What do Yves Rocher and Navalny have in common? No politics: the ECtHR on the Navalny brothers and the Yves Rocher case. The connection between the Navalny brothers and Glavpodpiska
The trial began with the reading of the testimony of the former general director of Yves Rocher, Bruno Leproux. And here the first surprise awaited us. It turns out that the filing of an application for Navalny was agreed upon by Leproux with the French founders Yves Rocher.
However, this did not raise much doubt before, but has now received documentary confirmation.
What the French agreed criminal prosecution Navalny once again confirms that the statement was written by Yves Rocher of his own free will. It is unlikely that ICR investigators could get into Paris and imprison the founders of Yves Rocher in the Bastille in order to force them to incriminate Navalny.
Bruno Leproux also said that Yves Rocher constantly faced the problem of timely receipt and dispatch of parcels at the post office. Oleg Navalny undertook to solve this problem by presenting Glavpodpiska as a company with connections to the management of the Russian Post. At the same time, Yves Rocher did not know that Oleg was also a beneficiary of the Main Subscription. The suspicions that arose prompted them to file a complaint with the Investigative Committee.
Representatives of the prosecution then spoke in the debate. In general, previously voiced known facts. But one thing immediately caught my attention - the registration of the company Glavpodpiska with a dummy person (Zaprudsky), who was also paid for it. At the same time, as Zaprudsky says, all issues regarding the company were resolved by Alexey Navalny, to whom he handed over the documents. In connection with the participation of the dummy director, Navalny neglected issues of legality: for example, a number of signatures on the company’s constituent documents were forged. As well as the agreements between Glavpodpiska and Yves Rocher and Avtosaga, Zaprudsky denies that he signed them.
The founder of Glavpodpiska was a shell company - the Cypriot offshore company Alortag, which Navalny acquired personally (which he does not deny). Thus, Alexey conveyed warm greetings to the fighters against corruption and the offshore economy.
Record these facts, we will return to them later when we examine the defense’s position.
A representative of the victims, the Yves Rocher company, also spoke at the debate. He fully confirmed the position of the prosecution and stated that his company was not going to give up its claims against the defendants. The agreement with Navalny’s company was concluded due to problems at the post office, which could not receive parcels in a timely manner, which was critical for Yves Rocher’s business. According to him, if everything had been normal at the post office, Yves Rocher would never have entered into an agreement with the Navalny company.
Actually, the victim fully confirmed everything that I wrote about repeatedly: the Yves Rocher company was cut off from oxygen and they were deceived; they did not renounce their claims despite all the pressure exerted. All this was confirmed not only by the victim, but also by other employees of Yves Rocher, for example Shakhmanova.
Navalny’s lawyers, in turn, did not concentrate on refuting the foundation of the accusation as a whole, but tried to break down its individual small details, ultimately pretending that the accusation was broken as a whole. The key arguments of Kobzev and Mikhailova were as follows:
1) Navalny has nothing to do with Glavpodpiska and has never managed it. The company was not created for a criminal purpose, it is a normal business activity. The prosecution deliberately attributes intent to the defendants where there is none.
The question is, what then to do with the testimony of the nominal director Zaprudsky? What to do with the fact that Navalny made his offshore Alortag the founder of Glavpodpiska? For what purpose did he keep the constituent documents?
Especially the defense and Navalny himself ridiculed the term “conspiracy”, which was used by the prosecution to characterize the involvement of a nominal general director and the registration of an offshore company as the founder of Glavpodpiska. It’s not very clear, however, what’s funny about the prosecution’s position. Indeed, why such secrecy: if we are talking about ordinary business activities, why not just register the company in your name and head it personally?
The defense has no answers to these questions. Navalny tried to justify himself by saying that he did not want to make his last name public because of political activity and ships with large companies in which he was a minority shareholder. This "explanation" is quite easily refuted. The company Glavpodpiska was founded in May 2008. Navalny did not conduct any active political activities at that time, and was not even a lawyer at that time.
2) The Yves Rocher company was put under pressure by ICR investigators, so it was forced to write a statement against Navalny.
There is not a single piece of evidence that the statement was written under pressure. This is refuted by all interrogated witnesses.
However, let us examine, as an example, the defense’s argument about the “large volume of investigative actions” involving Yves Rocher. What are these actions? Probably, searches were carried out, employees of Yves Rocher were detained and arrested, documents and seals of the company were confiscated, which made commercial activity impossible?
Unfortunately no. As the defense itself admits, there were only two requests for documents regarding Navalny’s company, some of which were seized in the originals, and CEO Yves Rocher was interviewed. No one was detained, there were no searches. How such investigative actions can put pressure on the company is a big mystery.
3) Yves Rocher wrote a letter about the absence of damage to the Investigative Committee.
