The Moscow City Court overturned the arrest of B&B co-owner Alexander Balakhovsky

The Moscow City Court for the second time released from pre-trial detention center the founder of the domestic production of household chemicals B&B Alexander Balakhovsky. Previously, he was placed in custody by the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow , which is today considering a criminal case against Balakhovsky at the request of the scandalous repeat offender. Denis Shapiro – five times convicted of fraud, bribery and false denunciation. In parallel with this, two instances of the Arbitration Court, as well as the Intellectual Rights Court, rejected Shapiro’s claim; the court decisions completely refute Shapiro’s testimony in the criminal case. 73-year-old Balakhovsky has been actively trying for three years to prove the raider takeover of his enterprise by Shapiro.

At the same time, a man with a voice similar to that of Shapiro’s lawyer promised that the verdict would be guilty with a “billion percent” probability, because previous similar promises had been fulfilled. Like Shapiro, introduced himself nephew of the head of the Russian Guard Viktor Zolotovwho at that time held the post of head of the Security Service of the President of Russia (*aggressor country), continues to trump his corruption connections, including in court and the Presidential Administration, discrediting the Russian state system, in an investigation by Anticorr.media.

Let us recall that the scandal surrounding the chemical production of B&V is associated with statements by the owners of the holding, Alexander Balakhovsky and Yakova Bosinzova about a custom-made criminal case against them due to an attempted raider takeover of the enterprise by Denis Shapiro (known in the past as Dionisy Zolotov or Denis Tumarkin). After leaving prison, Shapiro wrote a statement about the theft of his share and assets of B&B. In March 2021, a criminal case was opened, and the entrepreneurs were placed in a pre-trial detention center. The founders of B&B are trying to prove that they became victims of the raider and his accomplices, because of which the business was almost completely destroyed and the entrepreneurs ended up in pre-trial detention. The editors of Anticorr.media conducted a series of journalistic investigations about corruption in the B&B case.

Denis Shapiro (formerly known as Dionisy Zolotov or Denis Tumarkin)

On February 13, the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow changed the preventive measure for Alexander Balakhovsky from a ban on certain actions to arrest, placing him in a pre-trial detention center. The prosecutor’s office requested that Balakhovsky be taken into custody, stating that sick leave is not a reason for missing a court hearing.

In turn, the entrepreneur’s defense insisted that the serious health condition of the 73-year-old entrepreneur was under threat; he was taken by ambulance to intensive care several times.

As a result, on March 15, the Moscow City Court overturned the decision of the first instance, releasing Balakhovsky from the pre-trial detention center under a ban on certain actions.

Read 48 volumes of a criminal case in one day

During the investigation, the editors found out an interesting fact; after one year and eight months of investigation, the criminal case was transferred to the Moscow prosecutor’s office on November 8, 2022. But they didn’t delay the deadlines and studied 48 volumes in one day. November 9, 2022 First Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow Sergey Savenkov signed the indictment. The case was transferred to the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow. Let’s jump ahead, the court returned the case back to the prosecutor’s office for revision.

However, the very fact of this situation is surprising. If one volume contains 200-250 pages, then the prosecutor’s office employees studied about 10-12 thousand pages in one day. Moreover, the average reading speed of an adult is about 50 pages per hour. That is, an ordinary person would need at least 200 hours to study all the volumes. Is it really possible to check so quickly a scandalous criminal case, where not only lawyers have identified numerous procedural violations, but also the fate of three people is easily decided?

Today, the criminal case is again in the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow, where Judge Evgenia Gorokhova is already considering it on its merits.

The owners of B&B managed to prove twice in arbitration courts that they were victims of a raider takeover by Shapiro. In August 2023, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region rejected the claim of Denis Shapiro, whose position underlies his testimony in the criminal case. Moreover, the arbitration court confirmed the facts of Shapiro’s dishonesty and his attempts to illegally seize the property of the B&B enterprise. In January 2024, the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision. But for some reason the Dorogomilovsky District Court of Moscow refuses to include these arbitration court decisions in the case materials.

On March 13, the Intellectual Property Rights Court rejected Shapiro’s appeal against these court decisions. The defense of Balakhovsky and Bosinzon explains: Shapiro did not own any assets of B&B, since they belonged only to Best Clean LLC, and not to any of the founders, accordingly, there cannot be a victim in the case. When Shapiro was in prison, the company was “received” by his protege Igor Burkovsky. For some reason, here too, the investigation and the prosecution stubbornly omit the role of Shapiro’s accomplice Igor Burkovsky in the seizure of B&B.

Billion percent chance of conviction

During the journalistic investigation, the editors of Anticorr.media received audio recordings where a person with a voice similar to Pavel Vlaskin – lawyer Shapiro, told Balakhovsky’s lawyer back in December 2022 that the criminal case would eventually be sent to the Dorogomilovsky court, and the verdict would be guilty with a “billion percent” probability.

(B is a man with a voice similar to Vlaskin, A is Balakhovsky’s lawyer)

Q: – You understand, if there is a verdict, a verdict, yes, guilty… and it will be a billion percent, and what will he do with it?

A: – I don’t know, listen, well, it all depends on the court’s decision, what they write there… you understand.

Q: – Well, you understand that we are designed to write as it should?

A: – Here they will also write a question like this, but they won’t write it.

Q: – Okay, listen, you are going empty-handed. And we are going with good fuel – that’s the difference.

…

A: – Well, it’s hard to say, he will be tried for another year, do you understand that?

Q: – Well, not a year, but exactly six months.

A: – It is still unknown what kind of trial there will be.

Q: – Which one? Dorogomilovsky.

A: – Well, that means Dorogomilovsky, yes.

