The Russian entrepreneur of American origin August Meyer, who over the years invested in the Lenta hypermarket chain, the country’s largest Internet retailer Yulmart and the Rive Gauche perfume chain, was sent to a pre-trial detention center on charges of embezzling almost 2.5 billion rubles. issued by subdivisions of Sberbank for the development of a soon bankrupt business. Mr. Meyer went into custody, despite his own assurances that the whole situation is part of a business conflict, and not a reason for criminal prosecution. His wife and business partner, Inna Meyer, was placed under house arrest. The Ombudsman for the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Titov believes that there has been a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The Moscow District Court of St. Petersburg decided to send into custody August Meyer, co-owner of the Rive Gauche perfume chain and formerly Russia’s largest Internet retailer Yulmart, accused by the TFR of two episodes of particularly large fraud (part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) … The businessman went to the pre-trial detention center, despite having a permanent place of residence in Russia and four minor children. The fact that the article imputed to Mr. Meyer was “entrepreneurial” did not become an obstacle either. The prosecution substantiated this by the fact that his actions were “based on deception, and not on systematic profit from the use of property, the sale of goods, the performance of work or the provision of services.” Otherwise, the investigation listed standard arguments in favor of detention – the possibility of destroying evidence, influencing witnesses or absconding, given the presence of citizenship of the two countries, in addition to the Russian one obtained in 2017.
August Meyer did not admit his guilt, telling about the pressure from the investigation: “I was shocked when the investigator (here Mr. Meyer pointed to the ICR representative. – “B”), seeing me for the first time, immediately said that he would let my wife go if I admit my guilt. Is it okay to keep my wife hostage? And after that he threatened that after my wife and I were in prison, our children would be given to the care of the state, ”the businessman said. His lawyer noted that Mr. Meyer’s case is not about a criminal offense, but about a business conflict.
As an alternative to detention, the defense asked for a ban on certain actions, a bail of up to 5 million rubles. or house arrest.
Note that the meeting was attended by an interpreter: even during the arrest, the businessman informed that he did not speak Russian very well.
As a result, it was not August Meyer himself who went under house arrest, but his business partner and wife Inna. The investigation requested such a measure of restraint for her.
“All life is here, my children are here,” Mrs. Meyer explained to the court the lack of motives to leave the country. However, the court did not agree with the prohibition of certain actions or bail, choosing for the entrepreneur’s wife four-hour walks, the absence of the Internet and communication only with relatives, an investigator and a lawyer within the framework of house arrest.
The reason for choosing preventive measures for the spouses Meyer was two episodes of especially large fraud. The first criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (especially large fraud in the field of lending) was initiated back in 2017 on the fact of the theft of funds from Sberbank of Russia PJSC. Four years later, it began to be investigated by the main investigation department of the TFR. Two days ago, on December 7, the case was merged with another, initiated on the fact of theft of property of Sberbank Factoring LLC on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). At the moment, it has six identified and a number of unidentified persons.
In addition to the spouses Meyer and another co-owner of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin, former top managers of Yulmart Sergei Fedorinov, Vladimir Shonurov, as well as the head of Bigbox LLC (operating company of the Ryady chain founded by Dmitry Kostygin and August Meyer) Elena Streltsov. According to the investigation, they stole 1 billion rubles from Sberbank, given as a loan to Yulmart. The accomplices allegedly transferred these funds to the accounts controlled by the company, and then introduced the organizations belonging to the Yulmart Group of Companies into bankruptcy procedures. According to the prosecution, Messrs. Fedorinov and Shonurov entered into loan agreements, according to which Yulmart NJSC transferred 1.6 billion rubles to Yulmart Development LLC, such actions were supposedly aimed at not including this amount in the bankruptcy estate due to the introduction of bankruptcy procedures at the parent company.
The very first person involved in the case was Dmitry Kostygin. His involvement in the theft of 1 billion rubles. the investigation sees that he provided false information about the presence of overdue obligations of the retailer. Before attracting a loan, the entrepreneur assigned the right to claim the debt to Yulmart for 248 million rubles. to his friend Oleg Morozov, who, in turn, filed an insolvency petition. The investigation also drew attention to the fact that within the framework of the retailer’s bankruptcy case, claims against him were put forward by OOO Baltic Electronic Platform and OOO Consulting Group Sanation. Subsequently, these companies ceded their claims to Bigbox LLC, which belonged to Inna Meyer. Representatives of Dmitry Kostygin declined to comment.
The second episode of fraud involving the spouses Meyer, Dmitry Kostygin and Elena Streltsova, the investigation refers to 2016. According to the ICR, 1.4 billion rubles were stolen. They ordered goods from a dozen companies, however, as a result, they accepted it through the employees of the consignee LLC Yulmart RSK, but did not pay. Sberbank Factoring LLC financed the supplies, and Messrs. Meyer and Kostygin allegedly sold the goods received, disposing of the proceeds at their own discretion. In the same period, the co-owners allegedly made a number of transactions preceding the bankruptcy procedure, due to which 1.8 billion rubles. Yulmart were transferred to the accounts of legal entities controlled by August Meyer and Dmitry Kostygin. The investigation does not include this amount in the stolen part.
Boris Titov, Commissioner for the Rights of Entrepreneurs under the President of Russia, considers this criminal story to be “absolutely entrepreneurial”:
“His (Mr. Meyer. – “B”) is accused of fraud, but this is an absolutely standard factoring transaction, in which Yulmart has not maliciously distorted anything at any stage. The complicated relationship between the co-owners – and there were not two of them, but more – led the company to bankruptcy, and at this stage it became difficult to fulfill the contractual relationship within the framework of factoring. But this does not mean at all that the debt cannot be paid within the framework of tender procedures, which are still ongoing, “he told Kommersant. According to the business ombudsman, Mr. Meyer should not be in jail, as this violates the provisions of Art. 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, which regulates the procedure for placement in custody. “In our opinion, the initiation of the second Yulmart case and the attempts to arrest August Meyer in custody are dictated by one thing – the desire of the investigation to artificially speed up the process, to put more pressure on the defendants, because the essence of the accusation remains frankly weak,” says Mr. Titov.
Yulmart is the largest Russian online retailer in the past, with revenues at its peak of 62.7 billion rubles. Its closure in 2020 was caused by a corporate conflict between August Meyer, Dmitry Kostygin (they jointly controlled 61.5% of Yulmart) and their business partner Mikhail Vasinkevich (38.5%) due to different views on business development.
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