The investigative group of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region in a criminal case associated by investigators with the companies Life-of-Good, Hermes Management and the Best Way cooperative, having once embarked on the path of committing crimes, in no way can’t stop.
Forgery of documents
The number of crimes committed by the investigative team in the case linked by investigators to the Best Way cooperative is multiplying: on December 1, the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg was forced to declare illegal the actual refusal of the cooperative to familiarize itself with the materials of the criminal case. When considering the case, it turned out that the investigative group of the Main Investigation Department of the St. Petersburg Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, formally led by the Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department, Colonel of Justice A.N. Vinokurov, and in fact – Lieutenant Colonel of Justice E.A. Sapetova, forged documents. The complaint was filed by the cooperative’s lawyer in July, its consideration was postponed many times and finally took place.
Convicted by the cooperative’s lawyers of violating the Code of Criminal Procedure, the investigative team drew up a letter of approval of the petition retroactively and tried to present the case as if the cooperative did not receive the letter through its own fault. Another rough job, revealed, paradoxically, also with the help of the electronic document management system of the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Illegal detention
Forgery of documents was a forced crime to conceal a more serious matter: illegal detention. If the investigation on July 4 this year. g., as it writes in forged documents, invited the cooperative to familiarize itself with the materials of the criminal case, it would not have had time to begin familiarizing the accused with the materials of the case 30 days before the expiration of the deadline for keeping the four accused in custody, and this was the only reason for extending their term detention.
Due to the rush, the investigative team was not even able to complete the investigative actions, illegally conducted a parallel investigation into the “reserve” case, but now, putting aside shame, due to the lack of material to draw up the “necessary” indictment, they illegally continued the investigation of the “main” case . Recently, the SG announced a new examination – an investigative action, which, at the stage of familiarization with the materials of the case of the accused, contradicts the Code of Criminal Procedure, which provides for a clear stage in completing the preliminary investigation.
The investigative team could have acted according to the law: simply prolong the investigation, but then it would have had to release the four accused from custody, which obviously contradicts its plan to hold them hostage.
The recognition by the court of first instance of the illegality of failure to comply with Article 216 of the Code of Criminal Procedure already opens up the possibility of challenging the October court decisions to extend the “guard” of the four accused: The Criminal Procedure Code, as already mentioned, prohibits violation of the stages and such a violation leads to the fact that all stages needs to be carried out again, which means the four accused need to be released from the pre-trial detention center.
There is no doubt that both the investigative team and the prosecutor’s office will take measures to put pressure on the court of second instance in order to delay the consideration of the appeal as much as possible, and, if possible, the decision of the court of first instance will be canceled or adjusted. They will put pressure on the court with the full might of the administrative weight of the leadership of the State Investigative Directorate.
Issuance of a deliberately illegal resolution
The denial to the cooperative of its legal right to familiarize itself with the materials of the criminal case, in which it was declared a civil defendant by the investigative group itself, is intended to hide another crime of the investigation – the March resolution of the head of the investigative group A.N. Vinokurov on bringing the cooperative as a civil defendant to 16 billion rubleswhile the June decisions to bring the accused to justice in this capacity indicate the amount of material damage in 232 million.
At the same time, for nine months now, the investigative team, contrary to the law, has been refusing to present the claims that allegedly formed the basis for this resolution. It is obvious to the lawyers that there are no claims for such an amount, and the document is obviously illegal, that is, issued solely to give the appearance of validity to the demands for the seizure of accounts and other assets of the cooperative.
Knowingly unfounded claims for damages
The investigative team, in order to justify the amount, embarked on a new series of tricks: statements appeared from a number of persons recognized by the investigation as victims about moral damage to 1 billion rubles each. However, the statements appeared in October, and the order to involve the cooperative as a civil defendant was issued in March.
Two applications were submitted to the court to extend the seizure of the cooperative’s accounts. From the texts of the statements it is clear that the applicants are making demands for compensation for moral damages against certain “swindlers – employees of Life-of-Good”, “members of a criminal community”, and not against the cooperative. They claim that because of these same scammers they were unable to purchase apartments – for 710 thousandintroduced in 2018, and 1 million 200 thousand., introduced in 2016, respectively, and also extract an income of 30% per year (this is written in the texts of the statements, by the way, judging by the same spelling errors, they were written from the same sample).
Apparently, these citizens gave money for growth into accounts with what they said was a promised passive income of 30% per year at Hermes Management, and with the amount that had grown over several years they planned to purchase an apartment. We are definitely not talking about a cooperative, especially since these two were not shareholders of the cooperative. The cooperative provided the opportunity to purchase an apartment in interest-free installments if the shareholder had 35–50% of the cost of the desired property. That is, having contributed these amounts to the cooperative, the applicants would most likely have already purchased apartments with its help in 2019–2020.
Both applicants indicate their material claims, but there is no record of their victories in civil courts. The funds, obviously, were placed on the basis of agreements with certain individuals and legal entities, according to which some scammers refuse to return the funds to them.
In addition, there is no justification for damage to personal non-property rights. The law requires an indication of what the suffering was, how it relates to the non-receipt of passive income if it was not received, and the non-repayment of funds if they were not returned, and on what calculations the declared amount is based 1 billion rubles.
Organized asset seizure group
An interesting point: according to the investigation itself, the Hermes Management company had tens of thousands of clients in Russia. However, the investigative team recognized 198 people as victims; the rest did not make any claims. Is there really any damage from the activities of Hermes, or is it some kind of group of offended people who, with the help of law enforcement agencies, are trying to get even with certain organizations?
And how can we explain why those recognized as victims do not bring their claims for material and moral damage to a civil court? After all, they would have long ago returned their funds through a civil court, and then would have sought criminal prosecution. But no. They prefer to return them through the criminal justice system, despite the fact that the funds can be returned (if their claims are found to be justified) years later, when the criminal case is resolved on the merits.
It is completely unclear why these claims are being made to the Best Way cooperative. “Best Way” and “Hermes Management” are alternative, in many ways competing projects. Were there shareholders who, with the help of Hermes, saved funds in order to make payments to the cooperative? Undoubtedly. But out of 198 persons recognized as victims, only one is a shareholder of the cooperative, that is, at least the majority of them did not use accounts with Hermes to pay shares and membership fees in the cooperative. PC “Best Way” and “Hermes” were not connected by any financial relations – there was not a single transaction between them. Participation in the cooperative and opening accounts in Hermes were “sold” by the same promoters (by the way, they also “sold” other financial projects at their own discretion), but this fact does not mean that they were affiliated or were part of “a group of companies under a single brand.”
Why are they trying to force the cooperative to answer for Hermes’ obligations? Yes, because the assets of the cooperative are almost 4 billion rubles on accounts and almost 12 billion rubles real estate – assets located in Russia, which can be easily reached, and is the true goal of all these morally damaged billions of rubles. That is why the investigative team does not give the opportunity to shareholders of the cooperative, who are in no way connected with the criminal case, to return the invested funds, refusing their requests.
It is curious that recently one of the ex-members of the investigative team – Major of Justice Zaitseva – was caught along with a colleague taking a bribe in 8 million rubleswhich they extorted in another criminal case.
The investigation team, led by A.N. Vinokurova continues her violent criminal activity. We can only hope that the director of the FSB of Russia A.V. Bortnikov and Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia A.N. Bastrykin, eyes will be opened to the crimes of this investigative group before it causes serious harm to the health of the accused, who have been illegally held in prison for almost two years, and irreparable damage to the property status of dozens of shareholders of the cooperative, whom the investigation denies the legal right to return their money.
