Not Mavrodi alone

MMM depositors asked the court to punish officials

The criminal case of the creator of the main Russian pyramid, Sergei Mavrodi, has received another reason for review. As Vremya Novostey learned, the Moscow City Court recently received a second cassation appeal demanding the cancellation of the verdict of the Chertanovsky District Court of Moscow , which on April 28 sentenced the creator of MMM JSC to four and a half years in prison and payment of more than 20 million rubles. the investors he deceived.

Despite the fact that Mr. Mavrodi has almost served his sentence while under arrest and can be released, as expected, this coming Tuesday, he was dissatisfied with this outcome of the case. And in early May, his lawyers filed a cassation appeal with the Moscow City Court, demanding a review of the case. Until now, observers have assessed the chances of success of this initiative as not very high. Considering the scandalous nature of the case, the Chertanovsky court approached its consideration with the utmost care. However, another complaint demanding that the case be reconsidered has now been filed by some of the defrauded depositors of MMM JSC. They demand a more severe punishment for Mr. Mavrodi, as well as to bring to justice officials of a number of government agencies, with whose connivance, they believe, the pyramid builder acted.

“To begin with, we want to overturn the verdict of the Chertanovsky court and send the case for a new trial in order to determine the degree of guilt of the enterprises, government agencies and officials who made MMM’s activities possible,” said the head of the initiative group of investors that filed the cassation appeal, Alexander Gorshkov. -- The judicial authorities have not assessed the activities of the printing houses that printed the “securities” of MMM. This was done by two companies licensed by the Ministry of Finance. In addition, according to the law, shares must be produced under the vigilant control of a special commission of employees of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other government agencies. We want to get an answer to how these people controlled everything so vigilantly that instead of 991 thousand shares, almost three million were born, and at the same time, to a different organization than what was allowed?”

Another demand of investors is to involve the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, the Department of Finance and Securities of the Moscow Government and the Committee of the Russian Federation for State Property Management as civil defendants “for assisting Mavrodi in committing crimes.” “Government agencies did not notice that the person convicted on forged documents registered many legal entities of the MMM system; they did not ensure control over the issue of securities,” Mr. Gorshkov noted. -- The RSFSR Law “On Investment Activity” states that the state guarantees the protection of investments and bears property liability to subjects of investment activity in the event of improper performance of its duties. In addition, guided by Art. 53 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, we have the right to compensation from the state for damage. Let them pay."

In addition, Mr. Gorshkov and his associates demand that former Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Biryukov, who approved the indictment in the Mavrodi case, be brought to justice, which, according to investors, “does not correspond to the actual materials of the criminal case.” “All our demands are based on a thorough study of the materials of the criminal case,” says Mr. Gorshkov. - Why didn’t a competent representative of the prosecutor’s office see the guilt of government agencies, why does the indictment say that Mavrodi did not invest the money stolen from the people? I note that the case contains the conclusions of an expert who states that the money was invested in blocks of shares of the largest Russian enterprises, which means that these securities could be returned to the victims. Thus, the prosecutor and investigator significantly violated the constitutional rights of the victims. We hope that now that the leadership of the Prosecutor General’s Office and other law enforcement agencies has changed, they will pay attention to us, ordinary people, and help us return what was stolen. The first step was to go to court; on Thursday we met with the leadership of the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs and handed over to them the materials we had. Now we are waiting for trial."

Sergei Mavrodi himself was transferred to a punishment cell on Wednesday, where he will most likely remain until the end of his sentence. His lawyer Olga Makarova announced this yesterday, saying that the head of the pre-trial detention center refused to tell the lawyer the reasons why the head of MMM was placed alone.

Alexey IVLEV