As I wrote earlier, Yves Rocher did not write any letter to the Investigative Committee. It was written by administrative and financial director Melnik and addressed to the head of the company, Bruno Leproux, who did not agree with the presented calculation (since an internal audit was not carried out) and decided not to renounce claims against Navalny. Further, the same letter from Melnik was given to the Investigative Committee by a lawyer, accompanied by a lengthy letter, which vaguely stated that “at authorized persons doubts arose about the amount of damage." Of course, the lawyer did not refuse the claims, and no one from the management of Yves Rocher authorized him to do this.
All this resembles some kind of failed attempt at conspiracy behind the back of director Yves Rocher.
We just have to analyze the last word of the defendant Navalny. The main leitmotif of the speech was statements about the political background of the persecution.
Okay, let's agree with Alexey for a minute. But does the presence of a political motive mean the absence of a crime? For example, the state persecutes terrorists and extremists, including on the basis of political considerations and disagreements with them. But does this stop terrorists and extremists from being such?
From Navalny’s point of view, the authorities are thus taking revenge on him for investigations against major officials. But this is such a slightly strange way of revenge - to create a reputation for being persecuted by the authorities, and the persecuted person himself is still not in prison. Moreover, in the Kirovles case, he was removed from there the next day after the verdict - contrary to all existing norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the prosecutor's office filed a complaint against itself! Not a single similar case has been previously recorded in Russian legal practice.
Further, in the existing case of Yves Rocher, the prosecution three times (!) asked to change the measure of restraint from house arrest to prison. And three times the court refused this, despite the irrefutable facts (established by a court decision) of Navalny’s violation of house arrest. Perhaps political motivation in decisions on his cases should also be taken into account when she works for Navalny?
Separately, we should dwell on the following words of Navalny: “By the way, I draw attention to the fact that little was said in the debate about the charges of legalization. Please note that not a single person was questioned regarding legalization, there are no documents. It would seem: here, they have legalized Were the parents interrogated through the company?
But here we agree with Navalny. The prosecution never asked him simple questions, and he never answered ours:
— If the transaction with Yves Rocher Vostok LLC was legal, then why were the funds received from this transaction not recorded in accordance with the law, but were withdrawn to the account of Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC, controlled by your family?
— How can you explain the economic meaning of concluding an agreement with Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC for the rental of real estate in Kobyakovo near Moscow? What kind of business activities was carried out there by Main Subscription Agency LLC, if you were studying at Yale University at that time? What is the reason for such a high price for the lease agreement (compared to similar offers in Moscow)?
— What goods were purchased by LLC “Main Subscription Agency” from LLC “Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory” and what is the further fate of these goods?
— What kind of legal services did Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC, controlled by your family, pay you for?
Let me remind you that 19,880,660 rubles were transferred to the accounts of the Kobyakovsky factory.
The following is surprising. Not only did Navalny himself involve his parents in this scam, thus putting them at risk as potential accomplices. He also demands that the same “large volume of investigative actions” be carried out with the parents. So that his parents will blame him for this story before the investigation and trial.
And of course, you can’t ignore this statement: “I will continue to fight this junta, stir up trouble, agitate, whatever you like, these people who are looking at the table. People have legal right to rebel against this illegal, corrupt government."
In any civilized country, including Russia, the violent, unconstitutional overthrow of the current government is a crime. As well as calls for it - the “overthrow” was not just spoken about in a court hearing, it was broadcast on a large number of people who are not participants in the process - which Navalny knew very well. By a strange coincidence, these words instantly spread in many “independent” media, which only added to the severity of the committed act.
The Navalny brothers are now also accomplices (photo taken in the editorial office of The New Times)
On December 20, a member of the Coordination Council of the opposition, the head of RosPila, Alexei Navalny, and his younger brother (they are 7 years apart), deputy director of the express delivery company EMS Russian Post (a subsidiary of Russian Post), Oleg Navalny, was charged with committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“fraud”) and under Part 2 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“legalization Money or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime”). Thus, this is already the second case after Kirovles, where Alexey Navalny is accused. But this time the Investigative Committee took on not only the oppositionist, but also his family.
Business
“In accordance with clause 9.3 of Agreement No. 1 dated August 5, 2008 for the carriage of goods and freight forwarding services, Yves Rocher Vostok LLC hereby notifies you of the unilateral termination of the contract” - such a message signed by the general director of the company “ Yves Rocher East" Bruno Leproux was received on December 3 by the cargo transportation company "Main Subscription Agency", which is part of the Navalny family business, which also includes the Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory in Golitsin near Moscow, where one store with an area of 50 square meters was made in the space free after the crisis .
“Glavpodpiska” was invented in 2007. “Initially, the idea was to make a website through which everyone could subscribe to newspapers and magazines. Hence the name of the company,” says Alexei Navalny. He did not dare to register a company under his own name - he believed that any business associated with him would not be allowed to operate. Therefore, the offshore company Alortag Management Limited was registered in Cyprus, which became 99% owner of the new enterprise*.
* Another formal Russian founder was needed, and Navalny called his acquaintance accountant Leonid Zaprudsky, he owns 1% of Glavpodpiska.
