Translated material
Moral compensation
The North-Western embassy joined the fight against companies that defrauded shareholders
Created at the end of last year in the Kaliningrad region under the leadership of the Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of the Russian Federation in the Northwestern Federal District, Alexander Datsyshin, a special working group on the problems of defrauded shareholders began to have a significant administrative impact on local officials and law enforcement agencies. True, so far the group is not so much helping to solve the problems of the shareholders themselves, but rather adequately punishing those responsible for these problems and stopping the emergence of new housing pyramids.In the westernmost region of the country, everyone is already accustomed to the fact that the problems of defrauded shareholders are their own business. Hundreds of Kaliningrad residents who participated in shared construction were deceived by unscrupulous managers of construction companies - they collected money regularly, but did not give out keys to apartments. The shareholders of the Kaliningradzhilstroy company are best known in the region - they have lost their money, and their houses remain unfinished. People tried to recover their savings from the owner of a construction company. But this enterprising man, who even once ran for the post of mayor of Kaliningrad, did not have such sums - he was recently convicted, sentenced... to a fine of 300 thousand rubles.
The shareholders tried to reach out to the authorities and law enforcement agencies, but everything was to no avail. “We are sick and dying from stress”, “The problems of shareholders are a matter for the authorities” - deceived Kaliningrad residents picketed the city and regional administration dozens of times with such posters. During last year's visit to the region by Russian President Vladimir Putin, they wanted to greet him with the same posters, for which they lined up near Victory Square in Kaliningrad. But the police, naturally, promptly dispersed the picketers. It was obvious that the authorities stubbornly did not want to take into account the problems of shareholders.
But, apparently, the dispersal of the picket did not go unnoticed. Because just before the New Year, that same special working group was created under the presidential embassy, which dealt with the problems of defrauded shareholders. And if previously many officials preferred to turn away from them, now everything has changed 180 degrees. Shareholders who received a “direction” from the presidential administration began to be allowed into the highest offices. Criminal cases have already been initiated on a number of episodes. The businessmen who deceived a large number of Kaliningrad families may finally be punished.
“The blatant impunity is what immediately stands out as soon as we tackled this problem. In our region there are about twenty initiative groups of defrauded shareholders. At least half are in close contact with us. And these are hundreds of Kaliningrad families!” - Alexander Datsyshin, Deputy Presidential Envoy in the North-Western District, told Vremya Novostei. He does not hide the fact that in the past many officials openly “footballed” people, and investigations were delayed. “Complaints about this have reached the presidential administration. She is perceived as the last resort, as the last hope. We have no right to refuse help. Therefore, it was decided to intervene in the situation,” he explained.
According to the official, as a result of the checks, it turned out that the majority of shareholders were deceived by the same people. “The deception schemes were put on stream. Often the apartment was sold to several buyers at once, money was collected from everyone, but no one got the housing. Enterprising businessmen then bankrupted their company, withdrew assets, re-registered and started all over again. The owners of one company from almost four hundred Kaliningrad residents collected 129 million rubles. But what was built with this amount? A building that can be sold at auction for a maximum of 15 million rubles! The question is - where is the rest of the money? - says Mr. Datsyshin. He emphasizes that now all these questions will be asked not by deceived Kaliningrad residents and not even by high-ranking officials, but by law enforcement agencies.
“Six criminal cases have been opened. Among the defendants are the heads of the companies “DL”, “Druzhba-2”, “Horizon”, “Rek-Stroy”. Our goal, and here we are acting in close cooperation with Governor Georgy Boos, is to find and punish the perpetrators, help people and stop this wild lawlessness. Fraudsters feel at ease because so far not a single one of them has answered for their frauds according to the law,” says the deputy plenipotentiary.
True, so far we are talking only about punishing the guilty, and not about ways to provide defrauded shareholders with housing, which, of course, would be much more important for them.