News

The evidence gathered by the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has been deemed sufficient by the court to issue a verdict in the criminal case against Alexey Kurinov, Vitaly Gashakov, Yulia Charykova, and Yana Tagina, who were charged with committing crimes under Part 4 of Article 159 and Part 4 of Article 180 of the Criminal Code of the RF (fraud, illegal use of product identification marks).

The investigation and court have established that Andrey Khartanyuk, his mother Irina Khartanyuk, Vitaly Gashakov, Alexey Kurinov, Yana Tagina, and Yulia Charykova, acting as part of a criminal group, in February 2017 created duplicate websites of leading cultural institutions of the Russian Federation. Among those were the websites of the Mariinsky Theatre, Bolshoi Theatre, Maly Theatre, Theatre of Nations, Russian Academic Youth Theatre (RAYT), Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the International Military Music Festival "Spasskaya Tower." These cultural institutions have suffered significant financial damage in the form of illegal use of their trademarks, amounting to over 9 million rubles.

Through these websites, the accomplices illegally sold tickets to events at these institutions using their trademarks and similar logos at inflated prices, misleading ticket buyers about the ownership of the sites and thereby stealing the buyers' money.

The funds obtained were deposited into the bank accounts of controlled organizations registered under nominal managers, and then withdrawn as cash and distributed among the members of the criminal group.

Over 150 people were involved in this illegal activity, including IT specialists, call center employees, ticket sellers, couriers, programmers, advertising managers, and system administrators. To maintain conspiracy, foreign companies were used as domain name operators, and communication with ticket buyers occurred through internet telephony. The ticket sales were conducted via call centers located in Moscow and Vladimir. The operation of the websites used for illegal ticket sales has been terminated.

In order to compensate for the damages, the accused's real estate, vehicles, and funds have been seized. The victims filed civil claims against the defendants, which were upheld by the court.

The court sentenced Kurinov to 7 years and 6 months of imprisonment and fined him 800,000 rubles, while Gashakov received 4 years and 6 months in prison and a 600,000 ruble fine. Charykova and Tagina were given suspended sentences.

Andrey Khartanyuk and I. Khartanyuk have been placed on the international wanted list and were arrested in absentia.