In 2008, the Navalnys, or rather, their younger brother Oleg, decided to create a business that outsourced transportation - for which they used Glavpodpiska, fortunately, the company, as he put it, was “lying idle.” We rented a warehouse at the Kobyakovskaya factory, and at the warehouse we created a control room for the transportation of goods.
"Yves Rocher East" - Russian branch French cosmetics giant Yves Rocher - began working with Glavpodpiskaya in the summer of 2008. According to Oleg Navalny, Yves Rocher is the third largest client of Russian Post, “they send every tenth parcel in the country.” The company has a base in Yaroslavl, and most It sends products through the Yaroslavl postal sorting center. “This center could not accept all the products, so Yves Rocher independently transported some of the parcels to Moscow. I contacted their managers and offered them our services,” says Oleg. - I found the company AvtoSAGA LLC, which transported sausage to Yaroslavl. Since their cars were still going back empty, they agreed to transport Yves Rocher products to Moscow for little money. Accordingly, I offered Yves Rocher a market tariff, which allowed us to earn money.”
In 2010, Yves Rocher began using the services of Glavpodpiski carriers in one more direction - between the Yves Rocher base near St. Petersburg and the Yaroslavl branch. The cooperation lasted more than three years, and during this time there were no complaints from the client. “We haven’t lost a single parcel, prices have never been increased,” says Oleg. Nevertheless, the letter of termination of the contract, which the Navalnys received on December 3, did not come as a surprise: “An acquaintance from Yves Rocher called me back in November and said that the FSB had come to them. They confiscated documents and began dragging managers for interrogation - everyone who had endorsed contracts with us. And everyone was always asked: “Are you personally acquainted with Alexei Navalny? Did you take part in the rallies on Bolotnaya?”
Links of one chain
Notice of termination of the contract,
which "Yves Rocher Vostok" sent
to the Navalny company on December 3
From the decision to initiate a criminal case it follows that the next important date became December 10: “Head of the Main Investigation Department Investigative Committee Russian Federation Major General of Justice A.V. Shchukin, having examined reports of crimes - a statement by the General Director of Yves Rocher Vostok LLC, registered in the CRSP No. 201pr-167/12 dated December 10, 2012, as well as the investigator’s report on the detection of signs of crimes provided for Part 4 Art. 59, pp. “a”, “b” part 2 art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, registered in the KRSP No. 201pr-166/12 dated December 10, 2012, and the materials of the procedural audit, established ... "
The fact that a criminal case has been initiated
the Navalny brothers learned from a press release from the Investigative Committee
the next day
The opposition Coordination Council was then in full swing negotiating with the mayor’s office, trying to agree on the “Freedom March” planned for December 15 on Lubyanka Square. Alexei Navalny posted a video on his LiveJournal with the slogans “Stop waiting” and “We must go,” which was watched by 45.5 thousand people on YouTube, and made it clear: the event will take place even if it is not approved.
After a search in his office at Russian Post
On December 14, Oleg Navalny was summoned for questioning
"Leprosy ( General Director of Yves Rocher Vostok. - NT), apparently they were pressed, says Alexey Navalny. - “Yves Rocher” is a giant company, they have a bunch of stores in every city, they can be intimidated by the tax authorities, for example. He agreed. After which the operative wrote a report on December 10, it is listed in the resolution under No. 201pr-166/12: they say that during searches conducted at the Kobyakovskaya factory in August of this year as part of the Kirovles case, financial transactions were discovered that had all the signs Art. 174 - “laundering”. And then Leprou, on the same day, December 10, wrote his statement, which in the document goes under the following serial number - 201pr-167/12. What is in the statement, what damage was caused to Yves Rocher Vostok - no one knows: they did not make any claims to Glavpodpiska, Leprou himself is hiding and is not making contact.” On December 14, The New Times, which repeatedly tried to get a comment both in Paris (“all questions should be addressed to the Moscow office”) and in the Moscow office of Yves Rocher, received an official communiqué for the press: “We confirm the fact of contacting law enforcement agencies to protect our economic interests and the interests of our shareholders. We have no right to comment until the end of the investigation.”
On December 20, the Navalny brothers officially
became accused in a fraud case
and money laundering
On December 13 at around 15:00, as news agencies reported, President Vladimir Putin held a “working meeting” with the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. Four and a half hours later, at 19:30, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the Navalny brothers, which, however, they learned about only the next day, when a corresponding press release appeared on the website of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation at 10:40 on December 14.
Searches and interrogations
On December 14, searches began at the Navalnys’: closer to lunch, they arrived at Oleg Navalny’s office at Russian Post: “They seized 4 flash drives, a disc of the singer Björk and a disc with photographs honeymoon to Greece,” said Oleg Navalny. The search began at 13:50 and ended at 15:35. At the end of the search, he was given a summons for questioning: he had to appear on the same day at 16:15 at the Investigative Committee building in Tekhnicheskiy Lane. He answered all questions in the Investigative Committee with a reference to Article 51 of the Constitution (“No one is obliged to testify against himself...”).
