Four years for gullibility

The heroine of the publication of Novaya Gazeta was punished by the court for trying to prove her innocence

On February 10, the Tverskoy District Court passed a sentence on the heroine of the publication Novaya (No. 32 of 03/25/2019). Elena Wagner, from whose settlement account funds were stolen, was sentenced to 4 years.

A few years ago, businessman and fisherman Sergey Kireev, having collected loans from the Alba Alliance bank, persuaded five more of his acquaintances to participate in the scheme with nominal values. The participants in the transaction, among whom was Elena, issued loans in the same bank for the purchase of real estate from Kireev, followed by a mortgage. Only there were no houses and apartments in sight, the funds received on the settlement account of each person involved were transferred to Kireev and evaporated. When it came to collecting loans, the bank went to court, and the people from whose accounts Kireev withdrew the money ended up in the dock.

After almost a year, during which the hearings were postponed, the Tverskoy Court issued a disappointing verdict in respect of those who suffered from the actions of Kireev, who at the same time found themselves in the status of defendants. “If funds were stolen from the borrower’s account, the borrower himself does not automatically become a fraudster, he is a victim,” says Elena Denis’s lawyer. “It is not at all clear to me on the basis of what the court makes such a verdict. The position of the defense was to prove to the court that funds from Wagner's current account were transferred to Kireev without her consent, without her knowledge, without signatures and personal presence. These days she was abroad. The payment orders submitted to the court, allegedly signed by Kireeva, are not the original documents, despite the petitions, an examination was not carried out that would prove that Wagner disposed of these funds. But at the announcement of the verdict, we did not see any assessment of these key circumstances.”

On the eve of the announcement of the verdict, Elena fainted in the courtroom, in the intensive care unit of the Solnechnogorsk hospital, where she was taken, she was diagnosed with a hemorrhage. All participants in the process were notified of this, but for some reason the court put her on the wanted list. Although her whereabouts were confirmed even by the Federal Penitentiary Service.

Elena, who fought and defended her innocence, received a longer sentence than other defendants who pleaded guilty. This whole story is full of absurdity, and key questions remain unanswered. Defender Wagner is preparing to file an appeal: “We still have hope, because the courts must defend the interests of justice, society, people, human rights - this is the highest value of the state. The appellate or cassation courts should deal with all these circumstances, maybe return the case to the prosecutor in order to highlight all the dark spots in this story.”