The so-called criminal case “Life-from-Good” – “Hermes” – “Best Way”, concocted by the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia together with a number of Central Bank employees, looks very inconspicuous – especially against the backdrop of loud statements made by the leaders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs throughout country: hundreds of billions of damage, tens of thousands of “victims”. And at the same time, only 221 citizens were recognized as victims by the investigation, with the amount of damage not in billions, but in 282 million rubles. A lie came from the lips of Minister Kolokoltsev from the rostrum of the Federation Council, his press secretary Volk published false information in all federal media.
In the criminal case, claims are made against the foreign company Hermes, whose marketing representative was the Life-from-Good company – however, the investigation of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Prosecutor’s Office of St. Petersburg are trying to make the Best Way cooperative the “defendant” for these claims ” The investigation, going beyond the bounds of absurdity, claims that the foreign company Hermes and the non-profit organization Best Way managed by its shareholders, between which there was not a single accounting entry, together with Life from Good, allegedly formed a “holding under a single brand.”
At the same time, for more than two years, first at the request of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg, and then the Prosecutor’s Office of St. Petersburg, 4 billion in the cooperative’s accounts were seized, although the damage in the indictment is 282 million rubles, and even the (illegal) obligation to pay it in relation to the cooperative would not in any way affect its liquidity. However, the goal is to take away exactly 4 billion by hook or by crook.
Damage – both material and moral – has already been caused and continues to be caused to tens of thousands of shareholders of the Best Way cooperative, who for more than two years have not been able to purchase the property for which they raised money – especially since the apartments have risen significantly in price, or take back the collected funds that are lying around without movement and depreciate.
Among these shareholders are hundreds of SVO members who defend their Motherland with arms in hand – but in the rear a crime is being committed against them: they are trying to deprive them of housing and money.
Criminal Investigation Team
The criminal case smelled bad from the very beginning. It turned out that the “zero” victim Natalia Shkolnikwith whom the criminal case began, did not herself file an application with law enforcement agencies – police major, detective officer of the Department for Economic Security and Combating of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg Alexey Mashevsky I went to her for a statement in the Komi Republic: that is, the case was orchestrated. By the way, Shkolnik, at a meeting of the Primorsky District Court, renounced the status of a victim in this criminal case, which was assigned to her by the investigation.
At the same time, Shkolnik and others from the very first group of “victims” are related to the creation of the Vera cooperative, a copy of the Best Way cooperative, which was created by a group of former Best Way participants as a project. This cooperative tried to steal shareholders from Best Way.
Behind the criminal case is an alliance of security forces and fraudsters – a criminal community under the auspices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The security forces offered the scammers a power resource for a raider takeover in order to take away the property of the cooperative and share it together.
It is curious that relatively recently one of the ex-members of the investigative team, Major of Justice Zaitseva, was caught along with a colleague taking a bribe of 8 million rubles, which they extorted in another criminal case.
The investigation team was headed by a major, then a lieutenant colonel of justice Ekaterina Sapetova (at the end of the investigation, she resigned from the Ministry of Internal Affairs) – systematically engaged in forgery herself and organized the forgery with the help of subordinate investigators. Her case was continued by the new head of the investigation team – Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg, Colonel of Justice Alexander Vinokurov (Sapetova formally moved to the position of his deputy). He issued a decree recognizing the cooperative as a civil defendant in a criminal case for 16 billion rubles – obviously false, since in the criminal case there were no claims against the cooperative at all.
The investigation also committed other crimes.
Hostage taking. The investigative actions were completed in June 2023 under false pretenses – in order not to release the accused from prison, from whom the investigation was seeking testimony. If the investigation had been extended in June last year, they would have had to be released, since the maximum period of detention for the four accused was expiring in August.
The investigation, as established by the same Primorsky District Court, which is now considering the criminal case on the merits, did not inform the participants in the process about the completion of investigative actions, and then stated that none of the civil plaintiffs and defendants expressed a desire to familiarize themselves with the materials – he needed to quickly begin the procedure for familiarizing the accused with the materials of the criminal case and, on this basis, obtaining from the court an extension of their “custody.”
To hold them hostage – and to seek the slander of other citizens in exchange for changing the preventive measure.
Feigned completion of investigative actions. In fact, the investigative actions were not completed – they continued throughout the entire period when the accused were familiarizing themselves with the materials of the criminal case, which is also a gross violation of the Code of Criminal Procedure. As a result, the number of victims already during the final procedural steps within the framework of the preliminary investigation, on the eve of the transfer of the indictment to the prosecutor’s office for approval, increased from 198 to 221.