On the same day, a search took place at the parent factory in Golitsin: “They took away my mother’s computers (they can’t even send taxes now) and her personal phone. She did not want to give up her mobile phone, but the investigators threatened her that they would wring her hands. She was wildly indignant. She said: “Medvedev said everything about you correctly.” And they told her: “Your Medvedev is a goat himself,” said Alexei Navalny.
“THIS PHENOMENON, WHICH HAS ALREADY ACQUIRED THE SCALES OF A NATIONAL DISASTER, IS CALLED ARTIFICIAL CRIMINALIZATION OF ORDINARY ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES”
Accusation
On December 20, the Navalny brothers were charged. From the decision to impeach:
“During the period from August 2008 to May 2011 in Moscow, Navalny O.A., Navalny A.A., acting as a group by prior conspiracy, using the current account of the Main Subscription Agency LLC controlled by them, committed theft by deception funds of Yves Rocher Vostok LLC in the amount of 55,184,767 rubles. Having stolen funds from Yves Rocher Vostok LLC in the amount of 55,184,767 rubles, Navalny O.A. and Navalny A.A., acting by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, entered into a criminal conspiracy aimed at legalizing (laundering) funds acquired as a result of their crime.”
“They confiscated documents and started dragging managers for interrogations. And everyone was always asked: did you participate in the rallies on Bolotnaya?”
The amount indicated in the case, the Navalnys explain, is all the money that Yves Rocher paid them under the contract for three years, and more than half of it - 31,698,750 rubles - was paid to the carrier.
“What infuriates me most,” Alexey Navalny is indignant, “they say that Glavpodpiska was initially registered in order to enter into an agreement with Yves Rocher and steal money from them. Therefore, they consider the entire turnover for three years to be a stolen amount, and the fact that we paid the cargo carrier and so on is the legalization of the stolen property.”
“And I allegedly forced them to send these cargoes to Moscow,” adds his brother Oleg. “He said that it would be more profitable for them to rent there, and thus deceived him, because Russian Post provides the same services to everyone, everywhere.”
“They discovered a business transaction, and that business transaction has now been declared a fraud. Like, in this way we will gather Navalny, his mother, his brother and his father into one criminal group,” says Alexey Navalny.
As many as 10 investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation are working on the case of Navalny’s organized crime group, five of them are “important”.
Order
The lawyer of Mikhail Khodorkovsky (who, as is known, was also accused in the second verdict of stealing all the oil from himself) Vadim Klyuvgant, who got acquainted with the case at the request of The New Times, immediately recognized familiar phrases: “All these technologies have long been worked out in one well-known model case - the “YUKOS case”, it was these formulations that were tested there and then they went for a walk around the cities and towns. This phenomenon, which has already acquired the proportions of a national disaster, is called the artificial criminalization of ordinary economic activities.” According to Klyuvgant, if disagreements arise between contractors regarding a concluded agreement, this is not a matter of criminal law, but of civil law. Theft by fraud or embezzlement is possible only when we are not talking about a civil transaction that was executed (and even for more than one year), but about the appearance of a transaction, when in fact we are talking about “the gratuitous seizure and taking of someone else’s property " But the Navalnys worked with Yves Rocher under a contract for three years, and there were no complaints.
“It’s understandable how such victims appear, they come to them and explain to them that they, it turns out, have suffered terrible damage, which they themselves did not suspect until a certain moment,” says Klyuvgant. “We also clearly saw this in the YUKOS case.” To this we can add only one more thing: the technology that the Russian authorities are using in the fight against the founder of RosPil is called “hostage” - mother, father, brother and his family, all people far from politics (Oleg Navalny only once attended a rally December 10 on Bolotnaya), now paying the bills for the opposition. So politics came for them.
Photo: Vasily Popov
As you know very well even without me, Alexei Navalny is accused of stealing money from Yves Rocher. At the same time, Navalny himself completely denies guilt, while his opponents, on the contrary, consider Navalny to be unconditionally guilty.
Both sides lay out long sheets of rather muddy constructions in defense of their position, accompanying them with scans of dozens of meaningless documents. As a result, everyone has the opportunity to “vote with their hearts” and choose the side that is more attractive to them.
Let's try today to put aside the emotions associated with Navalny's personality and understand the matter impartially. To start the discussion, I prepared an article on Rukspert, in which I presented most of the available facts as neutrally as possible.
Looking ahead, I note that the conclusions are not at all in favor of the Navalny brothers. Therefore, I urge you to play the role of “devil’s advocate” and try to interpret the available documents in such a way as to, if not prove Navalny’s innocence, then at least sow doubts about his guilt.
For now - before I start reading your arguments - it seems to me that the fact of money laundering through the rental price of premises in Kobyakovo that has been inflated tens of times is ironclad, and it seems to me that the fact that Navalny’s office has inflated the price is quite strongly argued.
