As it became known to Kommersant, the investigators of the Moscow police completed the investigation of the criminal case of businessman Roman Baboyan, who introduced himself as the brother of the wife of the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov. According to the police, he forged a loan agreement for 150 million rubles. and a video recording of the transfer of money in order to later recover almost 8 billion rubles from a familiar entrepreneur. penalties. The defendant backed up his claims with a statement to law enforcement agencies about a particularly large-scale fraud committed against him. The court of first instance satisfied Mr. Baboyan’s claims, but the Moscow City Court, having sent receipts and documents for examination, recognized them as false and initiated criminal prosecution of the plaintiff. Roman Baboyan denies guilt, believing that there are only civil law relations between him and the victim. At the same time, the accused, who is already studying his criminal case, continues to be checked for involvement in a number of other scams.
According to Kommersant’s sources, 45-year-old Roman Baboyan was recently charged in the final version with attempted major fraud (Article 30 and Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code) by investigators from the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Western District of Moscow. The case materials do not exceed ten volumes, and therefore it is unlikely that the accused and his lawyers will need much time to familiarize themselves with them.
Recall that, as Kommersant reported, the beginning of this story was a banal loan from one entrepreneur to another in the fall of 2017. Then the capital businessman asked Roman Baboyan for a loan of 22 million rubles. The loan was short-term – only for a little over a month, and for the use of the money it was supposed to pay an interest of 1 million 240 thousand rubles when the amount was returned. The receipt was certified by both parties, and the process of transferring the money, as it turned out later, was secretly recorded on video in the office of the Vereiskaya Plaza 3 business center by one of Mr. Baboyan’s acquaintances. After the agreed period, the money was returned with interest, and no controversial issues arose. True, according to the investigation, Roman Baboyan, “taking advantage of the established long-term trusting relationship,” decided not to give the borrower a receipt, promising to return it later, but he himself did not write a receipt for receiving money. Instead, on the second sheet of the contract, he later simply printed out the text about another loan – already for 150 million rubles, which also provided for a 5% penalty for each day of delay. With this document, as well as a video that some craftsmen edited, in 2019 he came to the police, where he wrote a statement about the theft of 150 million rubles against his former borrower. At the same time, he signed a mandatory warning in this case about criminal liability for knowingly false denunciation (Article 306 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). And after some time, with the same set of “evidence,” Roman Baboyan, through his lawyer, turned to the Nikulinsky District Court of Moscow, demanding to recover 150 million rubles from his partner. the main “debt” and “forfeit” in 7 billion 665 million rubles. In 2021, the court, as Kommersant reported, satisfied the claim, but this decision was appealed to the Moscow City Court. The Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases, on its own initiative, applied to the Russian Federal Center for Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, which recognized the loan agreement as false. This conclusion was later confirmed by another forensic examination. According to experts, “the text on the front side of the contract was added to the existing printed text, signatures and handwritten notes.” The police went to Roman Baboyan’s home, but they did not find him there, and relatives, according to some sources, said that he had left for Armenia.
It is worth noting that Mr. Baboyan is a native of Maykop, but has long lived in Moscow, where he does business. At the same time, the man allegedly introduced himself as the elder brother of Karine Khabirova, the wife of the head of Bashkiria, Radiy Khabirov. This information was also mentioned in the framework of the civil process in the Nikulinsky court.
In September last year, the businessman was put on the wanted list, although his lawyers stated that the accusations were groundless and that it was a deliberate provocation against him. As a result, a few days later, Roman Baboyan himself came to the police, where he was detained. He was formally charged and, with the approval of the court, was placed in a pre-trial detention center. It is interesting that one of his former representatives, lawyer Gennady Udunyan, was soon also taken into custody because, while under investigation for a fight, he staged a new drunken brawl. However, other defenders of Roman Baboyan managed to achieve a mitigation of the measure of restraint for him to house arrest, under which he is still under.
According to Kommersant, Mr. Baboyan categorically denies his guilt, arguing that there are only civil law relations between him and the borrower, and he does not trust the examinations presented to him. His current lawyer categorically declined to comment.
At the same time, lawyer Ismail Salpagarov, representing the interests of the victim, believes that Roman Baboyan’s involvement in the alleged crimes “is fully proven by the examinations, which showed that the loan agreement submitted to the court is fake, as well as the video.” “According to the established judicial practice, Roman Baboyan faces seven to eight years in prison,” the lawyer said.
At the same time, according to Kommersant’s sources, the investigators still have questions for Roman Baboyan, in respect of whom a pre-investigation check is underway based on the materials extracted from the already completed investigation. In particular, we are talking about the possible seizure of funds totaling $ 4 million of another entrepreneur, whom he promised to help purchase equipment for cryptocurrency mining. In addition, there are suspicions that he persuaded him to illegally transfer to his relative, also a native of Maykop, non-residential premises in Krasnogorsk near Moscow. Initially, he asked his owner for 70 million rubles. for assisting in obtaining a tender for the construction of the school complex, but since he did not have free funds, he agreed to transfer the rights to real estate in favor of his loved one.