Translated material
Was there a finger?
Dairy producer did not succumb to blackmail
The Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow recently began considering a criminal case that is unique in Russian practice. Muscovite Marina Kozlova is in the dock, accused of extorting 300 thousand rubles. with Molochnoye Delo LLC, a large manufacturer of food products known under the Blagoda brand. According to investigators, the woman tried to blackmail the company by claiming that she had found a phalanx of a human finger in a package of curd mass. This is not the first criminal case in the “finger story.” At the end of last year, the Tagansky District Court sentenced the now former criminal investigation officer of the Khamovniki Department of Internal Affairs, Alexander Gulenko, to three years in prison, who promised Kozlova to “hush up the issue” by initiating a criminal case against her. It is noteworthy that the actual cut off finger itself is not among the material evidence in both criminal cases. And it is still unclear whether he existed at all, and if he did, where did he go?This incredible story began in June 2006, when Alexey Terekhin, head of the risk management department of Molochnoye Delo LLC, addressed the Khamovniki police department with a statement. He said that certain Marina Kozlova and Tatyana Tugai demanded 300 thousand rubles from the company management. “allegedly for moral and physical damage caused” and a promise to keep their “discovery” secret. The blackmailers set the conditions for when and in what bills the money should be given to them. They, for their part, promised to give the ill-fated pack of cottage cheese with a finger to the company representatives. If they refused, they promised to make this story public.
As usual in such cases, detectives asked the company to help catch the extortionists red-handed. The transfer of money was scheduled for five o'clock in the evening on June 16 at the Sberbank branch on Zubovsky Boulevard. Kozlova came for the money, accompanied by Tugai and her mother. A representative of Molochnoye Delo came with criminal investigation operative Alexander Gulenko, who played the role of the company’s financier. During the negotiations, as follows from the materials of the criminal case, Gulenko tried to reduce the price from 300 thousand rubles. up to 200 thousand, to which Kozlova replied that then they don’t need anything, and they go to the police. Then the company representative handed Kozlova an envelope with money and received a pack of cottage cheese from her.
Immediately after this, the women were detained and taken to the police department. They refused to give any testimony. The “material evidence with a finger inside,” according to Gulenko’s later testimony, was sent for examination to establish whether this fragment of a finger was cut off from a dead person or from a living one. The qualification of the charges against the detainees depended on this. The women, meanwhile, were released on their own recognizance.
However, as follows from the materials of another criminal case, Gulenko really liked the pretty Marina Kozlova, and he decided to help her “hush up the matter with the finger.” The next day, the operative called Kozlova himself and made an appointment to discuss how much the “prospect of her case” would cost her. From the case materials it follows that at first the operative valued his help at 5 thousand dollars, but then agreed to 3 thousand. At the same time, Gulenko constantly put pressure on Kozlova, claiming that there was strong evidence in the case, a video recording of negotiations in Sberbank, where she “I said a lot of unnecessary things,” and at parting I advised “not to do anything stupid” and not to turn to anyone else for help.
But Kozlova did not listen and immediately went to the department of personal security (USB) of the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate. There, Kozlova herself was provided with special equipment, marked money, and sent to a meeting with Gulenko. According to the “legend”, Kozlova allegedly could not find 3 thousand dollars, but scraped together only 1 thousand. Gulenko was satisfied with this amount.
Immediately after the transfer of money, which took place in the Geese-Swans restaurant on Nikolo-Yamskaya Street, the detective was handcuffed and taken to Petrovka, 38. At the very first interrogation, he confessed and repented of everything. And the Tagansk prosecutor's office opened a criminal case under two articles - 286 (exceeding official powers) and 159-3 (fraud using official position). Gulenko was sentenced by the Tagansky District Court in December. He was found guilty only of attempted fraud and sentenced to three years in a general regime colony.
As the Khamovniki police department said, Kozlova apparently hoped that since she “ratted in” the operative, her case would be closed. But the deputy head of investigation at the Khamovniki Department of Internal Affairs, Larisa Kharivli, considered that Kozlova’s own guilt was obvious, and filed a case against her under Art. 163-2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extortion on a large scale).
During the investigation of this case, it was established where exactly the “evidence with a finger” was purchased: “On June 8, 2006, curd mass with dried apricots of the Blagoda brand was purchased in the Cinderella store in Mytishchi near Moscow, located at 6 Mira Street mother of Tatiana Tugay.” The next day Tatyana Tugai wanted to take it to work and eat it during her lunch break. However, as follows from the testimony of Tugai herself, “upon closer examination, she saw a foreign body inside the undamaged original packaging, which turned out to be a fragment of a human finger.” The woman told her friend and work colleague Marina Kozlova about this terrible discovery. The women, according to them, immediately reported the incident to the manufacturer of the product by phone and notified the consumer rights protection society, the sanitary and epidemiological station and Rospotrebnadzor. And only after that they tried to blackmail the management of Molochnoye Delo. However, as the Khamovniki police department said, only Marina Kozlova was in the dock. Tatyana Tugai is a witness in the case, since all negotiations with the manufacturing company were conducted by her friend.
Kozlova's case was recently brought to court. However, the fate of the finger itself, which was allegedly found in the Blagoda product and served as the basis for two criminal cases, still remains unclear. Apparently, no one else saw him except Gulenko, Kozlova and the Tugai family. And whether the product was sent for examination also remains a mystery. Ms. Kozlova herself refused to comment on this story to our correspondent before the verdict.
At Molochnoe Delo LLC, this story still excites employees. “This simply cannot happen,” a representative of the enterprise told Vremya Novostei. - We have serious production and have our own auditors who check all products, and such cases are categorically excluded. The simplest thing that comes to mind is the machinations of competitors who ordered people to denigrate our company, thereby undermining our prestige and integrity.”