So here's what we currently have:
In October 2013, the Navalny brothers were charged: according to investigators, they stole 26 million rubles from Yves Rocher. Of these 26 million rubles, the Navalny brothers legalized 21 million, and apparently spent the remaining 5 million.
Opposition leader Alexei Navalny says that he is completely innocent and that the case is purely political. Navalny’s large flock and his foreign patrons have organized a moderate persecution of Yves Rocher and are putting pressure on law enforcement agencies through the media to close the case or acquit Navalny.
The essence of the fraud
In 2008, Alexei Navalny’s brother, Oleg Navalny, convinced Yves Rocher to enter into a contract for cargo transportation with the Glavpodpiska company specially created for this business. For four years, from 2008 to 2011, Yves Rocher transferred money to Glavpodpiska, and Glavpodpiska, keeping half of the money for itself, transferred the remaining half to another company, AvtoSAGA, which was already transporting cargo.
Thus, if Yves Rocher worked directly with AvtoSAGA, it would have spent not 55 million rubles, but 29 million rubles.
During its operation, 21 million rubles accumulated in the accounts of Glavpodpiska, which was transferred to the company of Alexei Navalny’s parents, Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory, allegedly for renting premises in Kobyakovo.
Why did Yves Rocher enter into an unfavorable agreement for itself?
Competition in the field of cargo transportation is very high, with the Yaroslavl-Moscow route being one of the most popular. Thus, the version that the responsible Yves Rocher employee did not know the real prices and agreed to pay Oleg Navalny twice as much due to his inattention seems unlikely.
Another organization, Multidisciplinary Processing Company, stated that Oleg Navalny forced it to enter into an unfavorable agreement for himself, taking advantage of his official position in Russian Post. (link) Presumably, Oleg Navalny laid out similar arguments to Yves Rocher - he offered to come to an agreement with him so that Yves Rocher would not have problems when working with Russian Post.
Here is Stanislav Apetyan's version: (link)
In 2008, Oleg Navalny visited the Bertelsman distribution center in the city of Yaroslavl, which serves as the main warehouse of Yves Rocher LLC. Having learned that the local Yaroslavl post office could not cope with the flow of orders from a cosmetics company, he suggested that Yves Rocher representatives deliver some of the parcels by freight to Main center Mainline mail transportation (GCMPP), located in Moscow. At the same time, the main condition for the company to use the services of GCMPP was the requirement to choose the same LLC “Main Subscription Agency”, owned by the Navalny brothers, as the logistics company carrying out freight transportation. The agreement between Yves Rocher and Glavpodpiska was signed on 08/05/2008.
Alexei Navalny, in turn, states that the price was absolutely market and there was no coercion. Navalny points out that the AvtoSAGA company transported sausage to Yaroslavl. Since the cars went back to Moscow empty, the company agreed to transport the Navalny brothers’ cargo at half the market price. (link)
Agreement with a wicker weaving factory
An agreement was concluded with the Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory to rent premises of 80 square meters at a rate of 300 thousand rubles per month. This agreement is obviously fictitious for two reasons.
Firstly, a laying company like Glavpodpiska simply does not need 80 square meters. A significant proportion of such companies operate without an office at all, while those that still need an office can comfortably fit into 15-20 square meters. It was also impossible to use the office at the factory in the village for representative purposes.
Secondly, the price of 3,700 rubles per square meter is an order of magnitude too high. For this money it would be possible to easily rent an office in class “A” business centers in the center of Moscow. (link) In the village of Kobyakovo, Odintsovo district, Moscow region, a price of 300-400 rubles per square meter would be more appropriate.
Alexey Navalny himself avoids the issue of inflated rent.
The connection between the Navalny brothers and Glavpodpiska
The founder of Glavpodpiska LLC is the Cyprus offshore company Altorag Management Limited, created in December 2007; this offshore company owns 99% of the company. The second founder of the company (with a share of 1%) is former employee Navalny Zaprudsky Leonid Semenovich.
The offshore is managed by Alexei Navalny.
It is curious that the offshore company Altorag Management Limited is associated with the company of Vladlen Stepanov, one of the defendants in the Magnitsky case. Both Stepanov, whom Navalny exposed, and Navalny himself used the services of the same nominal owners. (link)
Navalny himself does not deny that he was the founder of this offshore company, but denies that he is related to Glavpodpiska LLC. (link)
Connection between the Navalny brothers and AvtoSAGA LLC
AvtoSAGA LLC was created only six months before the start of work with Glavpodpiska LLC - however, this in itself is not any significant evidence of the Navalny brothers’ connection with this company.
Prices LLC "AvtoSAGA"
There is an invoice from AvtoSAGA LLC, which indicates prices - 14 thousand rubles for one flight on the Yaroslavl-Moscow route. There is also a list of vehicles that worked on the route - these are ordinary trucks. (link)
Currently, there are several offers on the market from different companies for the transportation of goods from Yaroslavl to Moscow at a price of 15-16 thousand rubles per flight. (link) Thus, taking into account the long-term contract and inflation, the cost of transportation at 14 thousand rubles per flight looks quite market-like.
