Get to the core
The Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow began consideration of the merits of the criminal case of Alexander Balakhovsky and Yakov Bosinzon.
The notorious lawyer Denis Shapiro demands from them more than 4 billion rubles, allegedly stolen from him by the owners of the holding company for the production of household chemicals B&B. The plot of the criminal case may turn out to be contrary to the position of the arbitration court, which refused to invalidate Shapiro’s request for the alienation of assets of Best Clean LLC. Whose arguments will be stronger?
The criminal case, which was received by the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow back in November 2022, was considered on its merits only in January 2024. Co-owners of a holding company for the production of household chemicals Alexander Balakhovsky And Yakov Bosinzon, as well as the general director of Best Clean LLC (the main legal entity of the holding, now liquidated) Alexander Savoskin are accused of a number of crimes allegedly committed by them: fraudulent theft from Best Clean LLC of exclusive rights to the trademarks Unicum, B&B, Easywork and others ( Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)), illegal use of industrial designs resulting in major damage (Part 2 of Article 147 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)), illegal use of other people’s trademarks by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (Part 3 of Article 180 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)), organizing abuse of official powers with grave consequences for Best Clean LLC (Part 3 of Article 33, Part 2 of Article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)), as well as legalization of property obtained by criminal means (Clause “b” of Part 4 of Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)). The investigation estimated the amount of damage allegedly caused as a result of all these actions to Best Clean LLC and the victim at more than 4 billion rubles. At the same time, it remains unclear what motives could have prompted the co-owners of B&B to act to the detriment of their own business.
The victim in this high-profile case is a lawyer Denis Shapiroformerly known as Dionisy Zolotovand even earlier as Denis Tumarkin, and even more commonly known as “decided” and “professional victim”. Advocate Roman Kandaurov, representing the interests of Denis Shapiro in court, after the first court hearing on the merits of the case under consideration, he explained what the side of the so-called victim was counting on.
Was there a crime?
Meanwhile, there is reason to believe that this criminal case has signs of being ordered, and Shapiro could have paid $1 million to initiate it (“because no one wanted to initiate it”), hoping in return to receive four billion rubles from Balakhovsky and Bosinzon. Telegram channel calls even the name of the person to whom Shapiro could have gone a round sum: the former deputy head of the capital’s Investigative Committee. The channel also provides the names and positions of other possible participants in the “organized criminal community of professional victims.”
As far as can be judged from the disclosed data, while Balakhovsky was in pre-trial detention, he received demands for payment of up to four billion for the termination of the criminal case, accompanied by almost threats to his health and life. Among those who participated in this could be lawyer Shapiro. A voice similar to Vlaskin’s can be heard on audio recordings published by journalists. Later, the amount of claims allegedly decreased to 600 million rubles, then grew again.
Against the backdrop of all this, it should be noted that in August 2023, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region rejected Denis Shapiro’s claims to invalidate transactions on the alienation of assets of Best Clean LLC. And in November 2023, the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the trial court. Both courts considered the plaintiff’s claims to be unfounded, since the plaintiff was unable to provide evidence to support his claims, and the courts considered the arguments he presented to be unproven. Also, the judges did not follow Shapiro’s lead, who presented precisely this criminal case, which is now in question and which the Dorogomilovsky court has finally begun to consider, as the main argument in his favor. On the contrary, it looks like both the first and the appellate instances came to the conclusion that it was Shapiro who tried to take possession of the enterprise owned by Balakhovsky and Bosinzon, to the detriment of their interests.
In such a situation, when the criminal case against businessmen Alexander Balakhovsky and Yakov Bosinzon, as we can see, was formed on the basis, in fact, of the testimony of the victim Denis Shapiro alone, who also has five convictions and the reputation of being a “solver”, and may have signs of targeted persecution for the purpose of extortion, a serious question concerning the very essence of this story comes to the fore. Will the position of arbitration be taken into account in criminal proceedings? Our Version will continue to monitor this case and update readers on the progress of the process.
