Sergey Bobylev accused of group fraud

The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow did not choose a preventive measure for the general director and founder of the Sunrise group of companies (federal retail chain of computer and household appliances) Sergei Bobylev, who was detained the day before. At the request of the investigation, the trial was postponed to Friday, while the entrepreneur was left in custody.

Yesterday, the Main Investigation Department of the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate reported that the night before, Sergei Bobylev, in the presence of his official lawyer, was charged under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Fraud on an especially large scale committed by an organized group”) in the framework of criminal case No. 304226, which has been under investigation since February of this year. Mr. Bobylev did not admit his guilt, and his defenders considered the investigative actions with his participation illegal, since initially instead of them the investigation tried to use lawyers for their intended purpose. Meanwhile, from the investigator’s resolution it turned out that Mr. Bobylev had created almost a trading “pyramid”. Allegedly, when meeting with directors or owners of supplying companies, he personally convinced them to transfer goods (computers, audio and video equipment, etc.) to him for sale, but did not return the proceeds to them or used them to pay off previous debts. As a result, at the beginning of this year, four supplier companies, including ABC Techmed, filed complaints against Mr. Bobylev to the police, and other suppliers filed a lawsuit against him.

According to investigators, by his actions, Mr. Bobylev caused damage to suppliers amounting to 120 million rubles. Moreover, sources close to the investigation claim that these are far from final figures. Allegedly, complaints continue to be received by the police, in addition, some suppliers worked under the so-called gray schemes for importing equipment, and they have not yet come to a common opinion on how to return the money that is owed to them for sales.

The detained businessman spent the night in a temporary detention center, and yesterday afternoon he was taken to the Tverskoy District Court. They also received a petition from the investigation, in which the need to arrest Mr. Bobylev was explained by his opposition to the investigation, pressure on witnesses and attempts to destroy evidence in the case. In particular, the participants in the investigation claimed that last week, when investigators arrived to conduct a search at Mr. Bobylev’s country house, he allegedly threw away the relevant decree and went to sunbathe. When questions arose about him as a result of the search, he allegedly faked a heart attack, for which he was hospitalized. In fact, the investigation believes, he tried to evade investigative actions.

Sunrise left reports from the investigation and sources close to it without comment. The company statement noted that Mr. Bobylev had previously “had no problems with the law, did not hide from the investigation, and also has two young daughters in his care.” Sunrise expected that the court should have taken these facts into account when choosing a preventive measure for him. However, the matter never came to consideration of the petition on its merits. “The court postponed consideration of the investigation’s request until July 24,” Anna Usacheva, head of the press service of the Moscow City Court, told Kommersant. According to her, the court made this decision at the request of a representative of the investigation, who needed additional time to provide documents justifying the arrest of the entrepreneur. At the same time, the court extended the detention period of Sergei Bobylev for another 72 hours.

Vladislav Kommersant-Trifonov, Fedor Kommersant-Maksimov, Alexander Kommersant-Malakhov

Sunrise founder was given 72 hours