Baiting "Yves Rocher"
After the article appeared in Novaya Gazeta, the persecution of Yves Rocher began on the Internet. (link) Such harassment, coupled with pressure on Yves Rocher from the Americans, may well force the company to forget about the lost several hundred thousand dollars and try to let the matter go.
At the same time, it is quite clear that at a minimum the charge of money laundering should be investigated, regardless of whether Yves Rocher is forced to withdraw the statement or not.
Multidisciplinary Processing Company
In April 2014, another criminal case was opened against the Navalny brothers. According to investigators, in 2008, Oleg Navalny convinced representatives of MPK LLC to stop directly ordering the printing of invoices and delivery of equipment to post offices. Oleg Navalny explained to representatives of MPK LLC that if they want to work with Russian Post, they need to transfer money through his “layout” - through Glavpodpiska LLC.
The amount of damage is estimated at approximately 4 million rubles. (link) (link)
Legal side of the issue
The Investigative Committee finally brought charges against the Navalny brothers in October 2013. They are charged with the following:
* Committing theft of funds from Yves Rocher Vostok LLC through deception in an amount of over 26 million rubles. Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale. Imprisonment for up to 10 years.
* Legalization of funds in the amount of more than 21 million rubles. Clause “a”, part 2 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime.
The Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow has filed a criminal case against the brothers Alexei and Oleg Navalny for consideration on the merits.
Deputy Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Viktor Grin approved the indictment in the criminal case against the brothers Alexei and Oleg Navalny. They are accused of committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, using their official position, on an especially large scale) and clause “a”, part 2 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (money laundering by a group of persons by prior conspiracy).
According to the preliminary investigation, reports the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, brothers Alexey and Oleg Navalny, using the latter's official position - the position of head of the Department of Internal Postal Dispatch of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise "Russian Post", in the period 2008-2013, fraudulently stole funds from LLC "Yves Rocher Vostok" in the amount of over 26.7 million rubles, as well as LLC "Multidisciplinary Processing Company" in the amount of more than 4.4 million rubles. These funds were later legalized by transferring them on fictitious grounds to Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC, controlled by them and their relatives.
Pictured: The statement that started it all...
In addition to the investigation, it is worth noting that journalists were also interested in the schemes of the Navalny brothers, who, having studied a number of materials, were able to form their own idea of what the defendants in the case could be doing. And this is what emerged as a result of an independent journalistic investigation:
REFERENCE. Navalny and the Yves Rocher Case:
On December 14, 2012, the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) opened a criminal case against Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg. According to investigators, they committed a major fraud against Yves Rocher Vostok LLC.
Alexey Navalny filed a complaint with the court several times, but his protest was not satisfied.
October 29, 2013 main investigative department The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has finally charged Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg Navalny with committing theft by fraud of funds from Yves Rocher Vostok LLC in the amount of over 26 million (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Up to ten years in prison), as well as in the legalization of funds in the amount of more than 21 million rubles (clause “a”, part 3, article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Up to five years in prison).
Preparation of theft. Organizational aspect:
In December 2007, the Cyprus offshore company Altorag Management Limited was created. The affairs of this offshore are still managed personally by Alexey Navalny.
In May 2008, this offshore company became the founder of Main Subscription Agency LLC (Glavnoe Subscription Agency LLC). The established “Main Subscription Agency” is 99% owned by Altorag Management Limited.
Another founder is Navalny’s former employee Zaprudsky Leonid Semenovich, he is the owner of 1% of the enterprise. Previously, in 2005, Zaprudsky worked as chief accountant of the non-profit organization “Fund for Support of Youth Programs”, where Alexei Navalny was the executive director. It should be noted that this fund was a grant recipient from such an odious American structure as NED.
It is curious that in his letter Alexei Navalny says that the offshore did not conduct any commercial activities, but only acted as the founder of Main Subscription Agency LLC. Moreover, the offshore was created just 3 months before the registration of Main Subscription Agency LLC. This means that there is reason to believe that the offshore company was created specifically for the implementation of a future fraudulent scheme.
It should be noted that the offshore company Altorag Management Limited is affiliated with the company of Vladlen Stepanov, one of the defendants in the Magnitsky case.
In the spring of the same 2008, Oleg Navalny, being the head of the Domestic Postal Department of the FSUE Russian Post branch - Automated Sorting Centers, fraudulently convinced representatives of Yves Rocher Vostok LLC to enter into an agreement for cargo transportation of mail with the company "Main Subscription Agency" at an obviously inflated price.
