Translated material
Walking on tubes
The investigation suspected Euroset of smuggling phones
The largest seller of cell phones, the Euroset company, was suspected of smuggling, and two of its top managers were also suspected of kidnapping, extorting money and arbitrariness in relation to a former employee of the company. This was stated yesterday by the representative of the Investigative Committee at the Russian Prosecutor's Office (SKP) Vladimir Markin. He explained that it was as part of these investigations that searches were carried out at the Euroset head office on Tuesday. In turn, the company's management announced that they intend to challenge the investigation's claims in court.Employees of the SKP and Directorate “K” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs began the attack on Euroset on Tuesday morning. First, they raided the Euroset office in Bumazhny Proezd, where they seized financial accounting and other important papers, according to the investigation. Then, according to our source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, searches were carried out in the apartments of the vice president for security and legal support of the company, Boris Levin, and his subordinate, whose name has not yet been disclosed in the interests of the investigation. At the same time, investigators presented orders to carry out investigative actions within the framework of an old criminal case about the smuggling of mobile phones. It was initiated by the Investigative Committee (IC) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs back in 2005, then terminated, and a few weeks ago, as it turned out, the Investigative Committee had already “reanimated” it.
All these events occurred shortly after unofficial information appeared that the owners of Euroset were going to sell the company. However, yesterday they denied these rumors, but did not hide their indignation at the actions of the investigation.
Mr. Levin and his colleague were detained yesterday morning on their way to work and taken to the SKP. As it turned out, the basis for their detention was the statement and testimony of a former Euroset freight forwarder, who was summoned to the Investigative Committee at the end of August to testify on the newly discovered circumstances of the “smuggling” case. He said that in 2003 he was caught by the Euroset security service in stealing several small lots of phones. The company's management reported this to law enforcement agencies, which opened a criminal case. However, it was later terminated due to the fact that the forwarder compensated for the damage caused to Euroset, and the company withdrew its application.
Five years later, for some reason, the forwarder decided to expand his testimony and said that in 2003 he was kidnapped by Euroset security officers, who extorted money from him for stolen phones. As a result, on September 2, the Investigative Committee opened a new case against Mr. Levin and his subordinate - about kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness.
According to our source, the detainees deny guilt, but the Investigative Committee has already filed a petition for their arrest, which will be considered today. Mr. Levin’s lawyer, Marat Faizulin, told Vremya Novostey that “this situation is not new for him and his client.” “The forwarder was silent for five years and suddenly decided to tell the investigation the story of his abduction,” he said. “While comments on my part are premature, we need to figure everything out first.”
The owners of Euroset yesterday denied everything - rumors about the impending sale of the company, involvement in the smuggling of mobile phones and the participation of their employees in kidnapping and extortion. “We intend to prove the fact of non-involvement in smuggling after studying all the materials by our lawyers,” said co-owner of the company Timur Artemyev, recalling that “previously the company has already proved its case on the issue of smuggling.” In connection with the kidnapping charge, Mr. Artemyev noted that “this is generally surprising.” “We are a large company and do not resort to such methods,” he said. - We sell cell phones. I don’t know which employee the UPC is referring to, only he can answer this question, but all our high-ranking employees are successful people, they have no need to do such things.” “We are not bandits, not criminals, we are ordinary businessmen. And the cases that we are accused of have nothing to do with the company,” said another co-owner of Euroset, Evgeny Chichvarkin.
A criminal case of smuggling was initiated in August 2005, when employees of the Investigative Committee of Directorate “K” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs detained 10 trucks with mobile phones, accessories, radiotelephones and computer components (weighing about 300 tons) worth more than $10 million. During the investigation, it was established that smuggled goods were delivered by cargo planes to Sheremetyevo from Finland and Germany, arrived at the airport's temporary storage warehouses, and from there, using forged documents, were moved to an internal warehouse outside the customs control territory. The counterfeit, according to investigators, was registered using fictitious documents at a price reduced several times through front companies.
During a search of the offices of 52 such companies, it turned out that all of them did not have receipt documents, and false seals were also found. The investigation concluded that smuggled electrical equipment was sold through Euroset, Dixis, Ultra Star and Severen. The Investigative Committee came to the conclusion that the management of VAT-TSV LLC (registered in Khimki and officially engaged in warehousing) was behind the organization of the smuggling channel. Among the direct participants in smuggling transactions was the company Euroset-opt. According to investigators, it was her employees who received the cargo at the Sheremetyevo terminal.
Arrests began in 2006 . The executive director of Euroset-opt, Alexey Shirokov, and the deputy general director, Valery Krasovsky, were charged with smuggling and creating a criminal community. The founder of VAT-TSV, Yakov Ardashnikov, and one of its managers, Andrei Krichfalushi, were put on the wanted list. Four customs officers at Sheremetyevo Airport were also charged with smuggling. They were recently sentenced to various terms. Mr. Kricfalusi himself came to the UPC in April of this year and was arrested.
In March 2006, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB detained another shipment of 167.5 thousand Motorola C-115 mobile phones (worth $20 million), which arrived for Euroset in Sheremetyevo from Pakistan. The examination found that most of the devices were manufactured in Brazil, China and Singapore and did not meet Russian requirements (the level of radio emission from the tubes allegedly exceeded the permissible standards by 2.5 times). As a result, another case was opened - about smuggling and sale of goods that do not meet safety requirements. For its part, Motorola then officially stated that its products fully comply with the quality and technical specifications established in Russia.
After this, the scandal began to develop on a political plane. Motorola and Euroset ensured that then-President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov learned about their problems, and former head of the Ministry of Economic Development German Gref at one of the government meetings directly accused law enforcement officers of doing business with confiscated goods, which are then sold at bargain prices. And in August 2006, the case was dismissed for lack of evidence of a crime. However, it soon became clear that some of the seized goods were somehow quietly sold off.
But this is not the end of Euroset’s problems. The first “smuggling” case of the Investigative Committee was soon transferred to the Prosecutor General’s Office, which in August 2007 also raided Euroset, Tsifrograd, Betalink and Dixis and the homes of their leaders. However, representatives of the companies unanimously stated that they bought phones on the domestic market, allegedly not knowing about their smuggled origin.
Then representatives of the investigation refused to comment, but some businessmen suggested that in fact these searches were not related to the smuggling case, but to the flaring scandal about the sale of illegally seized electrical equipment. One way or another, after the creation of the SKP a year ago, the matter came to this department, and it, as it seems, according to tradition, also decided to revive it and “augment” it.