Forgery of documents. The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg found that the investigative team falsified documents – they retroactively sent the cooperative’s lawyers a document stating that they had granted a request to familiarize themselves with the materials of the criminal case, and then accused the lawyers of allegedly “missing” the letter. The lawyers managed to prove the investigation’s lie – it was confirmed by the Primorsky District Court, and the prosecutor’s office did not dare to challenge this decision: it entered into legal force.
Failure to comply with court decisions. Failure to comply with court orders is a criminal offense, which has been investigated several times.
For example, in March last year, the Primorsky District Court refused to extend the seizure of two of the three accounts of the cooperative, and the investigation directly blocked the execution of this court decision, issuing corresponding orders to the bank security services.
Forcing citizens to file statements as victims. The group of victims was assembled over three years and consisted of only 221 people, although the number of clients of the Hermes company against which the claims are being made, according to the investigation itself, is more than a hundred thousand. Moreover, among the victims there are many who make claims for amounts less than 100 thousand – that is, they were recruited for quantity.
The “victims” do not have any clear claims against Hermes – all their claims basically turn out to be lies, for which they will answer after the end of the trial.
Declaration of non-cash funds of the cooperative as material evidencealthough this directly contradicts the ruling of the Constitutional Court, which prohibits declaring intangible assets as material evidence: only things that may bear traces of a crime can be material evidence.
Knowingly unfounded claims for damages. At the initiative of the investigative team, two “victims” wrote statements of moral damage in the amount of 1 billion rubles each in October last year. These are obviously insignificant statements – which caused laughter in the Primorsky District Court, because courts for events not related to causing death award moral damages in the amount of several tens of thousands at most.
It is the members of the operational-investigative group and their supervisors from the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Ministry of Internal Affairs, and not 10 innocent people – technical employees or relatives of the leaders of the Life of Good company – who should sit in the dock.
The St. Petersburg prosecutor’s office covers up crimes
It’s sad, but the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office did not respond to all these violations. The case contains testimony from the so-called victims that they received income from Vista accounts – that is, the fact of theft is refuted by their own testimony.
There are two accounting examinations by the forensic center of the Ministry of Justice: both claim that 81% of the funds of the Best Way cooperative went to the purchase of real estate, and 19% to support the activities of the cooperative: marketing expenses, taxes, employee salaries, etc. At the same time, the funds for these the needs did not come from the cooperative’s share funds, but from entrance and membership fees – it turns out that 100% of the share funds were spent on the purchase of real estate for shareholders. That is, accounting experts from the Ministry of Justice confirmed that there was no withdrawal of shareholders’ funds in the cooperative’s activities.
Thus, the investigation itself included a complete set of documents in the case, which completely refutes the prosecution’s conclusions. That is why, after the case and indictment were transferred to the prosecutor’s office, the lawyers of the accused and the lawyers of the cooperative called on the prosecutors to return the case for further investigation. But the prosecutor’s office did not listen – and without hesitation supports the state prosecution in this fake case.
The military demands punishment for would-be law enforcement officers
Minister Kolokoltsev’s henchmen, such as the head of the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, General Plugin, turned the police department into an anti-people entity that destroys the economy, honest business, and ruins taxpayers.
Minister Kolokoltsev himself lies to the Federation Council, lies to the government, lies to the President – lies, lies and lies, invents high-profile cases with the help of his assistant Irina Volk and other members of his own team.
Moreover, the department opposed the army and members of the North Military District, causing them direct damage in the rear. The actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs harm defense capability and undermine the prestige of military service.
The military demands to punish would-be law enforcement officers who trample on their rights, and draw the attention of the new Minister of Defense to this Andrey Belousov. The entire mafia group – Sapetova, Vinokurov, Mashevsky, the head of the Main Investigation Department of the St. Petersburg Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Negrozov, the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and their curators and the “roof” in Moscow – the deputy head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vokhmyanin, the press secretary of the Minister Volk, the Deputy Minister for Investigation Lebedev himself Minister Kolokoltsev – must appear in court, and they must be tried according to martial law.
And the prisoners, who have been languishing in prison for almost three years without a court verdict, must be urgently released.
We hope that the court will restore justice in this case, free the innocent and punish those who actually committed crimes against citizens and the country.
