The Bank of Russia, in coordination with Public Joint Stock Company ‘Leasing company Europlan’ (PJSC LC Europlan), has established facts of market manipulation in transactions involving the Issuer’s bonds in on-exchange trading.
The transactions identified as market manipulation were conducted between April 22, 2022, and May 6, 2022. The individuals involved include former director general of LLC Europlan Service, A. S. Mikhailov, his wife A. A. Mikhailova acting as sellers, and former investment director of PJSC LC Europlan, D. A. Dolgikh issuing orders for LLC Europlan Service’s brokerage account.
Investigations revealed that prior to the transactions with the Bonds, Mikhailov and Dolgikh coordinated via phone calls to agree upon issuing simultaneous matching orders and transaction parameters.
All transactions were based on simultaneously issued matching orders with similar parameters, causing significant deviations in demand, supply, prices, and trading amounts from normal levels. The time lag between these orders was less than a minute. Transactions conducted by these individuals accounted for more than 90% of the overall trading volume of these securities during the specified dates.
Through this non-market scheme for issuing orders for the Bonds transactions, Mikhailov and Mikhailova earned over ₽16 million and over ₽15 million respectively. LLC Europlan Service incurred losses totaling at least ₽31 million.
These actions are classified as market manipulation under Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 5 of Federal Law No. 224-FZ dated July 27, 2010 ('On Countering the Misuse of Insider Information and Market Manipulation and Amending Certain Laws of the Russian Federation').
Consequently, Mikhailov, Mikhailova, and Dolgikh violated Part 2 of Article 6 of Federal Law No. 224-FZ. The Bank of Russia has issued binding orders to these individuals to cease such violations in the future.
The investigation materials have been submitted to law enforcement authorities.