Translated material
"Youth" business
The shadow of YUKOS appears in the investigation into the theft of MDM shares
In the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow yesterday, a trial began in the case of fraud with shares of the Moscow Youth House (MDM). However, the court was unable to begin considering it on its merits. Due to the prosecutor's unwillingness to object to the defense's motion, filed for the second time, to return the case to the prosecutor's office to correct deficiencies, the hearing was postponed for ten days. Former MDM director Pavel Zabelin, his deputy Elena Billey and senior legal adviser Osman Pliev are accused of fraud, which resulted in the misappropriation of securities worth about 500 million rubles. However, only the last two were present in the dock yesterday. The former head of MDM and, according to the prosecutor's office, the organizer of the crime is wanted.The prosecutor's office accuses Elena Billey and Osman Pliev of “fraud committed by an organized group on an especially large scale” and “forgery of an official document in order to hide another crime.”
According to investigators, in 2004, MDM General Director Pavel Zabelin, Elena Billey and Osman Pliev united in an organized group to steal more than 7 thousand shares of Moscow Youth House CJSC, owned by Intalia CJSC, with a total value of about 500 million rubles. Mr. Zabelin, who simultaneously held the positions of general director of Intalia CJSC and Youth Palace LLC, used, according to the prosecutor's office, these companies as front legal entities when committing fraud. According to the prosecution, Ms. Billey, using the authority to maintain the register of share owners, entered into it information about the transfer of ownership of part of the securities from Intalia CJSC directly to Zabelin. The rest, according to the entries she made, were transferred from Intalia CJSC to Youth Palace LLC. The latter structure was also completely controlled by the director of MDM. After Mr. Zabelin signed the register, according to the prosecutor’s office, all shares were credited to his personal account and to the account of Youth Palace LLC.
The materials of the criminal case against Mr. Zabelin have been separated into separate proceedings. He is now hiding from law enforcement agencies and is on the federal and international wanted list. Yesterday the first working hearing with the announcement of the indictment was supposed to take place in court. However, the prosecutor was unable to begin reading the plot of the case.
The defense filed a motion to return the case to the prosecutor's office. The lawyers repeatedly insisted that there was no crime as such. According to them, Mr. Zabelin did not have time to carry out the necessary procedures for registering the shares, which means he did not take possession of them. Regarding the fact that as a director he was obliged to notify his founders about the completion of a major transaction, then not everything is clear here either. Among the founders of ZAO Intalia is ZAO Volna, a company that came to light during the investigation of the YUKOS case. Then the Prosecutor General’s Office could not find its real owners and, according to Mr. Zabelin, he also could not do this. And therefore they shouldn’t ask him for it.
To prepare an objection to these points, the prosecutor representing the prosecution asked several times yesterday to take a break. As a result, the panel of judges decided to postpone the hearing until September 11. On this day it will be decided whether the meeting will continue or the case will still be returned to the prosecutor's office.