Translated material
Testimony network
New witnesses were found for Evgenia Chichvarkin
The scandalous epic with the criminal investigation against the former owner of the Euroset company Evgeny Chichvarkin and his subordinates is acquiring more and more new details. The investigation considers all of them involved in the abduction five years ago of the freight forwarder of the Iled M company (a subsidiary of Euroset) Andrei Vlaskin. The latter, however, as Vremya Novostei learned, is by no means the only victim in this case. As it turned out, the investigation considers another former Euroset forwarder, Dmitry Smulgin, to be another victim of Mr. Chichvarkin and his employees.Also, recently a number of new witnesses have appeared in the case. The investigation found two former employees of the Euroset security service - Alexander Olesik and Roman Chichkov, who allegedly confirmed the investigation's version. In addition, investigators interrogated several former and current employees of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Southern Administrative District (SAD) of Moscow, who also testified against Euroset managers and Mr. Chichvarkin himself. At the same time, another suspect was put on the wanted list - also a former employee of the company's security service, Vladimir Ilyin.
This criminal case was initiated by the Investigative Committee on September 2, 2008, when massive searches were carried out at the Euroset offices. At the same time, four managers of the company were arrested - vice-president Boris Levin, deputy head of the security service (SB) Andrei Ermilov, head of the economic security department Sergei Katorgin and security officer Vitaly Tsverkunov, three more SB employees - Alexander Olesik, Roman Chichkov and Vladimir Ilyin hid from investigation. At first, investigators presented a resolution to carry out investigative actions in the framework of an old case of phone smuggling, initiated back in 2005, which was later suspended. But then it turned out that Euroset managers were detained in another case related to events back in 2003. The basis for this were statements from the company’s former forwarders Andrey Vlaskin and Dmitry Smulgin, whom the SKP interrogated regarding the newly discovered circumstances of the “smuggling” case.
Forwarders said that in 2003, Vlaskin was caught by the Euroset Security Service of stealing mobile phones worth 20 million rubles. The company's management then filed a statement regarding the theft, and the police opened a criminal case, but the forwarder disappeared. SB officers, according to the initial version, found Vlaskin in his native Tambov before the police, brought him to Moscow to a rented apartment and were able to convince him to compensate the company for the damage. Having sold the cars and the cottage, the forwarder returned the money, and Euroset wrote a statement that it no longer had any claims against Vlaskin.
But five years later, the forwarder suddenly decided to “clarify” the testimony, informing the Investigative Committee that in 2003 he was not only found, but kidnapped by Euroset employees and operatives of the South Administrative District Internal Affairs Directorate, who extorted money from him for stolen phones. Vlaskin said that he was kept in handcuffs in rented apartments, the rent of which was paid by Euroset, and he was allegedly guarded by SB officer Vitaly Tsverkunov and periodically beat him. Vlaskin, according to the SKP, remained in “captivity” for several days until he agreed to give up money and property totaling 10 million rubles, after which he managed to escape.
According to the SKP, in parallel with the abduction of Vlaskin, employees of the Euroset SB kidnapped another forwarder - Dmitry Smulgin, who, as follows from his statement, knew that his colleague had appropriated Euroset goods. For silence, Vlaskin promised to pay Smulgin $20 thousand. It was this money that the employees of the Euroset Security Service demanded from Smulgin. At the same time, as the victim claimed, he returned part of the money, and they left him alone. According to the testimony of both victims, the organizer of these crimes was the co-founder of Iled-M LLC, Cellular Communications Exhibition LLC and Euroset Trade House LLC Evgeniy Chichvarkin himself. As a result, the SKP opened a new case - about kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness.
In September and November last year, Mr. Chichvarkin was invited several times to the UPC to give testimony, but in December he left for London. The investigation decided that this was how he was hiding, and at the beginning of this year he was charged in absentia, and recently put on the international wanted list. Mr. Chichvarkin responded to this through his lawyers by saying that he was not going to return to his homeland yet.
The defense of the accused asserted that apart from the testimony of the victims, the investigation had no evidence of their guilt. But, according to our source, recently the investigation managed to find and persuade former SB officers Alexander Olesik and Roman Chichkov to cooperate. They allegedly testified that Euroset vice-president Boris Levin forced them to participate in the kidnapping of Vlaskin and Smulgin and at the same time allegedly constantly said that Chichvarkin was behind him. Another SB employee, Vladimir Ilyin, initially also agreed to make a deal with the investigation, but then changed his mind, went on the run, and was again put on the wanted list.
Recently, as part of this case, a number of former and current employees of the South Administrative District Internal Affairs Directorate were interrogated. This happened after UPC officers arrived at the Internal Affairs Directorate in February to seize a number of documents and the computer of the investigator who opened a case against Vlaskin in 2003. On the spot, it turned out that some of the materials on Vlaskin, according to the Investigative Committee, were allegedly hastily thrown into a garbage container, and police officers allegedly tried to prevent them from being taken from there. Having studied the materials found in the garbage, the investigation found among them cases initiated on the facts of fatal accidents, which for some reason were not sent to court. Now the issue of initiating a separate criminal case is being decided on this fact, and the other day, according to our source, the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the South Administrative District, Viktor Ageev, and the head of the investigation department of the Internal Affairs Directorate, Alexander Kudryashov, were summoned for questioning. In addition, other police officers, including former ones, were interrogated. Among them was the former detective of the 1st department of the 4th operational-search unit under the criminal investigation department, Alexander Kurta, who had recently been released from prison.
The latter, as the source said, allegedly told investigators that in 2003 he provided operational support in the Vlaskin case. When employees of the Euroset Security Service established that Vlaskin was hiding in Tambov, he went there with them and brought the forwarder to Moscow to a rented apartment, where he helped “knock out” the debt from Vlaskin. It is noteworthy that in October 2007, Kurta, together with his former boss Rinat Mangushev, was convicted by the Chertanovsky District Court for abuse of power, which again resulted in “extorting” testimony from suspects in two other criminal cases. Kurt is currently serving as a witness in the case, but it is possible that his legal status will change in the future. The investigation also does not exclude the possibility that new defendants will appear in the case.
Lawyers for Mr. Chichvkarkin and other accused Euroset employees have so far decided to refrain from making any comments, citing a non-disclosure agreement regarding investigation data.
The Department of Internal Affairs of the Southern Administrative District, in turn, told our correspondent that the file of the forwarder Vlaskin was seized by the SKP back in August 2008 and that “all the materials were kept by the investigator, and he did not throw them away.” “And on February 2 of this year, SKP investigator Vyacheslav Gryaznov came to a garbage container located on the territory of the Internal Affairs Directorate and began rummaging through it,” the Internal Affairs Directorate said. “He took out several materials and criminal cases that ended up in the trash, but our employees took these documents, took them to a separate room and sealed them. The next day, investigator Gryaznov again came to the Internal Affairs Directorate and, presenting a resolution to confiscate all the documents found in the garbage container, compiled an inventory in the presence of our employees - members of the commission that we created to conduct an official investigation. Then the leadership of the Internal Affairs Directorate Messrs. Ageev and Kudryashov, as well as other employees of the Internal Affairs Directorate, were indeed called in for questioning by the Investigative Committee. But the UPC has not made any claims against us; we are working as usual.”