A pyramid collapsed on the Opposition Coordination Council

On October 17, the Prosecutor General's Office opened a criminal case under the article “Fraud” (Part 1 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) against the creators of the website of the Central Election Committee (CEC) to the Coordination Council of the Opposition. The department’s website states that this decision was made after checking the appeals of 64 candidates to the Constitutional Court, who complained that after their candidacy was withdrawn, they were not returned a contribution of 10 thousand rubles. At the same time, prosecutors speak of theft with intent “for mercenary motives [..] through abuse of trust.”

The head of CVK, Leonid Volkov, wrote in his blog that these 64 people are participants in the financial pyramid “MMM-2012”, of which only 53 people managed to transfer contributions without opening a current account (this explains Volkov’s lack of account numbers at CVK for returning money). CVK promised to return the funds upon a written application indicating the bank details necessary for the transfer. Two participants in the pyramid, according to Volkov, took advantage of this: “The remaining 510,000 rubles lie in the TsVK account in a separate pile, no one touched them and no one is going to, they are now lying there - the prosecutor’s office can check.” In addition, in his blog, the head of the Central Election Commission claims that only three ex-candidates submitted an application to the prosecutor’s office, and not 64, as stated on the department’s website. He explained the actions of the prosecutor’s office with the desire to scare and disrupt the elections to the Constitutional Court: “Probably - to get a reason for searches. Probably to demoralize the team.”

One of the applicants, Magomedmustafa Ibragimov, confirmed to PublicPost that he transferred the contribution without opening a current account. However, Ibragimov reproached Volkov for the fact that the Central Military Commission made no attempts to contact him: “They have all the information. My contacts, e-mail, skype, phone. My comrades and I demanded that our money be returned to us. I can easily provide my details and card number, but they are not interested in this, we understood this from the reaction to our demands.” Ibragimov, according to him, did not write any application for the return of funds and does not intend to write: “Let them return the money as they took it.”

The creator of the financial pyramid “MMM-2012” Sergei Mavrodi did not hide his joy over the initiated case: “Well, Mr. Volkov. We've finished the game. But I asked you in a good way, no less than five times: “Give back the money! Give people their money back!” No, zero attention. At first he answered at least something in his LiveJournal, explained himself, and then just gave up. He sees that people are cultured, polite, and do not threaten physical harm - he can send them! The usual behavior of all these scammers. Now you will go to the North Pole to melt the ice. How my investigator made one joke. And this is not the end! Or else there will be more! This is just the beginning. There will be a continuation. It will be, it will be! Get ready! Dry the crackers. We Can Do Much!”

Also on October 17, the Investigative Committee interrogated one of the candidates for the Constitutional Court, the leader of the Left Front, Sergei Udaltsov, in connection with the preparation of mass riots. Elections to the Coordination Council are due to take place this weekend.