the main role in this affair. |
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- Under the direct leadership of Alexander Serikov, the public reception office of Putin in Nizhny Novgorod took first place in the Volga Federal District, according to the results of the "Competition of Reception Offices in the Volga Federal District" in 2010.
See also
- Dmitry Kuzin
Sources
- Kommersant (Privolzhye) — Kommersant Dengi — Nekhoroshie kvartiry, 24 October 2001