The Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow announced the verdict to the natives of Dagestan, Murad Kulchiev and Elina Bayramova, members of an organized criminal community (OPS), engaged in illegal banking activities. As was established in court, together with 13 other already convicted accomplices, they cashed out about 24 billion rubles in 2014-2016. The defendants denied guilt. The court sentenced Murad Kulchiev to 7.5 years in a penal colony, and Elina Bayramova to 6.5 years on probation with a five-year probationary period. The convicts, for whom the prosecutor’s office asked for 13 and 12 years in prison, thanked the court for their mercy.
In the debate that took place the day before, the prosecutor recalled that the case against Murad Kulchiev and Elina Bayramova was separated from the “big” case, which featured 13 “cashers” convicted by the Dorogomilovsky court of the capital back in May 2019. Among other terms, then the organizers of the OPS – natives of Chechnya and Dagestan – Asan Mamaev, Lyub Vayfert, Akhmat Mamaev, Osman Khamanaev and Ruslan Yusupov, received the terms.
As stated in the case file, according to a criminal scheme organized by malefactors, money under false contracts was transferred from Moscow to Chechnya or Dagestan, where it was cashed in local banks, and then they were delivered back to the capital.
In the criminal business, the prosecutor noted, about four dozen companies controlled by the defendants were involved, as a result, the OPS from 2014 to 2016 managed to cash out about 24 billion rubles. At the same time, its participants received at least 240 million rubles. as commissions that were spent on personal needs.
Murad Kulchiev and Elina Bayramova, unlike their other accomplices, were not detained in 2017. Mr. Kulchiev was put on the wanted list. Law enforcement officers found and detained him in 2019. The accused was sent to jail. Upon learning of his arrest, Mrs. Bayramova also appeared at the investigative department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Taking into account the voluntary appearance, the woman was not taken into custody, limiting herself to the prohibition of certain actions in relation to her.
In her speech, the prosecutor also noted that the investigation of the “big” case is ongoing, since investigative actions are still underway against two alleged “collectors” who were involved in transporting cash to the capital.
The state prosecutor asked the court to find the defendants Kulchiev and Bayramova guilty under Part 2 of Art. 172 and part 2 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (illegal banking and participation in a criminal community) and sentence them to 13 and 12 years in a penal colony, respectively, as well as paying fines of 1.5 million rubles each. from everyone.
In turn, lawyers Nikolai Khristoforov and Tatyana Kuzmenko argued in court that the investigation had misclassified the actions of their clients, accusing them of both illegal banking activities as part of an “organized group” and as part of a criminal community. Also, according to the defense, the jurisdiction of the case was incorrectly determined. According to the lawyers, the last time the money was transferred to the Chechen Republic, which means that the members of the organized criminal group, including Kulchiev and Bayramova, should have been tried there.
In addition, Mr. Khristoforov and Ms. Kuzmenko argued that the investigation had incorrectly calculated the amount of cashed out funds that they charged the defendants with. The lawyers told the court that they had conducted their own investigation and found that 500 million rubles had been accumulated in the accounts of firms controlled by Mr. Kulchiev. At the same time, the defenders assured, the investigation did not prove that these funds were received for the purpose of cashing out, and not for the supply of goods. At the same time, the defense noted that none of the ten citizens who allegedly used the services of the cashiers Kulchiev and Bayramova testified against them. Only one of them admitted the very fact of cashing out, but none of the ten clients of the “cashers” was interrogated in court.
The lawyers also stated that their clients did not hide from anyone, living at their addresses, where they were registered. “Nobody visited them at all,” said Nikolai Khristoforov, the lawyer of the defendant Kulchiev. “But a couple of years after the initiation of the case, the operatives decided to check the address of my suspect, and he was detained!”
As a result, Galina Talanina, presiding over the trial, considered it possible to sentence Ms. Bayramova to a suspended sentence without imposing a fine on her. Mr. Kulchiev received 7.5 years in a penal colony and was also not fined. Taking into account the fact that his term is counted from the moment of detention, in March 2019, and the day of his stay in the pre-trial detention center will be equated to one and a half days in a colony, he can apply for parole in the very near future.
Upon hearing the verdict, the convicts thanked the judge for his mercy. And Mrs. Bayramova, who came with her relatives, even burst into tears in the hall. Lawyers said they were unlikely to appeal such lenient sentences.