Petty-bourgeois court of Moscow has recognized Kirill Serebrennikov, Yuri and Alexei itina Malopolska guilty in the so-called “Seventh Studio”. Director of the Russian academic youth theatre (RAMT) Sophia Apfelbaum among the perpetrators are not named.
“Pieces of silver, Malopolski, Itin committed fraud, i.e. theft of another’s property by deception and abuse of trust by an organized group, in especially large size”, – stated in the verdict of a judge Olesya Mendeleevo.
As the verdict, the court found that pieces of silver, the former General producer “Seventh studios” Alex Malopolski and its former CEO Yuri Itin together in an organized group and forming a criminal plan, stole part of the money which was allocated from the budget for “Seventh Studio” at the theater project “Platform”.
What decision the court made in respect Apfelbaum – the former official of the Ministry of culture who were not in the leadership of the “Seventh Studio will be known later. While the judge Mendelev said that Apfelbaum was not aware of the intent of his accomplices.
The punishment for defendants, the court will announce the operative part of the verdict.
The public prosecution earlier said that the Creator of ANO “the Seventh Studio”, artistic Director of “Gogol-Center” Kirill Serebrennikov and the other defendants kidnapped 129 million rubles from the budget that the Ministry of culture allocated in 2011-2014 the project to promote theatrical art “Platform” (part 4 of article 159 of the criminal code). None of the defendants not guilty. They said that spent all the money on staging, but silver said he was proud of “Platform”.
Prosecutor Mikhail Reznichenko asked the government for six years in a General regime colony for Malopolska – five, for itina and Apfelbaum – four and to appoint all four major penalties. The defense sought to justify them.
Theatrical business
Criminal case against the former chief accountant of ANO Nina Massieu allocated in separate manufacture and now is considered by the court separately from the third call.
A criminal case, “the Seventh Studio” is investigated from may 2017. The accused was first charged with the theft of more than 133 million rubles. In June 2020, the aggrieved party – the Ministry of culture has reduced the amount of civil claim to about 129 million rubles.
The examination carried out during the second process, on the initiative of the public prosecution, found that the normative cost of “Platform” with the allocated budget of 216.5 million. was about 87.5 million. In the end, the prosecution and the Ministry of culture asked the court to consider the damage the difference between these two values is about 129 million.
However, examination of which was conducted the first examination of the case showed that the market value measures the “Platform” has made 260 million roubles, i.e. almost 40 million rubles more than initially allocated. Protection insists on the correctness of this examination.
While both groups of experts that were involved in the examinations at the stage of judicial proceedings, came to the conclusion that to determine the total amount of all expenses, “the Seventh Studio” in 2011-2014 is not possible due to the absence in the materials of the criminal case of the accounting documents.
According to the defense, all the money allocated Seventh Studio” from the budget, was spent on the needs of the “Platform” and damages in the case were wrongly established by the investigation only based on the amount cashed in the period of operation of ANO of government funding. Thus protection does not deny that almost all accounting “Seventh Studio”, which could prove the innocence of defendants, were destroyed after the closure of the “Platform”, but insists that the illegal cashing of funds in ANO were engaged in bookkeeping.
Shortly before the end of the process, almost 4,000 cultural figures urged the Minister of culture Olga Lyubimov to withdraw a civil lawsuit against the defendants in the case. In a press-service of the Ministry reminded that the Agency is the injured party in the case and declined to comment on the case until sentencing.
