The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has opened a criminal case against the Anti-Corruption Fund under the article “operations with money known to be acquired by other persons by criminal means” (paragraph “b” of part 4 of article 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to the investigation, from January 2016 to December 2018, persons related to the activities of the non-profit organization Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK), including fund employees, received large amounts of money in rubles and foreign currency from third parties that were acquired by criminal means, which was obviously known.
According to the materials of the preliminary investigation, which was reviewed by RT, the investigators of the UEB and the PC (Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Directorate) of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs checked the bank accounts of the Anti-Corruption Fund employees and found out that the total turnover in 2017-2018 on these accounts is only in Alpha -bank amounted to about 1 billion rubles. As follows from the materials of UEB and PC, part of these funds (75 million 461 thousand) the fund employees deposited into their accounts through ATMs.
On August 8 of this year, the Anti-Corruption Fund underwent searches, the fund’s accounts and personal accounts of the defendants were arrested, FBK employees were questioned by investigators.
All-Russian fees
Former investigator of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, lawyer and member of the Presidium of the National Anti-Corruption Committee Pavel Zaitsev draws attention to the fact that the legalization of funds involves the existence of a crime, as a result of which they were obtained.
“Legalization is impossible without committing another crime, as a result of which the funds received must be laundered. Where did this money come from? As a result of theft, trade in illegal goods, drugs, weapons? By itself, the 174th article cannot exist. We need to first initiate a case regarding some other crime, and only after that we can investigate legalization, ”said RT attorney.
In the UK, referring to the confidentiality of the investigation, they did not disclose information as a result of which crimes money was received, allegedly transferred to FBK employees, and whether a case was opened on the fact of illegal acquisition of these funds.
After reviewing the reports of the Anti-Corruption Fund, as well as other structures created by Alexey Navalny’s team from 2016 to 2018, it can be assumed that the billion rubles referred to in the investigation materials are related to donations that began to be collected in the end of 2016 as part of the campaign to nominate Alexei Navalny as president of Russia.
In 2017, Leonid Volkov's personal accounts with Alfa Bank and Sberbank were indicated as the address for donations on the Navalny 20! 8 website. From December 2016 to March 2018, 269 million 865 thousand rubles were received in various accounts, including PayPal and Yandex.Money. Another 11 million 710 thousand brought live broadcasts and a fundraising store.
Leonid Volkov explained that this money is not taxed. “No, it's a gift of money. Is not a subject to a tax. It’s the same as if you and I went to have dinner, I would pay with a card, and then you would send me your 50% of the invoice - with that kind of money I would not have to pay personal income tax (income tax). At the same time, when we use these donations to pay salaries to headquarters employees, we naturally pay all taxes and accruals to the payroll stipulated by law, ”the functionary explained to his supporters on his personal website.
Another 91.2 million rubles, according to Navalny’s team reports, were received in bitcoin wallets, also listed on the Navalny 20! 8 website as addresses for collecting donations in cryptocurrency (it cannot be excluded that, apart from those indicated, Navalny’s team used other crypto accounts ) Revenues to these crypto accounts continue now.
As RT calculated, analyzing the transactions, from December 8, 2016 to July 9, 2019 only 618 bitcoins were received only on the crypto account designated as Leonid Volkov's personal bitcoin wallet (approximately 180-200 million rubles, taking into account the floating rate of bitcoin) .
Competitive intelligence specialist Andrei Masalovich, who conducted a transaction analysis at the request of RT, drew attention to the fact that large transfers (more than 1 MTC) account for approximately 10% of the total number of transfers, but in money terms they account for 94% of the proceeds. This, in our opinion, contradicts the claims of Navalny’s team about the thousands of supporters who support the opposition with small donations.
According to Vladimir Dyakov of Crypto Detectives, who also analyzed transactions at our request, bitcoins go through a complex system of anonymization of senders.
“You can explain the complex schemes by the fact that neither donors want to show themselves, nor the opposition does not seek to open sources of funding,” says Dyakov. “But it turns out that the supporters of Navalny, instead of directly transferring funds, suddenly ran to look for specialized services that hide the passage of money.”
Leonid Volkov on Thursday, August 8, in his Facebook actually confirmed that large amounts appeared on the bank accounts of FBK employees after exchanging bitcoins received in donations for rubles. Transactions with the purchase and sale of bitcoins are possible using cryptocurrency exchanges and online exchangers. Since the circulation of cryptocurrencies in Russia is not regulated by law, this method of financing the campaign cannot be called illegal. Anonymity of transactions on blockchain platforms also allows you to receive money from unknown persons from abroad, but it is very difficult to prove the illegal origin of these funds.
