Judges Find New Way Around New Law.

 

By Anastasia Kornya

 

Moscow – Legislation prohibiting the arrest of businessmen won’t help many of them, as courts are refusing to acknowledge that some suspects were engaged in entrepreneurial activity.

Vedomosti has obtained a copy of Tverskoi District Court’s decision extending the arrest of Alexander Volkov, director of Eurasia Logistics, who was accused of fraud and property laundering, as well as document forgery committed as part of an organized group. The Interior Ministry’s Investigative Committee said that in 2006-08, Eurasia helped Mukhtar Ablyazov, former head of BTA-Bank, take out loans he never intended to return.

Volkov was arrested in March, along with three other Eurasia Logistics employers. But in April, a law backed by President Dmitry Medvedev was enacted prohibiting arrest for economic crimes, including fraud charges, if the fraud was related to entrepreneurial activity.

But Volkov was not released from custody. On April 30, the court extended his arrest until September. The judge, Sergei Podoprigorov, who also ordered the arrest of Sergei Magnitsky – a lawyer who died in pretrial detention in November – decided that the circumstances mandating Volkov’s arrest had not changed and that his charges were criminal, not economic. A court decision extending the arrest of Denis Vorotyntsev, a lawyer for Eurasia Logistics, explained that the crimes in question were committed with the intent to create a Ponzi scheme, the goal of which was obtaining loans, not real entrepreneurial work.

Interpreting the law this way will allow courts to ignore the ban on arrests of businessmen – all they need to do is to claim that the crime is not related to entrepreneurship, Volkov’s lawyer Yelena Oreshnikova said. In Volkov’s case, the court ignored the fact that the credits were invested in real estate projects, she said.

Anna Usachyova, spokeswoman for the Moscow City Court, refused to comment on the decision of the Tverskoi court.

Taking out loans meets the definition of “entrepreneurial activity”, but the problem is that judges never refuse requests from prosecutors and investigators, said Yuri Kostanov, a lawyer, adding that there was a reason why judges, as well as corrupt police officers, were accused by the U.S.Congress of oppressing Magnitsky.

The legislation has led to the release of Boris Sokalsky, chairman of the board of NEP Bank, accused of illegal banking, and Alexander Gitelson, owner of VEFK Bank, charged with extra-large-scale embezzlement and money laundering. The Investigative Committee closed the case against Mikhail Gutsariyev for a lack of evidence of wrongdoing, and the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General’s Office dropped charges against Igor Linshits, former owner of Neftyanoi Bank, for the same reasons.

Supreme Court Chairman Vyacheslav Lebedev said no data on the effect of the arrest ban for entrepreneurs is presently available, but the Supreme Court has already requested that local courts provide statistics on the issue. Lebedev said he does not expect a lot of cases to fall under the new law.

 

Words to be memorized:

 

Legislation – законодательство

Prohibiting – запрещающий

To refuse – отказывать(ся)

To acknowledge – подтверждать, признавать

To extend – оттягивать

To accuse – обвинять

Fraud – мошенничество

Forgery – подлог

Loans – ссуды, займы

To enact – предписывать

Charges – издержки, обвинения

Custody – заточение

Pretrial detention – предварительное заключение

Ban – запрет

Real estate – недвижимость

Release – освобождение

Embezzlement – растрата, хищение

Former – бывший

Available – возможный, доступный

Issue – тема, вопрос

 

Tasks:

I. Answer the questions:

1) Why won’t legislation prohibiting the arrest of businessmen help many of them?

2) What was Alexander Volkov, director of Eurasia Logistics, accused of?

3) What did a lawyer for Eurasia Logistics explain on the arrest of Denis Vorotyntsev?

4) What do they need to allow courts to ignore the ban on the arrests of businessmen?

5) Why is it necessary to improve laws?

 

II. Translate from Russian into English:

 

1) В 2206-08 годах «Евразия» помогла Мухтару Аблязову взять ссуды, которые он не собирался возвращать.

2) Закон, отозванный Президентом Дмитрием Медведевым, предписывал запрет на арест за экономические преступления.

3) Судья, который санкционировал арест Сергея Магницкого, решил, что растрату Магницкого можно считать уголовным, а не экономическим преступлением.

4) В случае Волкова суд игнорировал тот факт, что кредиты были инвестированы в проекты недвижимости.

5) Александр Гительсон, владелец VЕFK-Банка, был обвинен в колоссальных растратах государственных средств.

 

Text 7.