Culturally imprisoned: the court gave a soft sentence to the "Pushkin cards" embezzlers

The Basmanny Court of Moscow announced the verdict of three defendants in the Pushkin Card fraud case - they received from four to six years in prison and will have to compensate for the damage caused by their actions - more than 200 million rubles. The defendants in the case - businessmen Viktor Yakubov and Emil Gurbanov, as well as Ilya Safonov, a student of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations - offered various ways of cashing out money to "Pushkin cards" holders. For this purpose, they rented venues in Moscow and organized concerts there, tickets for which were bought by fake persons. Lawyers believe that the court handed down a fairly lenient sentence, reducing by a third the term requested by the prosecution. Details of the case - in the material "Izvestia".

How money was cashed from "Pushkin cards"

To imprisonment for a term of four to six years and large compensation for material damage sentenced Basmanny court of Moscow defendants in the case of embezzlement in the implementation of the federal program "Pushkin Card". The court found the organizers of the embezzlement scheme - Viktor Yakubov, Ilya Safonov and Emil Gurbanov - guilty of large-scale fraud committed by an organized group. The defendants were detained in November 2022.

According to the rules of the program "Pushkin card" can not withdraw money from it, they can only pay for trips to theaters, museums, philharmonics and some other cultural events.

Photo: Izvestia/Mitriy Korotayev

According to the investigation, in 2022 Yakubov, Gurbanov and Safonov developed a complex multi-stage plan to embezzle the funds allocated by the budget for the purchase of such tickets. For this purpose, they opened bank accounts and registered as individual entrepreneurs, as well as helped several other people to formalize the status of sole proprietorships. These persons are not charged in the case, as they were not aware of the further plans of the defendants, told "Izvestia" in the Investigative Committee.

- The accomplices registered on the platform "PRO.Culture RF" to participate in the program "Pushkin map" as cultural organizations, - said the investigators. - They signed rental agreements for premises, negotiated with representatives of artists for their future performances.

Then accomplices through the Internet offered holders of "Pushkin cards" with unused limit of budget funds (the annual limit on the card is up to 5 thousand rubles) for a monetary reward to buy tickets to these events. They also looked for those who agreed to register "Pushkin cards" and buy tickets to concerts with them.

What the court decided

In order to give the events the status of legal, the authors of the scheme provided "the appearance of a crowd" and attracted to them people "unaware of their goals and objectives," the IC added. At the same time, the volume of tickets purchased exceeded the audience capacity of the rented concert venues many times over. And the actual number of guests was much less than the information that the defendants submitted for reporting to the Ministry of Culture.

- Thus, the mass purchase of tickets for cultural events organized by the criminal group members without the purpose of their attendance was ensured from "Pushkin cards" with unused limit of funds, - stressed in the IC.

Photo: Izvestia/Eduard Kornienko

The accomplices provided the Ministry of Culture with false information about the events and thus stole more than 205 million rubles, as follows from the indictment.

The state prosecution during the debate requested nine years of colony for Ilya Safonov, eight years for Viktor Yakubov and 6.5 years for Emil Gurbanov. The court gave them lighter sentences, as well as satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Culture and Post Bank (the operator of "Pushkin cards") and ruled to recover from the convicts jointly and severally RUB 202.8 million in compensation for material damage.

Earlier, the property of the defendants worth more than 110 million rubles was seized to secure the claims.

The court decided to credit each defendant the time of detention in the pre-trial detention center from November 30, 2022 to the term at the rate of a day for a day and a half.

Photo: Izvestia/Zurab Javakhadze

The lawyer of one of the convicts, Emil Gurbanov, told Izvestia that his client, who received a four-year sentence, will not appeal the verdict.

This is not the first sentence passed by the court on the "Pushkin cards" fraud. In April 2024, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow sentenced former Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Yarilova to seven years in prison in a case of abuse of power. The court concluded that Yarilova illegally included a commercial structure, the Museum of Ice Cream, in the subsidy program. In addition to serving her sentence, the ex-officer has to pay more than 125 million rubles under the Ministry of Culture's claim for material damage.

Lawyers talk about a soft sentence for the defendants in the case

The court sentenced the defendants to rather soft terms, because when passing sentence it is guided not by what the prosecution asks for, but by the totality of circumstances, Alexei Gavrishev, head of AVG Legal, explained to Izvestia.

-At the court investigation, apparently, a decision was made on the degree of guilt, which the court considered commensurate with the terms specified in the sentences," the lawyer said. - The presence or absence of a criminal record, state of health, behavior of the defendants during the investigation of the case and many other things were also taken into account.

Large-scale fraud is a serious crime, so parole can be applied only after at least half of the sentence, recalled "Izvestia" lawyer of the Moscow Bar Association "Lobutev and Partners" Evgenia Privalova.

- The time in custody is counted in this term," the lawyer said. - But it is not enough to file a petition. The convict must be positively characterized during the entire period of serving the sentence, not to have penalties. He also needs to receive a conclusion of the colony administration on the expediency of parole.

Photo: Izvestia/Eduard Kornienko

The court will also take into account whether the damage has been compensated, added Evgenia Privalova.

Alexei Gavrishev expressed hope that the legislators will take into account the gaps in the mechanisms of the "Pushkin Cards".

- Practice has shown that despite the severe penalties and their inevitability, the temptation of dubious earnings, and sometimes even criminal ones, is too great," he said.

But revision of the mechanisms will still not give a hundred percent guarantee that in the future someone will not be able to come up with new ways to circumvent them, he noted.