Alleged theft scheme:
The fraudulent scheme was implemented as follows. LLC "Main Subscription Agency" undertook to transport goods of LLC "Yves Rocher Vostok" along the Yaroslavl-Moscow route. In fact, Main Subscription Agency LLC did not have any transport at all to carry out transportation. Moreover, in the charter of this company, which indicates the areas of activity, there is no name “organization of cargo transportation.” In order to actually fulfill orders under the contract with Yves Rocher, the management of Main Subscription Agency LLC, in turn, enters into a cargo transportation contract with AvtoSAGA LLC.
Thus, LLC “Main Subscription Agency” was a typical “layout”, deliberately organized with the aim of concentrating illegal profits derived from the difference in payments from Yves Rocher at inflated prices and the real cost of transportation carried out by LLC AvtoSAGA.
There is reason to believe that the management of AvtoSAGA LLC, represented by General Director Anatoly Kornivetsky, also participated in a preliminary conspiracy with the Navalny brothers and in organizing a fraudulent scheme. This is evidenced by the fact that AvtoSAGA LLC was created less than 3 months before the registration of Main Subscription Agency LLC and 6 months before the conclusion of the contract with Yves Rocher.
Another curious point in the activities of AvtoSAGA is document invoice No. 36 dated August 25, 2008. The document contains errors, based on the nature of which, it can be assumed that there is either an attempt to evade paying taxes, or low competence of the head of the enterprise, Kornivetsky ( He is also the chief accountant at AvtoSAGA LLC).
The cooperation between Yves Rocher and the Main Subscription Agency took place from August 2008 to May 2011. Payment orders indicate that this activity began at the latest - in August.
Presumably, "Yves Rocher" ordered transportation from the "Main Subscription Agency" at one price, and the "laying" in turn redirected the order for sale to the company "AvtoSAGA" for a lower price. The difference between prices ended up in the pocket of the “Main Subscription Agency”. In this way, according to investigators, 26 million rubles were stolen.
This version is supported by a letter from Alexei Navalny to his brother, where the first asks the second about the regions where it is necessary to look for cars, the prices for which services would be below a certain level (judging by the context and date, this means the prices set by Yves Rocher ").
The scheme for “laundering” the received funds occurred as follows: LLC “Main Subscription Agency”, on fictitious grounds, transferred money from its current account to the current account of the “Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory” money allegedly for rent non-residential premises, raw materials and supplies.
Kobyakovo is more expensive than Moscow City
There is a draft agreement for the lease of the premises of the Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory for the needs of the Main Subscription Agency in the amount of 3,000,000 rubles. It reveals surprising circumstances.
On the part of Main Subscription Agency LLC, the contract is concluded by its General Director Zhanna Chirkova. On the factory side, the document is signed by its general director (father of Alexei Navalny). At the same time, the “Main Subscription Agency” belongs to his son’s offshore, and the general director who heads the agency, Zhanna Chirkova, is listed as the chief accountant at the Kobyakovsky factory!
Here is citizen Chirkova - Chief Accountant LLC "Kobyakovskaya wicker weaving factory"
And here the same citizen Chirkova is already the general director of LLC "Main Subscription Agency"
In fact, General Director Zhanna Chirkova pays money for “rent” to her boss Anatoly Navalny and his factory, where she is also the chief accountant! That is, a person who must accept the same money from herself and report it !
And some more amazing numbers. LLC "Main Subscription Agency" rents 78.5 meters in Kobyakovo near Moscow from Navalny's parents and his brother (owners of a wicker weaving factory) at a price of... 46 thousand rubles per square meter per year (300 thousand rubles per month specified in the contract, multiplied by 12 months and divide by the numbersquare meters)!!! And this, at the 2011 exchange rate, is more than $1,300.
FOR REFERENCE: Renting an elite class “A” premises in Moscow City, namely in the Mercury City Tower skyscraper, costs a maximum of 950 US dollars per square meter per year. That is, almost a third cheaper than a storage room in the village of Kobyakovo.
If anyone doubts that there is pure money laundering here, then how to explain this ridiculous difference in prices. But the factory is 40 km away. from Moscow - this is not at all a luxurious skyscraper in Moscow City. Or does anyone disagree?
At the same time, Kobyakovskaya Wicker Factory LLC belongs not only to Navalny’s parents, but also to his brother Oleg. But it was Oleg Navalny who initiated the deal between Yves Rocher and the Main Subscription Agency.
The operation to withdraw illegal profits concentrated in Main Subscription Agency LLC is obvious. The investigation claims that in this way the Navalnys legalized about 21,000,000 rubles.
Conclusions:
1) The procedure for legalization (laundering) of about 3,000,000 rubles by Navalny’s family can be considered documented within the framework of this analysis.
2) Alexey Navalny used a foreign offshore company to evade Russian taxes. In addition, he used another feature of this type of company - anonymity and confidentiality. As stated above, these features have been used in Russia to implement fraudulent schemes.
3) The Navalny brothers caused financial damage to the foreign company Yves Rocher, which in turn dealt a blow to the attractiveness of Russia for foreign capital.
