Die and appear in court?
The Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow changed the preventive measure despite medical documents that confirm that Balakhovsky could not appear at the previous hearing for objective reasons. Lawyer Denis Shapiro, previously convicted of fraud, accused the 73-year-old businessman and two other defendants in the case of embezzling 4 billion rubles. There are significant fears that at least one of them will not live to see the verdict.
How reports TASS, citing the press service of the Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow, 73-year-old co-owner of the B&B holding Alexander Balakhovsky was transferred from house arrest to a pre-trial detention center. Thus, the court granted the petition of the state prosecutor, who asked to tighten the preventive measure. The basis for this decision was the defendant’s failure to appear at the previous hearing, held on January 30.
Alexander Balakhovsky was unable to appear at the last court hearing because his health condition had deteriorated sharply and he ended up in cardiac intensive care. Thus, as the prosecutor’s office believes, by not attending the court hearing, the person involved in the criminal case committed an abuse of rights on his part.
At the same time, the court was promptly provided with information that from January 23 to 29 Balakhovsky had a sick leave, from January 29 to 31 he was in the intensive care unit for patients with acute myocardial infarction, and then, from January 31 to 7 February – in the cardiology department of the State Budgetary Healthcare Institution of the City Clinical Hospital named after V.P. Demikhova. As specified in the certificate from the hospital (copies of medical documents are at the disposal of our editorial office), Alexander Balakhovsky “01/30/2024 does not have the opportunity to participate in the court hearing”. But it seems that the opinion of the prosecutor’s office about “abuse of law” turned out to be more convincing for the court than the opinion of doctors about the state of health of the accused. The defense does not agree with the tightening of the preventive measure and intends to appeal the court’s decision.
“Our version” has been watching the high-profile and resonant case “Denis Shapiro vs. B&B” for a long time. Previously, Alexander Balakhovsky had already ended up in a pre-trial detention center, but then he was transferred to house arrest, precisely due to his health condition. Later, the measure of intersection was changed to prohibit certain actions. And now a 73-year-old man with serious heart problems that could require medical intervention at any time – calling an intensive care team and emergency hospitalization – finds himself in a pre-trial detention center again. What is this – court negligence that is unforgivable in relation to a person’s health and life or malicious intent towards him?
In addition to Alexander Balakhovsky, two more people are involved in this scandalous case: this is the second co-owner of the V&V holding Yakov Bosinzon and CEO of the now liquidated Best Clean LLC Alexander Savoskin. They are charged with fraudulent theft from Best Clean LLC of exclusive rights to the trademarks Unicum, B&B, Easywork and others, illegal use of industrial designs resulting in major damage, illegal use of other people’s trademarks by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, organization of abuse of power with grave consequences for Best Clean LLC and legalization of illegally obtained property. According to investigators, the damage in this case exceeds 4 billion rubles. The victim in the case is the notorious lawyer Denis Shapiro.
According to the lawyer Igor Ryabenkov, representing the interests of one of the defendants, previously the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region established, and the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal confirmed, that persons controlled by Denis Shapiro tried to take possession of the shares of the company of Bosinzon and Balakhovsky. But the Dorogomilovsky court refused to attach these decisions to the case. Thus, the arbitration position was left without attention.
The situation looks like this: in 2014, as a result of certain manipulations, Shapiro ended up owning 30% of Best Clean LLC. He became the CEO of a company that owns the rights to trademarks of household chemical manufacturers.
We described the proposed scheme for acquiring attractive business assets earlier. That same year, Shapiro was detained on suspicion of committing another crime.
Let us recall that the “track record” of Denis Shapiro, also known as Dionisy Zolotov And Denis Tumarkinfive convictions, including for fraud against the deceased owner of the Royal Water company Joseph Badalov and top manager of Roscosmos Vladimir Evdokimov. The lawyer was released in 2019, after which he filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee against the co-owners of the V&V holding. The defendants do not admit guilt to any of the charges. And, if we take into account the opinion of doctors, at least one of them – Alexander Balakhovsky – defending his rightness may well cost his life.
