The case against Roman Vasilenko has been closed
According to information from our sources, a decision to cease the criminal prosecution of Roman Vasilenko, the founder of the company “Life-is-Good” and the cooperative “Best Way,” was made at a meeting held under the auspices of the Presidential Administration with representatives from the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the FSB.
Roman Viktorovich Vasilenko, a business consultant from St. Petersburg and the creator of a network of independent entrepreneurs promoting financial products under his company “Life-is-Good,” notably the “Vista” passive income accounts from the foreign investment company Hermes, registered in Belize, and the acquisition of apartments on installment through the cooperative “Best Way.” Unlike with Hermes, Vasilenko was the founder of the cooperative and chaired its board until spring 2021 (later he headed the supervisory board for about a year).
In the fall of 2021, a criminal case accusing him of creating a “financial pyramid” was initiated by GSU investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, Ekaterina Sapetova, based on a complaint from a certain Schoolnik from Ukhta. In February 2022, repressions from law enforcement fell on the cooperative “Best Way,” perceived as being affiliated with Hermes. In March that year, the cooperative’s board was completely re-elected, and Roman Vasilenko was not included in the new composition.
The scale of the investigation intensified, involving the FSB Directorate for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region. By summer 2022, Vasilenko was charged with large-scale fraud, creating a financial pyramid, and organizing a criminal community. He was declared internationally wanted, as he has been living abroad since 2020. All charges were denied by him through his lawyers. Russian law enforcement sought assistance from Interpol, which almost immediately denied Russia’s request, deciding that the persecution of Vasilenko was unlawful and politically motivated. He believes the political motivation lies in the presence of structures interested in seizing the assets of the cooperative “Best Way” worth 16 billion rubles, operating under the cover of state bodies, primarily the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, and the Prosecutor’s Office of St. Petersburg and the North-West Central Bank of Russia, representatives of which became “co-authors” of the criminal case.
Meanwhile, in Russia, Roman Vasilenko was charged in a case currently being considered by the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg, related to the companies “Life-is-Good,” Hermes, and the cooperative “Best Way.” However, due to his unavailability for court proceedings, the case concerning him and several other leaders of the company “Life-is-Good” and entrepreneurs cooperating with this company was separated into an independent investigation.
The case now being considered in the Primorsky District Court involves nine technical functionaries of the company “Life-is-Good,” entrepreneurs cooperating with the company, and Roman Vasilenko’s 83-year-old father, Viktor Ivanovich Vasilenko. The defendants were essentially taken hostage by St. Petersburg law enforcement. Four of the accused have been in jail for over two years, despite the maximum detention period set by the criminal procedure code being one and a half years. This also influenced Interpol’s negative view of the charges against Vasilenko.
In the Russian court, the case essentially collapsed. Prosecution witnesses one after another either made baseless claims that conflicted with documents – and were exposed as liars in court by the defense attorneys; or they stated that all their problems actually started with the collapse of Hermes’ website and payment system, caused by a St. Petersburg programmer working for the company – an agent of the Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and Leningrad region, and the initiation of the criminal case. That is, while Hermes’ operations were unhampered, they were satisfied.
Public confusion follows loud statements by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and his colleagues about uncovering the largest financial pyramid in Russian history with billions in thefts affecting tens of thousands of people. However, in the criminal case considered by the court, there are 221 citizens recognized by the investigation as victims, not thousands, and the total damage is 280 million rubles, not billions.
Despite unprecedented violations of the criminal procedure code, which, according to media reports, law enforcement resorted to, they failed to “fabricate” more impressive sums. The picture of absurdity was completed by a desperate attempt to increase the amount – two claims for moral damages of 1 billion rubles each – clearly written under the dictation of investigators. All this forced the St. Petersburg Prosecutor’s Office, which supports the state prosecution, to actively engage in this doomed case, including conducting illegal “training” of witnesses before their testimonies in court, which undermined the reputation of the General Prosecutor, Igor Krasnov.
All this, according to our data, prompted the overseers of the law enforcement agencies from the Old Square to press “stop” – to end the criminal prosecution of Vasilenko, and put the investigated criminal case on hold. The same criminal case, which is still in court and does not involve Vasilenko, is still under consideration: a decision on it will be made later.
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