The UK did not answer the question of RT whether the interest of the investigation extends to operations with cryptocurrency.
Money for the regions
Funds from Volkov’s bank accounts and FBK employees, which they call donations, were transferred to the accounts of funds established by Leonid Volkov himself and Ildar Zakirov, an activist from Izhevsk: “Fifth time of year”, “Legal support of citizens” and the Foundation for the Organization and Coordination of Citizens' Rights Protection. Through these NGOs, "campaign management" and headquarters financing in the regions were carried out, premises lease agreements and agreements with employees were concluded.
By 2018, 81 headquarters were opened in the regions.
In March 2018, when Alexei Navalny was denied registration as a presidential candidate, his team reorganized. The number of headquarters in the regions decreased to 45. Most of them work today.
In January 2018, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation appealed to the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow with an administrative lawsuit to liquidate the Fifth Time of the Year fund.
“As a result of the audit, violations of the charter of the fund were revealed and signs of unlawful activity were found, including financing of the election campaign of Alexey Navalny,” the representative of the Ministry of Justice said in court. “The fund raises funds in bitcoins, which provides for anonymity of transactions, while anonymous donors are prohibited from depositing money into the accounts of registered presidential candidates.”
The lawyer of the fund, Vyacheslav Gimadi, at the court session stated that the fund does not accept bitcoins, “because, by law and purely technical, the fund as an organization cannot accept cryptocurrency.”
The legal support fund for citizens was liquidated by a decision of the Votkinsk District Court of the Udmurt Republic in a lawsuit filed by the Ministry of Justice of Russia in December 2018 for violations in the statutory activities.
After the liquidation of the Fifth Time of the Year fund and the Legal Support of Citizens fund, headquarters funding began to be implemented through the Foundation for Organization and Coordination of the Protection of Citizens' Rights.
The head of the Novosibirsk headquarters, Sergei Boyko, told RT that the federal center paid the rent of premises and transferred the salary to three staff members of the headquarters. Boyko considers the talks about money laundering political pressure.
“Saying that the money was somehow laundered is strange - there is a headquarters,” the coordinator explained. - This money was collected from supporters, whom I see, and spent on a network of headquarters. I know this because I’m paid at the headquarters. That is, I have an agreement and the fund pays my salary. ”
Another regional coordinator told RT on condition of anonymity that the monthly maintenance of a regional headquarters, including the rental of premises, costs an average of 150-200 thousand rubles.
“The principle of Navalny is to invest not in people, but in structure, because people who work not for money but for an idea can always be found. The salary of full-time employees is calculated based on the consumer basket: from 30 thousand to 50 thousand rubles, depending on the region. Volunteers do not receive money at all. When there is no movement, the main task of full-time employees is to maintain activity on social networks. Conduct your local anti-corruption investigations and publish them. These investigations are subsequently “highlighted”, promoted from Moscow by FBK resources. Campaign materials from FBK for specific campaigns are distributed according to the umbrella principle, leaflets and brochures are printed in millions of copies and dumped into the regions. ”
Abandoned and forgotten
It is difficult to imagine how much a billion rubles reached the regions discovered by the Investigative Committee, but, as RT found out, now regional activists from Navalny’s headquarters are forced to independently collect money to pay fines for protest rallies, despite promises of support from Moscow.
Activists of Navalny’s headquarters in the regions campaigned for citizens to participate in unauthorized protests: “He is not Dimon for you” - March 26, 2017, “He is not our king” - May 5, 2018, against pension reform and raising the retirement age - September 9, 2018 .
“Before the rally on March 26, 2017, I promised that we would write a complaint to the ECHR to every detainee and compensate for the fines,” said Alexey Navalny on the FBK website in 2018. Now this is the current work after each rally. ”
According to the results of the event “He is not for you Dimon”, according to the portal “OVD-Info”, about 1800 people were detained. After the action “He is not your king,” 1,600 people were in police stations. As a result of the action against raising the retirement age - almost 1,200 people. In respect of many detainees, the courts ruled on administrative penalties. Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation provides for a fine for participation in an unauthorized rally and procession in the amount of 10 thousand to 20 thousand rubles. For a repeated violation, the court may impose a fine of 150 thousand to 300 thousand rubles, 200 hours of community service, or administrative arrest for 30 days.
According to the Federal Bailiff Service, now 19 current and former regional headquarters coordinators Alexei Navalny are evading payment of fines or community service. How many ordinary participants in the rally faced material problems is unknown. They collect money for them on social networks, according to friends and acquaintances, without waiting for help from Moscow.
