In Novosibirsk, a court sentenced conditionally well-known businessman Oleg Yarovoy to three years, finding him guilty of false denunciation with fabrication of evidence. According to investigators, thanks to extensive connections in the prosecutor’s office, the businessman organized the criminal prosecution of his business partner Natalya Vasilyeva.
He wanted to use the made-up situation as an extra reason to collect a large debt from her. The businessman admitted his guilt and, hoping for leniency from the court, made a cooperation agreement. Former Novosibirsk prosecutor Denis Ferenets and ex-head of the regional prosecutor’s office Alexander Averin, who, according to the investigation, assisted in creating a criminal case, are being tried separately.
In Novosibirsk, the trial of Oleg Yarov, a well-known businessman in the city and a former member of the boards of directors of JSC Zavod Ekran (part of the structure of RATM Holding) and JSC Vinap, once a major player in the alcohol industry in Siberia, has concluded. The events described in the case occurred in 2017.
According to the investigation, Oleg Yarovoy filed a lawsuit in which he demanded to recover a large debt from his business partner, director of the Ekfard audit and consulting group Natalya Vasilyeva – € 100 thousand, $ 360 thousand and 7 million rubles. (total 34.5 million rubles). At the first hearing on October 20, 2017, Ms. Vasilyeva's representative requested the hearings to be moved to Moscow, where the defendant was registered, but the court postponed the consideration of the motion for several days.
According to investigators, in order to stop the case from being transferred to another region and put pressure on the entrepreneur, the businessman allegedly decided to create a false prosecution against her.
The case indicates that Alexandra Averina, the former head of the Department for Supervision of Compliance with Federal Legislation of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Novosibirsk Region, helped him write a statement about the crime, focusing on the details. The businessman, according to him, has known 73-year-old Alexandra Averina for over 20 years; in 2012, after her retirement, he suggested opening the Kanon law firm. As stated in the investigation documents, Alexandra Averina asked the city’s prosecutor Denis Ferenets, who once worked under her, to make sure that a criminal case against Natalya Vasilyeva was initiated promptly.
In November 2017, following Oleg Yarovoy's statement against Natalya Vasilyeva, the police opened a case of large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and she was placed under a written undertaking not to leave. Yarovoy appeared in the materials as a victim. However, six months later, the case went to court, which terminated it due to "the lack of corpus delicti". The court granted Mrs. Vasilyeva the right to rehabilitation and compensation for non-pecuniary damage caused by groundless criminal prosecution.
In the autumn of 2020, employees of the Federal Security Service of the Novosibirsk Region and the central office of the TFR detained businessman Yarovoy and former employees of the prosecutor’s office Denis Ferenets and Alexander Averina. The businessman, who was charged with knowingly making a false accusation by fabricating prosecution evidence (part 3 of article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and making knowingly false testimony (article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), fully admitted his guilt and made a pre-trial agreement to cooperate. The case against him was separated and sent to court.
Speaking at the court session, the state prosecutor noted that Oleg Yarovoy fulfilled all the conditions of the cooperation agreement. As mitigating circumstances, the court recognized his active assistance in the investigation, remorse and state of health.
As a result, the entrepreneur was given a three-year suspended sentence with a similar probationary period.
On Wednesday, preliminary hearings began on the case of former employees of the prosecutor’s office, who deny their guilt. Denis Ferenc is charged with Art. 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of power) and Art. 294 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (obstruction of the administration of justice and the conduct of a preliminary investigation), Alexandra Averina – complicity in a knowingly false denunciation (Article 33, Article 307 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
