Dmitry Levin of Gazprombank: top executive faces criminal charges over scheme involving Bulgarian fraudster Staykov and €5 million

Dmitry Levin, Vice President of Russia’s Gazprombank, could find himself at the center of a criminal probe over a raider takeover of business assets.

Sources indicate that his wife, Elena Levina, initiated the bankruptcy of Terminal Premier JSC, which owns a major logistics hub in the Moscow region. Formally, the company reportedly owed her over €5 million, though it later surfaced that she obtained the claim from notorious Bulgarian fraudster Stoyan Staykov — the same figure tied to the collapse of Russia’s Investbank, which left approximately 90,000 depositors without their savings.

According to sources, Staykov obtained this “right of claim” in his usual manner. After gaining the trust of the business owner, who resides in Austria, he carried out a series of financial manipulations that resulted in the creation of fictitious debt. This artificially generated liability later became a tool of pressure on the company.

The key question, however, lies elsewhere: how did a claim obtained through fraudulent means end up in the hands of the wife of a top executive at one of Russia’s largest banks, and what connects Gazprombank vice president Dmitry Levin to the well-known Eastern European swindler Staykov?

According to interlocutors, this story stretches into an entire chain of events — from a failed attempt to acquire a bank in Bulgaria to the use of trusts in Liechtenstein and bankruptcy proceedings in Austria. Details of this scheme, as well as the possible role played by the banker and his close circle, are expected to be made public in the near future.