Mikhail Murygin took over the post of coordinator of the Samara headquarters in September 2017. His candidacy was selected as a result of an open competition in which 15 applicants participated. Prior to this, Murygin, by his own admission, had never been involved in politics. For organizing the rally on May 5, 2018, he received a fine of 150 thousand rubles. In December 2018, the court fined Murygin another 212 thousand rubles for an unreliable investigation (the video was posted on the pages of Navalny’s Saratov headquarters in social networks). According to Mikhail Murygin, he was counting on help from Moscow in paying fines, but he still has not been able to contact Alexei Navalny to resolve the financial issue.
“I’ll tell you frankly: it’s almost impossible to get in touch with Alexei,” Murygin told RT. “I do not have and did not have direct contact with him, despite the fact that I was the regional leader.”
Negotiations with other representatives of FBK, according to Murygin, also brought no results.
In early August 2018, Murygin was relieved of his post as head of staff. He refused to comment on the reasons for his dismissal. But one of the Telegram channels quoted Murygin: “Now I’m forbidden to come to headquarters. I am enemy number two after Putin. "
Nevertheless, Murygin does not leave hope that Alexey Navalny will help pay a huge fine.
“Yes, of course, I want some kind of dialogue. But judging by the team that’s there, it’s unlikely that something will work out. Too many people around him who have an influence on him and create the wrong picture of understanding what is happening. I talked with other people who have similar problems, and they also have this opinion, ”said an RT activist.
In 2019, Murygin announced his participation in the by-elections to the Saratov Regional Duma as a self-nominated candidate, but could not hand in the signatures of his supporters within the time period established by law.
According to the website of the Federal Bailiff Service, as of August 5, 2019, 17 enforcement proceedings were opened at Murygin, including fines, tax liabilities, late fees and other penalties.
The ex-coordinator of the Arkhangelsk headquarters Alexander Peskov did not wait for help from Moscow. The activist is 23 years old, after school, he entered the Northern State Medical University and at the same time became interested in politics. From the fourth year he was expelled, and then denied the right to recover, as Alexander himself assures, for political reasons.
Peskov became the coordinator of the Arkhangelsk headquarters in late autumn 2017. Under his leadership, two major protests took place, as well as a series of rallies and processions.
For organizing the action against raising the retirement age on September 9, 2018, Peskov received two fines at once. The local administration found violations in the applications for the rally, but Navalny’s Arkhangelsk headquarters decided to take to the streets. Peskov received two fines of 200 thousand rubles each, since the rally and the procession were declared as two different events.
“I had this a second violation,” he explained to RT. - In the summer I was already involved in this article. There the fine was 15 thousand rubles. Since it was paid, that is, the order was executed, both violations committed on September 9 were found to be repeated. ”
Money to pay fines for himself and other participants who were fined, Alexander collected a month.
“The sum for all is about 600 thousand rubles, others had fines of 10-15 thousand rubles,” said Peskov. - In this case, it was the help of certain supporters who donate small amounts. Specifically, there was no help from Moscow or from somewhere else. ”
Peskov resigned as coordinator in October 2018 due to the closure of the headquarters. Officially, neither Peskov nor the Moscow leadership spoke about the reasons for the closure of the Arkhangelsk branch.
In July 2019, the headquarters reopened, but Andrei Borovikov was appointed coordinator. He told RT what the break in the work of the Arkhangelsk branch of Navalny’s organization was related to: “The reason is that there is no money, as the classic said. And there was a personal conflict between the previous coordinator and the central headquarters. ”
Electrical technician from AvtoVAZ plant Sergey Ionov became interested in politics in 2008, when the company began to reduce. He supported the Communist Party, was an observer in the elections, participated in rallies. In 2014, he began to disagree with the Communists, and Ionov joined the team of Navalny. At first he was an ordinary volunteer activist, but he proved himself well, they paid attention to him. In August 2017, Ionov was chosen as the coordinator of the Togliatti headquarters.
For calling for an uncoordinated rally, the activist received a fine of 20 thousand rubles. Paying it was not easy. Ionov collected the funds himself. In addition to him, fines were issued to several more people. According to Ionov, only two or three of those detained in unauthorized actions provided assistance from Moscow.
At the end of March 2018, the headquarters from Tolyatti moved to Samara, where before that there was another headquarters, but Ionov remained.
“Having two headquarters in one region is now too wasteful,” Ionov commented on this decision. The political views of the ex-coordinator of the Togliatti headquarters have not changed. At first, he planned to run for the city duma, but, having received an administrative fine for reposting in social networks, he lost this right. Now he calls himself a social activist.