"Come when they kill" and other aspects of the "Merlion case"

A compelling story was featured on the show "Man and the Law" on the First channel. In 2015, Vyacheslav Simonenko, who was the General Director of Merlion – a significant IT distributor, chose to stop working with his business partners. This decision was a result of a strong disagreement, as Simonenko claimed the former co-founders had underpaid $4.5 million. He demanded the money to be returned, but the defendants, Vladislav Mangutov, Alexander Abramov, and Oleg Karchev had their own perspective on the matter.

To calm the upset partner, the former associates opted to eliminate him. The task of carrying out the assassination was given to hired killers. It took place on the night of September 5, 2015, in the suburbs of Krasnogorsk, where the ex-director of Merlion was targeted with real bottles containing napalm, rather than just verbal threats.

There were two perpetrators involved. A foam block was placed in front of the victim’s house. One of the attackers climbed the structure and began spreading bottles filled with flammable substances in the yard. Luckily, no one was injured in the resulting fire. The harrowing incident, where Simonenko, his wife, and two young daughters nearly lost their lives, left a lasting mark in the form of a black spot on the house wall. In 2019, there was another attempt on Simonenko's life at a restaurant in Odintsovo.

The victim filed a complaint with the police, but the case unusually fell apart. The materials from 2015 simply vanished – they disappeared, without a trace. Since then, the businessman has tried everything: contacting the Federation Council, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and even staging a rally with a placard near the Supreme Court, all to no avail.

This remained the situation until February 2020. Finally, after Alexander Sarafanov, a senior colonel, left his position as deputy head of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Moscow Region, progress was made.

One of the arsonists was identified, and he openly revealed who had hired him. It was discovered that Boris Levin, the head of Merlion’s security service, was the mastermind behind the plot.

The confession led to the detention of Abramov, Mangutov, and Karchev. However, a surprising turn of events occurred: all the masterminds were released as if nothing had happened. Witnesses in the case started speaking out about the pressure they faced during the investigation. As a result, in 2021, all potential defendants were set free.

Even Boris Levin, the direct orchestrator of the planned crime, was released, despite the testimonies of the hired killer against the former partner of the IT company's co-founder.