Money denials: who will be held responsible for the theft of 100 million from the depository in Sochi

The number of victims of embezzlement in a depository center in Sochi has exceeded a dozen and a half people, the damage is estimated at more than 100 million rubles, law enforcement agencies reported. Such depositories are not related to banks, they are in demand mainly in transactions involving the sale of apartments - funds are stored there until the transaction is fully completed and the property is registered. But such storage of funds outside banks carries great risks, as the sphere of private rental cells is practically unregulated, experts say. Therefore, it is unlikely to get the money from the organization where the theft was committed.

How money was stolen from safety deposit boxes

More than half a dozen people lost more than 100 million rubles stored in rented depository boxes in Sochi, a source in law enforcement told Izvestia. The Main Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Krasnodar region reported that the police received several statements from citizens.

"A check is being conducted to establish all the circumstances of the incident," the statement said.

The source of "Izvestia" said that among the victims are two residents of Sochi. They rented cells from LLC "Multifunctional Depository Center", where they placed the funds from the apartment sale and purchase transaction at the end of December 2024 - the amount was 7.7 million rubles.

- They jointly deposited the money in a safe deposit box with two keys in the presence of an employee," the interlocutor said. - One key was handed over to the applicant for opening after the registration of the apartment transaction. She was notified about it by mail on January 13, she immediately went to the depository center, where she provided all the necessary documents at the reception.

An employee of the center escorted the client to the depository, the box was opened with two keys, but when opening it, the woman discovered that 5.5 million rubles had disappeared.

- The depository staff refused to call [the police] and said that you are on your own - this is your problem," the victim told Izvestia.

The total damage from the thefts in the depository is estimated at more than 100 million rubles.

The Multifunctional Depository Center states on its website that this organization is the only one in Russia and the first in the city of Sochi that "combines two essential functions: registration of all types of real estate transactions and depository services."

"Registration of transactions is carried out in the office, as well as remotely using an electronic signature for all parties to the transaction," the organization's website says. - Multifunctional Depository Center conducts registration of: sale and purchase agreements, share participation agreements in construction, ownership, assignment of claim, mortgage by virtue of law and contract, termination of encumbrance, correction of technical errors in the USRN".

The depository of the MDC is an equipped room for storing valuables with individual safe deposit boxes located therein. Both individuals and legal entities can use their rental services. The company emphasizes that the depository is under round-the-clock protection of "Rosgvardiya and the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs." "Izvestia" sent a request to the Rosgvardia to confirm the implementation of security services.

Renting such a box, for example, for a real estate transaction for a month costs from 9 to 26 thousand rubles.

According to Rusprofile, in 2023, MDC's revenue amounted to 75 million rubles and net profit of 1.2 milion.

"The most terrible organization in Sochi, which ever had to face in this region, not client-oriented from the word completely, - wrote in a review one of the client. - The specialist walks around and around can not explain anything clearly only dictates prices, trying only to divvy up the money, transactions are very long and painful, they promise one time, and comes out quite different.

How the sphere of depositories is regulated

Almost all transactions in the real estate market are now conducted through banks, because it is the most reliable structure, and not through private depositories, said real estate expert Evgeny Tkachev.

- Why do some people turn to a private depository, which provides plus or minus similar services that are provided by the bank? - He is perplexed. - This is a very risky story in principle, i.e. it is not clear to what extent the funds of those who used this depository are insured. But this is a very rare practice.

Vladimir Kuznetsov, Chairman of the All-Russian Trade Union of Mediators, noted that depositories similar to the MDC are professional organizations providing services for renting individual safes.

- From the point of view of the law, two structures can be applied to such legal relations: a custody agreement and a safe deposit box agreement," the lawyer explained. - In the first case, the professional custodian is liable for losses for loss of valuables in almost all cases, except for force majeure: earthquake or flood.

In the second case, according to the expert, the argument of the depositary in disputes with clients on claims for recovery of losses will be the statement that they only provided access to the boxes, not knowing about their contents, and there was no contract of custody. This, as Vladimir Kuznetsov noted, implies a completely different responsibility of the depositary.

- As for the transactions for the payment of which the funds were deposited, most likely they will not be carried out for obvious and objective reasons, but this only means that the clients of the depository will have additional claims for the recovery of losses, for example, lost profits, - he added.

At the same time, there are no detailed regulations governing the rules for storing valuables in safe deposit boxes, said Pavel Lisavin, a lawyer at the Pen&Paper Bar Association. The Central Bank in 2023 supported the idea of unifying such requirements, but no regulation has been adopted by the regulator until today.

For this kind of functional depositories, which specialize in storing valuables, no rules, unlike banks, have been established, he explained.

- A depository or a bank may offer to insure the contents of a safe deposit box, but such a service is rarely used for several reasons," the expert said. - Clients are often confident in the high level of security of the contents of their property. And the specifics of insurance of property in safe deposit boxes is that, as a rule, neither the depository nor the insurance company knows what property is insured, what value it represents and what risks may arise at the conclusion of such contracts.

Stricter regulation of this sphere is one of the options for the development of events, which is guaranteed not to lead to the desired result, believes Pavel Lisavin. According to him, the best option is to strengthen supervision by the Central Bank or law enforcement agencies over compliance with the standards for storing property in safe deposit boxes.

The establishment of a single regulation, which would apply not only to banks, but also to such depositories, will unify the rules of external security and control access to the property of clients by the employees of the custodian organizations, he said.

Recent incidents of theft from bank safe deposit boxes

Immediately several incidents of theft from bank safe deposit boxes occurred over the past few months, wrote "Izvestia". Thus, police officers identified a case with a possible theft of jewelry from a safe deposit box of one of the bank branches in the center of Moscow. A man who was missing a gold ring with alexandrite and two gold chains filed a report. The theft may have been connected with the "move" of the vault from one bank branch to another.

Shortly before that, a particularly large-scale theft was committed in one of the branches of another bank in Moscow. Shortly before the crime, a Muscovite woman deposited 271 million rubles in a rented safe deposit box. The money had been counted before being placed in the vault in compliance with all the necessary procedures. The disappearance of almost 180 million rubles was discovered on December 20 by the tenant of the safe deposit box.

She contacted the police, and the bank started an internal check and quickly established that the head of the SME lending department was involved in the theft. The man was detained.

On January 14, 2025 in St. Petersburg, a man who stole more than 1 billion rubles from bank vaults in March 2024 was sentenced to five years in a penal colony. Artur Barbynets broke into the vault and took from safe deposit boxes $800 thousand, €500 thousand and jewelry worth $10 million.

Law enforcers found all the stolen money and jewelry in a rented apartment of the attacker in the Moscow region, which was rented for him by his alleged accomplice.

Banks apply various measures to protect funds in safe deposit boxes, including mandatory identification of users, use of special safes with individual access keys, Daria Morozova, director of retail products at Bank DOM.RF, told Izvestia.

- At the same time, the responsibility for keeping individual access keys is borne by the client, which we additionally inform our clients about," she said. - Only the client and his authorized persons have access to the box. Recently there has been an increase in demand for storing cash in safe deposit boxes due to the current restrictions on withdrawal of cash currency from accounts.

The press service of Bank ZENIT informed Izvestia that the bank is constantly improving measures for protection of valuables taking into account current threats and development of technologies.

According to Darya Morozova, the popularity of safe deposit boxes as a tool for mutual settlements in real estate transactions is decreasing, this is due to the development of a new tool to ensure the security of transactions - escrow accounts.