Source Co-owner of Rive Gauche denied bail. The co-owner of the Rive Gauche chain of perfume shops, August Meyer, was left in jail by the city court of St. Petersburg. The investigation claimed that he could flee the country or put pressure on witnesses. The defense noted that the businessman reimbursed the entire amount of the damage imputed to him – about 3 billion rubles – and is ready to make a bail in the amount of 25 million rubles. The court ultimately decided that Meyer, having three citizenships, would try to leave Russia, fearing a harsh sentence (he faces up to ten years). The judge extended the term of detention until March 2023.
From the release of the joint press service of the St. Petersburg courts on the extension of the detention period in the pre-trial detention center for businessman August Meyer, it became known that another episode of fraud appeared in his accusation (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The total amount of damage is already about 3 billion rubles. Earlier, the damage in the amount of 2.4 billion rubles appeared in the case. on two episodes of fraud. Together with the entrepreneur, his wife, Irina Meyer, and business partner, head of Bigbox LLC, Elena Streltsova, are taking action in the case. The women were placed under house arrest (see Kommersant of December 9, 2021).
In addition to Rive Gauche, Meyer was also a co-owner of the online retailer Ulmart. Together with partner Dmitry Kostygin (also under investigation), they owned 61.5% of the company's shares. Their conflict with the third shareholder Mikhail Vasinkevich led to the closure of the company.
According to the investigation, Sberbank gave Yulmart a loan of 1 billion, but the defendants withdrew the money to accounts controlled by the company, and then introduced the organizations belonging to Yulmart Group into bankruptcy proceedings.<br/
Another episode relates to the financing of Sberbank Factoring supplies for Ulmart by more than 1.4 billion rubles. The co-owners allegedly did not pay for this, but they received the goods and sold them.
Details of the third episode were not disclosed, however, during the court hearing, it became known from the representative of Sberbank that the damage in the amount of 3 billion rubles. repaid. Thus, the injured party does not mind that August Meyer's preventive measure was mitigated. The entrepreneur's defense asked for house arrest or bail in the amount of 25 million rubles.
In turn, the investigation claimed that Meyer could leave Russia and even put pressure on witnesses. The court disagreed with the second argument. The first one was justified. “Meyer has citizenship of three states and is accused of embezzlement of funds in the amount of more than 3 billion rubles. by committing crimes, for each of which there is an uncontested punishment in the form of imprisonment for up to ten years, ”the court noted, and because of the arrest on property lifted by the court, he has the opportunity to dispose of more than a billion rubles.
As a result, the term of arrest of August Meyer was extended until March 1. Now the accused and the defense continue to get acquainted with the materials of the case, which has 150 volumes.
As Meyer himself stated earlier, the investigation put pressure on him, and he considers his wife, in fact, a hostage. At the same time, the validity of the arrest of Meyer himself was questioned by the Commissioner for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs Boris Titov (see Kommersant of December 9, 2021). He believes that the entrepreneur was sent to a pre-trial detention center in order to put pressure on and artificially speed up the process.
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