Crook's Market

A large gang of metropolitan “black” realtors was convicted

The Moscow City Court on Saturday completed the announcement of the verdict in the case of a large criminal group involved in fraud in the capital's real estate market. Charges in the case were brought against 19 defendants, including Moscow notary Lyudmila Anurova, who, according to investigators, was the organizer and inspirer of all the scams. All of them were accused of fraud on an especially large scale, and the notary and several of her closest assistants from among realtors, police officers and lawyers were also accused of creating and participating in a criminal community. The investigation was able to prove the involvement of “black” realtors in the theft of at least 14 apartments, the owners of which, mostly pensioners, sometimes did not even suspect that their home had changed hands and was put up for sale.

Given the volume of the case and the large number of defendants, the announcement of the verdict lasted almost four days and ended only on Saturday. Notary Lyudmila Anurova, real estate agent Toita Bahoeva, former police officer from Abkhazia Jumber Gogua, employees of various companies and the unemployed Yulia Bardiyan, Sergey Dulyasov, Akmaraya Esterenova, Galina Zaporozhko, Nurdanan Ispolganova, Tatyana Korneeva, Marina Lakoba, Andrey Prikhodko, Igor Snetkov and Marina Furanova were found guilty and sentenced to terms of imprisonment from 3 to 12 years. Also found guilty, but given suspended sentences, were a former military man who had a number of state awards for participating in hostilities in Chechnya (including “For Services to the Fatherland”, II degree and a Certificate of Honor from the Commander-in-Chief), Dzhanchar Sandzhiev, Zalina Khetagurova and Elena Koropysh. In addition, the court acquitted district police officer Oleg Seregin, Dodo Frolova and Georgy Sartania.

Almost all cases of apartment theft, as follows from the verdict, were committed according to the same scenario. The group's activities were centered around Moscow notary Lyudmila Anurova, who, using her official position and knowledge of the real estate market, drew up forged documents - powers of attorney, wills, sales contracts and other documents for apartments. Sometimes the victims had no idea that they were becoming victims of scammers. Gang members came to them under the guise of law enforcement officers and, under various pretexts, forced or persuaded them to sign papers, with the help of which transactions were subsequently made. Sometimes these were literally blank sheets of paper, which were then filled out by the scammers themselves as they needed. Based on such documents, swindlers re-registered housing as private property to members of a criminal group, and then resold it to third parties. As a result, many victims had to participate in civil proceedings to regain housing or prove their right to it.

The enumeration of many criminal episodes in the verdict caused a surge of emotions among the participants, and during the breaks, exhausted by the long announcement, people began to squabble among themselves. Sometimes the accused (those who remained under recognizance not to leave the place) and the victims had to be literally separated. Moreover, various dramatic family tragedies “surfaced” for both the accused and the victims.

Thus, one of the victims, Olga Lyubimova, brought charges against the acquitted Dodo Frolova. The victim claimed that Dodo, who at one time cared for her mentally ill husband and his mother, stole her mother’s passport from the house and gave it to the defendant Bukharova, who in turn arranged for the apartment to become the property of Frolova under a false lifelong maintenance agreement . Bukharova denied that the passport was handed over. And Frolova herself claimed that a few days before the death of Lyubimova’s mother-in-law, at her own request, she entered into a deed of lifelong maintenance with her, according to which the living space was divided between Dodo and the son of the deceased.

Dodo Frolova, one of the few among all the other defendants, spoke with journalists, firmly declaring her innocence. Dodo said that if she is not acquitted, she intends to go to the Strasbourg court to hold law enforcement agencies accountable. Ms. Frolova, a disabled person of the 2nd group due to diabetes, served a year in a pre-trial detention center, and during this time, according to her, her elderly husband, whom she had been caring for for 13 years, froze to death on the street.

The longest sentences - 12 years in prison - were given to Marina Furanova and Lyudmila Anurova. Most of the prisoners' lawyers admitted that they had not hoped for a better outcome and considered the sentences fair. This opinion was not shared only by the defender of Zalina Khetagurova (her mother died on the last day of the verdict), who was sentenced to six years in prison. Khetagurova's lawyer promised to appeal the verdict.

Maxim SHABROV