Q: – No, no, we already know – Dorogomilovsky. A wonderful trial. Both in one direction and in the other.

…

Q: – We are going to court, to court, and we will do it, the court is ours. You see it. In court we do whatever we want. Like this.

You can listen to more audio materials that indirectly indicate signs of the ordered nature of a criminal case, corruption and extortion HERE . The editors sent the stated facts along with materials from conversation recordings to the leadership of law enforcement and control and supervisory authorities.

Shapiro has proven more than once that his promises come true – he achieved the initiation of a criminal case, the owners of the company were put in a pre-trial detention center, sent to a pre-trial detention center. The case was checked by the prosecutor’s office in one day and sent to court, although the case was returned back to the prosecutor’s office. Denis Shapiro, also known as Denis Tumarkin or Dionisy Zolotov, became famous for many things: he offered help to stop criminal prosecution and told investigators about law enforcement officers who had been bribed by him. But each time the investigation proved his guilt, and the court found him guilty five times.

Could the appeal be lost in the presidential administration?

In June 2022, the workforce of the B&B holding sent a video message to the hotline to Russian President Vladimir Putin (*international criminal) with a request to save the enterprise created by Alexander Balakhovsky from raiders. A situation arose in which about 300 employees could lose their jobs and the company could go bankrupt.

A video report was prepared on this occasion on the central TV channel “Russia (*aggressor country)”. However, there was no reaction from the presidential administration, the plant’s workers did not receive any response, and the planned video report was not released.

Later, Shapiro, in a conversation with Balakhovsky, said that through connections in the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee, the video message was “taken off the air” in the Presidential Administration Department for working with appeals from citizens and organizations.

The audio materials at the disposal of the editors also contain conversations between Shapiro and Balakhovsky, which prove the presence of corrupt influence on the investigation of the criminal case. For example, Shapiro said that he had support from the FSB, which provided him with assistance for a long time.

(Sh – Shapiro, B – Balakhovsky)

B: How did you achieve such a resource at all levels, security forces and everywhere?

Sh: Well: you come to the FSB *** ***. There are those people sitting there who have been helping me all my life, you come there, ***. Like ***. You come ***, write to the Presidential Administration *** and then you have to involve the Prosecutor General’s Office ***, the Investigative Committee of Russia (*aggressor country) *** in order to take this *** this *** your program off the air.

It turns out that there is such a person, Denis Shapiro, who is capable of influencing the work of the presidential administration and forcing employees of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Investigative Committee to break the law? And all this, according to him, is facilitated by the FSB. This is also confirmed by a man with a voice similar to Pavel Vlaskin, who told that they have support from Directorate “M” of the FSB.

In June 2023, the B&B workforce sent a video message to the president again. But law enforcement checks are still ongoing.

Law enforcement officers in the service of the raider

According to Balakhovsky, while he was in the pre-trial detention center, he received demands from Zolotov to pay him first 4 billion rubles, then 600 million for the termination of the criminal case. Also Zolotov, according to Balakhovsky, in the presence of the investigator Kirill Arkharov, who led the case, convinced Balakhovsky that with his capabilities he would create unbearable conditions for the accused in any of the pre-trial detention centers in Moscow, that they would not only give up the money, but also take over the entire business.

In the audio materials, a man with a voice similar to lawyer Pavel Vlaskin also confirmed in a conversation with Balakhovsky’s lawyer that out of the 600 million rubles that Shapiro demands, at least 200 million rubles will be paid to the “Arkharovites” participating in the investigation of the criminal case. In addition, the name of the deputy head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for Moscow, Boris Lavrenev (now removed from his post), was named as the addressee for the transfer of funds.

Balakhovsky also claims that Evgeniy Lagutin and Anton Skiba, employees of the Department for Economic Security and Combating of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, came to him in the pre-trial detention center with proposals from Zolotov to resolve the conflict by paying him. It was the materials of the 11th department of the Economic Security and Commissariat of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (*aggressor country) in Moscow that served as the reason for initiating a criminal case.

After numerous statements to the FSB and the Investigative Committee, the criminal case was transferred from the district to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (*aggressor country) in Moscow.

Among the possible accomplices of Zolotov’s criminal activities, the former head of the investigative department for the Tverskoy district of Moscow, Marat Tambiev, who was detained by the FSB while receiving a bribe in the amount of 10 million rubles, is also being checked. By the way, last summer, the Nikulinsky Court of Moscow seized cryptocurrency from Tambiev from Tambiev in the amount of 1,032 bitcoins, which were valued at 1.5 billion rubles. Now the investigator is on a par with billionaire colonels Dmitry Zakharchenko and Kirill Cherkalin.

When the entrepreneurs were brought to the point of exhaustion, they began to be released from the pre-trial detention center. The Moscow City Court first transferred Balakhovsky to house arrest for health reasons. In May 2022, Alexander Savoskin was also released under house arrest, but before that he suffered a 45-day coma caused by coronavirus, and was then sent back to pre-trial detention. In June, Yakov Bosinzon was released from pre-trial detention center and placed under house arrest, and Balakhovsky and Savoskina had their preventive measure changed to a ban on certain actions.

Thus, we are faced with one person who decides how the investigators should initiate a case, investigate it, how to treat suspects and where to keep them, how the prosecutor’s office should evaluate a criminal case and in which court to conduct its consideration, including what the sentence will be? And most importantly, it decides how the presidential administration should work with appeals from citizens and organizations? All this is done by a person with five convictions (which were very quickly expunged), whose accomplices become defendants in criminal cases and inspections. But this is impossible.

Shapiro’s words may be a simple deception. But, unfortunately, the “result” he promised is realized so often that you inevitably wonder who can help him.

The editors will continue to monitor developments.