4) The level of contractors who actually carried out Yves Rocher’s orders is either so low that they are unable to fill out the invoice correctly, or they deliberately tried to avoid paying VAT on the 84,000 earned on transportation.
Now, in fact, the main thing remains - all available case materials and the defense version will be assessed by the court.
What, in your opinion, will be the court verdict regarding Alexei Navalny, who was previously given a suspended sentence?
Now I’ll tell you something important, and also illegal. Or rather, it is considered illegal for me personally, so I don’t care about such a ban. I want you to know.
On Thursday I will be tried, which is a completely unoriginal statement, because today I will be tried (and even sentenced), and I am also being tried all the time - since the beginning of this year I have already been convicted three times and found guilty.
But on Thursday they will judge again in a big way. This is the so-called “Yves Rocher case”, in which me and my younger brother Oleg will be defendants.
As you may remember, this case was opened very cynically: without directly hiding it as a “response” for the fact that I called for an unauthorized rally on December 15. The message was clear: if you think that you will lead people to mass unauthorized rallies and think that we will not respond due to lawlessness, then you are mistaken . Then, within a week, the Investigative Committee announced the initiation of as many as three criminal cases against me.
“The Yves Rocher case” was the main one and was actively used by the goiter and all the vile United Russia members to add “Navalny” to the word “Navalny” for two years in a row. who, together with his brother, stole 50 million rubles from the French company Yves Rocher ".
Gradually, the amount of “stolen” decreased to 27 million, but the essence did not change.
Dealing with this is not very easy. You understand that this is complete nonsense. This is just nonsense and a complete fabrication. But you also understand what any normal person would think: Well, it’s impossible to come up with the theft of 27 million completely out of nowhere. Putin will not expose himself like that. So there is some evidence. Or in court Navalny will prove that he is right.
It will prove, yes. On all ships recent years Until recently it seemed to me that they could not condemn me, because both the right and the truth were on my side.
How can you convict me of Kirovles without an economic examination?
How can they condemn me for resisting the police if anyone can see on the video that there is no resistance?
How can you judge me for shouting if anyone in the video can see that I was standing calmly?
Fine. They condemned him everywhere. We watched the video, made sure that there were no shouts, and wrote in the court decision: shouted and waved his arms. By the way, I will be judged in the “Yves Rocher case” by the same judge Korobchenko who saw the chanting and shouting in this video.
Therefore, I will not prove anything in court. But I want to prove it to you, that’s why I’m writing. And so I ask you to help me spread this information.
So, from the very beginning we knew that Yves Rocher was forced to write a statement. They worked with Glavpodpiska (the company through which the theft was allegedly committed) for five years, were satisfied, and now all this work has been declared a fraud.
The FSB and the Investigative Committee came to them, saying: if there is no application, you will not be able to work. We know this from the words of the company’s employees. Yves Rocher’s business is completely tied to customs, controlled by the FSB, and “small problems with cargo clearance” would have buried the whole business within a month.
Wrote it - nothing can be done. We are not the FSB and we cannot force them to take back the application.
After some time, apparently, Yves Rocher realized that they wanted to use them not just for some routine intimidation and threats, but for the direct fabrication of a political criminal case. They made a very vague statement." after it's all over, no one will doubt our reputation"What this means was completely unclear.
Then there were various messages on the topic that Yves Rocher did not recognize the damage and was withdrawing the application. In particular, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, spoke about this many times, citing a personal conversation with the director of the company named Bruno Leproux.
However, this did not have any formal consequences: the case went on, under its sauce there were seizures, searches and interrogations, recognizance not to leave, etc. The Yves Rocher company remained silent, continues to do so, and has not made a single statement other than the one above in the link.
Well, then the long-awaited moment finally arrived, when the Investigative Committee announced the “end of the investigation” and we had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with the case materials. 157 volumes. When we started getting acquainted, in one of the very first volumes we found the following sequence of documents:
What do I want from you? You can help me very simply. Read all of this and tell someone else. The LJ blog is blocked. There are only a few media left that are not afraid to write about this.
This is the calculation: few people on the Internet know the truth, but in the zombie box they bombard “he stole 27 million.”
But you are not “a few people from the Internet”. There are hundreds of thousands of you. There are hundreds of thousands of us . We pressed the button three times and talked to a couple of people - several million already know about it.
The guys from FBK even made a small website to make it easier to distribute this Yves Rocher calculation: http://delo.navalny.ru
If you want to help: distribute it (or, if more convenient, this post) where you can, send it to everyone who, following the propaganda, writes about " kidnapped from Yves Rocher"Tell your mom and grandma. Talk to the taxi driver.
That's all. I have said a hundred times: there are more of us and our strength is such that we can expose any propaganda instantly. You just have to work and not think that someone else will do it for you. Someone with more time or Facebook friends.
No one will do anything - your front section will simply not be closed.
So the vile snout of Dmitry Kisilev and the varied margarita Simonyan with trembling pseudopods will crawl into it. No one will be to blame but you.
