The State Investigative Directorate and the Economic Security and Inspectorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, through intermediaries in unfriendly countries, posted information from databases seized as part of the investigation of the “Life-of-Good” – “Hermes” – “Best Way” case, and traded blocks on negative.

A criminal case connected by the investigation of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (*aggressor country) for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, headed by Ekaterina Sapetova And Alexander Vinokurov and the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office supporting the prosecution in the person of the prosecutor Philippa Golubeva with the companies Life-from-Good, Hermes and the Best Way cooperative, has been falling apart for several weeks in the court that is considering it – the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg.

None of those who spoke in court knew the defendants personally or interacted with them in any way—only a few of those questioned had seen them in Life-of-Good videos.

“Victims” find it difficult to endure

The so-called victims give testimony that sharply diverges from those given during the preliminary investigation. Almost all of them were forced during the judicial investigation to admit that for several years they received significant passive income thanks to an account with the Hermes company: an investment company registered in a foreign jurisdiction and located abroad, and the income significantly exceeded the investment.

And the “zero” victim, with whose statement the criminal case began, – Natalya Shkolnik – during the trial she completely refused the status of a victim. Several defendants were charged based on her statement – but she was unable to correctly identify any of them in court.

Victims or criminals?

The “victims” in their testimony, on the one hand, exaggerate investments – without confirming this with documents, on the other hand, they understate the income received, contradicting even the documents available in the criminal case. In addition, they hide the facts of non-payment of taxes and violations of currency laws when receiving income.

They also hide the remuneration from attracting other clients and the very fact that many of them were Hermes consultants – and the lawyers have their backs to the wall with documents indicating this. But if the work of the Hermes company was, according to the investigation, fraudulent, they are accomplices in the fraud.

Crisis administrator Naboychenko

The statements of the “victims” about the damage are absolutely unfounded and not supported by documents. In addition, the victims failed to hide the fact that it became impossible to withdraw funds from their Hermes accounts after the complete destruction of the Russian part of the Hermes information and payment system at the beginning of 2022 EVgeniy Naboychenkothe St. Petersburg system administrator of this company, recruited by the police (his cross-examination in court is still pending).

This is a classic force majeure under company contracts. By the way, now the payment and information systems have been restored and are operating as normal – of course, the company has blocked the accounts of all those who seek to resolve contradictions in the criminal legal order, and only to the extent of their claims presented in the criminal justice system: the accounts are outside these claims work.

“Best Way” did not stop working

Only a small part of the “victims” also make claims against the Best Way cooperative – and the claims are related to the fact that these victims simply did not submit applications to leave the cooperative, as provided for in the Law on Consumer Cooperation and agreements with the cooperative, but immediately went to the police: according to some of them, the cooperative was not even aware that they intended to leave the cooperative and get back the paid shares.

The Best Way cooperative, despite several “show masks” in its office and the blocking of the site by Roskomnadzor, did not stop working for shareholders – as far as was possible with the almost continuous arrest of accounts for more than two years.

The cooperative declared in court to each of those who demand share contributions, based on the agreement with Best Way, that it is ready to pay them, and paid the funds to shareholders earlier in the order of priority, which was formed from shareholders who submitted applications to leave the cooperative and return shares funds. Payments to shareholders were blocked by the investigation itself, blocking accounts for almost 4 billion rubles and not giving permission for payments to shareholders of the cooperative – legal creditors of the same order as the “victims”. Those of them who confirmed their right to payments in court were illegally prohibited by the investigation.

At the same time, during the short period of unlocking funds in one of the summer months of 2022, payments were made by the cooperative (in the order of application submission), and there are repayments now – through the use of the assignment mechanism: when funds from the debtors of the cooperative making monthly payments for apartments are paid to those to whom the cooperative owes.

Take someone else’s

But let’s return to the main content of the accusations – the demands of the “victims” against the Hermes company. None of the “victims” tried to resolve the situation with the debt in dialogue with the Hermes company itself – although its contacts were available to them. None of them confirmed the debt in a civil court – did not prove its validity from the point of view of civil law, although a decision of a civil court would make it possible to convincingly demonstrate that non-repayment of the debt is precisely fraud, and not the result of a temporary force majeure.

They all immediately went to the police and brought their unfounded allegations, which they are now trying to push through the criminal court.

Moreover, the “victims” and the investigation believe that it is not the Hermes company itself and the persons associated with it that should pay off the debts of Hermes, not the intermediary consultants who attracted them to Hermes and helped them manage the accounts, but… the cooperative “ Best Way.”

To confirm this, the investigation built a theory that supposedly a cooperative, a Russian non-profit, self-governing legal entity, the “owners” of which are all shareholders equally, and Hermes, a company with foreign owners that only collaborated with “salesmen” in Russia (*aggressor country), were part of a certain single holding, which was owned by Roman VasilenkoTherefore, one part of the holding must be liable for the obligations of the other. In fact, these are alternative financial projects that collaborated with a network of sales of financial products created under the auspices of the Life-from-Good company.

Thus, the “victims” are trying, with the help of the investigation and the criminal court, to fraudulently obtain financial funds for obligations that are not confirmed either by documents or by a civil court, and to obtain these funds from another legal entity.

The investigation and the prosecutor’s office want to make them accomplices in a crime – the theft of cooperative funds, for which sooner or later they will have to answer. Moreover, all material claims amount to 280 million rubles, while the cooperative’s funds are seized for almost 4 billion rubles.

The purpose of the fake criminal case is undoubtedly to seize the financial assets of the cooperative – in the commercial interests of a criminal group created by law enforcement officers.

Blocks for negative

The existence of a criminal alliance is confirmed by the fact that the attack on Hermes and Best Way is being served by a telegram channel and website established in one of the unfriendly countries and registered to the citizens of these countries (as an investigation by the cooperative’s lawyers) carefully legendizes its authors, which received at your full disposal operational and investigative information from the St. Petersburg headquarters of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Based on databases seized by investigators, defamatory information is published on a special website in the Russian information space, in violation of several federal laws. By the way, Roskomnadzor does not block this site. In addition, on the illegally operating Telegram channel, prosecutors supporting the state prosecution did not hesitate to post their full names and personal telephone numbers – to “prepare” the so-called victims before the court hearing.

The authors of the telegram channel and website openly offer those involved to pay to remove information from the website. Here is a letter in response to one of the people on the list clicking on the “Delete information” button.

No one will escape the answer

The so-called Life-of-Good, Hermes, and Best Way cases falling apart in court expose the theft and commercial interests of law enforcement agencies that have long been the talk of the town. This case is another glaring example of fraudulent schemes by law enforcement officers.

All initiators and participants in this shameful attempt to steal the money of the cooperative’s shareholders will sooner or later have to answer for this crime according to the law – even if they are in “unfriendly” jurisdictions.

The leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which will be renewed after the inauguration of the president, as well as the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office, need to clean up the system in order to restore trust in law enforcement agencies. At the same time, start with the St. Petersburg headquarters – as the most criminalized, as well as the Prosecutor’s Office of St. Petersburg.

It’s time to open a new case, about a real crime: about a criminal community of investigators, prosecutors, “victims” and, possibly, other persons interested in seizing the property of the Best Way cooperative.