Translated material
Mavrodi was allowed not to pay even a fine
The sentence to the founder of MMM came into force
The Moscow City Court yesterday recognized as legal the sentence of the founding father of the most famous financial pyramid in Russian history, MMM JSC, the legendary Sergei Mavrodi. In April, a court sentenced him to four and a half years in prison for fraud. The former head of MMM served almost the entire term of his sentence in a pre-trial detention center. On May 22, he was released from Matrosskaya Tishina.By filing a cassation appeal, his lawyers insisted on the overturning of the conviction and the full acquittal of Mr. Mavrodi on the grounds that his actions did not constitute a crime. Some of the victims were also dissatisfied with the decision of the Chertanovsky Court of Moscow, which, in their opinion, was too lenient, and insisted on reconsidering the case. The Moscow City Court rejected both parties, excluding only from the verdict a fine of 10 thousand rubles, which the Chertanovsky court ordered Mr. Mavrodi to pay.
For Sergei Mavrodi himself, this decision came as a surprise. “I’m glad, I’m satisfied, because, to be honest, I thought that the verdict would be overturned, the case would be sent for a new trial, and I would be imprisoned again,” the founder of MMM shared his emotions, smiling, adding that already this year, as promised earlier, he intends to start paying money to MMM depositors.
Yesterday's hearing, like the previous MMM cases on the merits, which took place in the capital's Chertanovo Court from March 2006 to April 2007, began very emotionally. One of the largest halls of the Moscow City Court was allocated for hearing cassation complaints, but everyone who wanted to attend the trial was unable to attend. In addition to the state prosecution, the defense and, in fact, Mr. Mavrodi himself, about 200 former MMM investors came to court, who were divided into two camps. Neither the air conditioners could withstand such intensity of passions - it was very stuffy in the hall, nor the special equipment - the microphones of the speakers were turned off, nor the victims themselves, mostly elderly people. Unfamiliar with the hearing procedure, they interrupted the judges, the prosecutor, and the lawyers, and argued furiously with each other.
Some chanted for the overturning of the sentence due to the imposition of too lenient a sentence. Others shouted that the authorities were to blame for everything that happened in 1993-1994. Specific names were also named. Thus, the victim Alexander Gorshkov stated in his cassation appeal that the Ministry of Finance, the Department of Finance and Securities of the Moscow Government and the State Property Management Committee should become co-defendants in the MMM case. “Chernomyrdin is to blame, Livshits,” the deceived investors shouted from their seats. The Moscow City Court bailiffs had to interrupt the hearing several times in order to calm down the raging opponents and supporters of Mr. Mavrodi; particularly violent debaters were even removed from the hall.
Despite the prevailing situation in court, Mr. Mavrodi’s lawyers still managed to speak and present their complaints about the verdict. “Even if we assume that the violations that the court found in Mavrodi’s actions took place, then according to the legislation in force at that time, the greatest punishment threatened for this would have been the revocation of the license, but not a criminal case. It is absolutely incomprehensible to me why claims are being brought against Sergei Panteleevich Mavrodi personally. After MMM was declared bankrupt in 1997, a bankruptcy trustee, Kozyrev, was appointed, and his task is to sell off the property and pay off the debtors,” lawyer Olga Makarova said at the very beginning of her speech. She clarified that according to the law, the founder of a joint-stock company is not responsible for the actions of the company, just as the company is not responsible for the debts of the founder.
The lawyers’ speech was based on the assertion that “the materials of the criminal case, collected by the investigation and examined in court, do not prove Sergei Mavrodi’s guilt in committing fraud.” According to lawyers, “Mavrodi had no intent to steal property,” since the investigation materials contain information that the money was used only to purchase shares of highly profitable Russian enterprises, such as Gazprom, Surgutneftegaz, etc., for payment of salaries to office employees, office equipment, rental of premises. “At Mavrodi himself, the investigation found only a house somewhere near Tver and a boat,” the lawyer said.
Moreover, the founder of MMM did not make any promises to shareholders and did not sell the shares to anyone. And therefore, the case lacks both the subjective and objective side of the crime.
The lawyer also reported that during the investigation, the number of investors who were victims of the actions of MMM and who appeared in the case changed several times. However, the amount of damage always remained the same. In addition, according to lawyers, many of those who went to court demanding compensation were unable to prove who specifically lost money and how much. On this basis, according to Ms. Makarova, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow has already rejected some applicants.
After the lawyers, the victims began to come out into the middle of the hall with cassation statements. There were 129 people on the lists, but only 20 spoke. The speech of each participant in the process was accompanied by either stormy applause or indignant exclamations. The prosecutor's speech was the shortest, since the state prosecution was in full agreement with the decision of the Chertanovsky Court of Moscow, considering both the verdict and the punishment imposed on Mr. Mavrodi to be legal and justified.
It took the panel of judges an hour to comprehend the statements of the speakers and make a decision.
“The verdict of the Chertanovsky District Court dated April 24, 2007 in relation to Mavrodi Sergei Panteleevich is amended - to exclude from it the indication of imposing an additional punishment in the form of a fine of 10 thousand rubles. Otherwise, the verdict is left unchanged, and the cassation appeals are not satisfied,” the presiding judge announced.
“I’m glad about today’s court decision, because I expected the worst,” admitted Sergei Mavrodi to the journalists who surrounded him after the decision was announced. “You see, I came in a T-shirt and sweatpants, I thought that the sentence would be overturned, and I would be back in the pre-trial detention center. I even packed my things. Yes, I’m not guilty, but I’m used to looking at everything soberly.” Apparently based on the same sober calculation, Mr. Mavrodi refused yesterday to name the time frame when he, as promised, would pay off the affected depositors. Formally, according to the founder of MMM, by law he owes nothing to anyone. “I served my time, and the 20 million awarded by the Chertanovsky court are in the seized property,” he said, emphasizing that, nevertheless, he plans to address this issue immediately. “I hope I can start making payments this year. This is my moral duty,” Sergei Mavrodi concluded his speech. We would like to remind you that 10 thousand Russians were recognized as victims in the case from MMM, AOZT MMM-Fond and MMM-Invest, which operated in 1993-1994; the amount of damage exceeds 110 million rubles.
Nobody knows yet when the MMM epic will end. Mr. Mavrodi's lawyers are not sure that he will petition higher authorities to have the verdict overturned. However, it is already known that some of the victims intend to seek the overturning of the Moscow City Court’s decision. Other deceived investors said that they would wait for payments on the shares that Mr. Mavrodi promised them: “Let’s be patient, there are very few of us left, many have died. We are confident that Sergei Panteleevich will pay us back and start some other good business.”