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Probe into Kirill Serebrennikov and his accomplices, accused of fraud, sent to court

The Main Directorate on Major Crimes Investigation of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation finished the probe into Kirill Serebrennikov, Alexey Malobrodsky, Yury Itin, and Sophya Apfelbaum. They are accused of committing an offence under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia (fraud on a large scale).

According to the investigators, the accused had stolen 133 of 214 million roubles of budget funds that had been allocated in 2011-2014 to autonomous non-profit organization “Seventh Studio” to develop and promote contemporary art in Russia as part of the project “Platform” on annual agreements on the subsidies allocation. The final conclusions about the damage caused by the accused were made on the basis of the results of the financial and economic examination carried out during the investigation.

The investigation took steps to secure the compensation for the damage and seized the property of the accused: Serebrennikov’s apartment in Germany that cost 300,000 euros and had been acquired while the theft had been committed; perpetrators’ cars worth about 7 million roubles; expensive jewellery; cash (5,000 euros, about 100,000 dollars); and other property.

Currently, the investigation gathered enough evidence; therefore, the criminal case with the approved indictment was sent to the court to be tried on the merits.

Accused Yekaterina Voronova hid from the investigation is on the international wanted list. Under an immunity agreement by Nina Maslyaeva, the probe against her is to be presented separately.

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko