On Friday, June 26, the Meshchansky City Court of Moscow announced the announcement of the verdict for the defendants in the Seventh Studio case. The court found the artistic director of the Gogol Center, director Kirill Serebrennikov, producers Yuri Itin and Alexei Malobrodsky guilty of embezzlement of funds allocated for the Platform's contemporary art project.
“Despite the denial of the defendants' involvement in the alleged crimes, the court found that Serebrennikov, Itin, Malobrodsky ... having distributed criminal roles among themselves, having developed a complex crime mechanism involving a multi-stage training plan, committed theft of state funds ... 128 million damage was caused rubles, ”RIA Novosti quoted Judge Oles Mendeleev as saying.
At the same time, Serebrennikov was recognized as the head of the criminal group.
“Serebrennikov carried out the general management of all members of the group and took measures to conceal theft,” the judge said.
According to her, as part of this group, "the aforementioned persons committed actions aimed at personal enrichment by deceiving the employees of the Ministry of Culture of Russia."
Serebrennikov was sentenced to three years probation and a fine of 800 thousand rubles. Itin received three years probation and 200 thousand rubles. fine, Malobrodsky - two years probation and 300 thousand rubles. a fine.
The charge to the director of the RAMT theater, a former employee of the Ministry of Culture Sofya Apfelbaum, is reclassified to part 1 of article 293 of the Criminal Code (negligence). The verdict states that Apfelbaum did not know about the actions of the criminal group, however, she unscrupulously reacted to her service. Due to the expiration of the statute of limitations of the crime, Apfelbaum lifted the obligation to pay a fine.
The court left in custody the property of the defendants in the case. The court claimed damage in the amount of 129 million rubles from Serebrennikov, Itin and Malobrodsky.
Debate
The debate on the case of the "Seventh Studio" began on June 22. During them, the prosecutor Mikhail Reznichenko concluded that all the charges against the director Kirill Serebrennikov and other defendants were fully proved as a result of a lengthy trial.
“The accusation has been fully confirmed ... And for each person involved, the court must pass a guilty verdict, despite not recognizing guilt,” the RIA Novosti prosecutor quotes.
Reznichenko asked the court to assign real sentences to the defendants: six years in a general regime colony, Kirill Serebrennikov, five - to Alexei Malobrodsky, four years to Yuri Itin and Sofya Apfelbaum. Also, the prosecutor demanded to recover fines in the amount of 200 to 800 thousand rubles from each of the defendants. It was proposed that the property of the defendants be kept in custody until the fines were paid.
- Kirill Serebrennikov in court
- RIA News
- © Ilya Pitalev
Reznichenko also requested that Serebrennikov, Malobrodsky, Itina and Apfelbaum be prohibited from holding leadership positions in cultural institutions for three years related to the distribution of material resources.
The defendants have a civil lawsuit from the Ministry of Culture in the amount of 128.9 million rubles. The defendants pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers asked the court for acquittal.
In particular, the director Kirill Serebrennikov noted that he had nothing to do with the distribution of funds. “I was involved in the production of performances. I did not deal with finances, ”TASS quoted him as saying.
The Case of the Seventh Studio
The case of embezzlement by the management of the Seventh Studio for the implementation of the Platform project was opened in 2017. According to the prosecution, the staff of the autonomous non-profit organization Seventh Studio, under the leadership of Kirill Serebrennikov, provided the Ministry of Culture with incorrect information about the cost of work related to the organization of various events within the framework of the Platform.
First, among the suspects were Alexei Malobrodsky, Yuri Itin, producer Ekaterina Voronova and accountant Nina Maslyaeva. Voronova left the country and is currently on the international wanted list.
After Maslyaeva testified against Serebrennikov, the director who was previously involved in the case as a witness became one of the suspects. Maslyaeva is also the only suspect who pleaded guilty. For this reason, her case was segregated.
In 2017, a representative of the Ministry of Culture said that of the 216.5 million rubles allocated by the department, only 16 million were spent on activities to popularize contemporary art.
At the same time, the director of the Russian Academic Youth Theater Sofya Apfelbaum was detained, who, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, signed an agreement to provide the Seventh Studio with an amount of 214 million rubles.
A case was opened under the article “Theft on a particularly large scale”. Kirill Serebrennikov and Sophia Apfelbaum were placed under house arrest; in April 2019, this preventive measure was replaced with a recognizance not to leave.
Three examinations were conducted in the case. One of them estimated material damage from the actions of the management of the "Seventh Studio" at 133 million rubles. According to another, the defendants not only did not waste, but even saved the funds allocated to them. The latest examination estimated the damage to the Ministry of Culture at almost 129 million rubles.