The co-owner of Rive Gauche and Yulmart, August Meyer, was arrested for two months. A businessman from the Forbes list is accused of two episodes of fraud in the amount of almost 2.5 billion rubles, issued by Sberbank for the development of a business that soon went bankrupt. Mr. Meyer and his wife were detained on 8 December. On December 9, the Moscow court of St. Petersburg sent the businessman to a pre-trial detention center.
At the meeting, the investigator explained this measure by the fact that otherwise August Meyer would interfere with the investigation, Marina Tsareva, a correspondent for Kommersant newspaper in St. Petersburg, said: “The prosecution had fairly standard arguments in favor of sending Mr. Meyer to a pre-trial detention center. It was about the possibility of absconding, given that he has two citizenships of different countries besides the Russian one, or the possibility of destroying evidence. In addition, according to the court, while remaining at large, a businessman can influence witnesses or continue to withdraw money through companies that are under his jurisdiction.
The article that is imputed to Mr. Meyer, or rather two of its episodes for fraud on an especially large scale, are entrepreneurial episodes. And according to them, in theory, it was impossible to send a businessman to a pre-trial detention center, nevertheless, the investigation insisted that his activities in this case cannot be regarded as entrepreneurial, and, accordingly, he can go to a pre-trial detention center. The first instance court agreed with this. “
The first episode of fraud, which is imputed to August Meyer, concerns the theft of 1 billion rubles, issued as a loan to the Yulmart electronics hypermarket. Allegedly, the businessman, together with his accomplices, transferred these funds to the accounts controlled by the company, and then introduced the organizations included in Yulmart into bankruptcy procedures.
The second episode is associated with the activities of the SberFactoring company, which financed Yulmart’s supplies for almost 1.5 billion rubles. When the delivered goods were sold, the money was distributed among themselves by August Meyer and another co-owner of Yulmart Dmitry Kostygin.
August Meyer, at a St. Petersburg court session, asked to appoint him a ban on certain actions, house arrest, or release him on bail of 5 million rubles: “I had many opportunities to hide, but I did not use them. And every time the investigation summoned me for a conversation, I voluntarily came. This case has been going on for five years. The investigating authorities were present in the courts and in your court too. The same grounds were presented to all judges. Other participants, including Mr Kostygin, have appeared before the court at least 20 times. But the decision on the merits of the case was never made. I was shocked when the investigator saw me and immediately said, if I admit my guilt, then my wife will be released. It turns out that the spouse is being held hostage? Is this 1991, the Soviet Union? And after that I was threatened that if my wife and I were detained or ended up in prison, the children would be transferred to the care of the state. ”
At the court session, Augustus Meyer’s lawyer called the materials presented by the investigator as a set of incantations and mantras that do not confirm anything. The defense lawyer stated that the situation around Yulmart was a business conflict, and according to the economic clause, his client could not be taken into custody.
Courts very often do not heed this argument, however, August Meyer still has opportunities to alleviate his situation, although he may not like all of them, says Artur Basistov, a lawyer at the law firm Asnis and Partners: with business, lawyers try to remind that when choosing a preventive measure, arrest should not be applied.
We are told that fraud is not an entrepreneurial activity, it is theft. Therefore, the rule not to be taken into custody does not apply.
The recommendation, which I no longer remember by whom it was formulated, regarding the fact that arrest is not used in business cases, has remained a good wish and is never generally applied.
Arrest in such cases is rather a measure of pressure. Most people are ready to come out at any cost, including giving confessions sometimes about things that they have never done in their life. Therefore, if Mr. Meyer does not have enough strength and he makes a deal with the investigation or testifies against someone, then it is quite possible that the preventive measure will be changed. We often hear that one of the grounds for choosing a preventive measure in the form of arrest, the investigating authorities indicate that the accused did not admit his guilt. Those who admit their guilt are usually treated more humanely in such cases. “
The arrest of August Meyer was commented on by the business ombudsman Boris Titov. In an interview with Kommersant, he called an absolutely entrepreneurial story that is imputed to a businessman, and he considered his placement in a pre-trial detention center as a violation of the Criminal Procedure Code. According to the Ombudsman for the Rights of Entrepreneurs, his office has not yet received an appeal from Mr. Meyer, but they are familiar with the structure of the criminal case, since his other person involved is another co-owner of Yulmart, Dmitry Kostygin.
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