A large family leaving the US for Russia lost ₽4 million to a fraudster

The American family of many children Heer, who moved to Russia in 2023 because of the support of traditional values, got in touch with a fraudster and lost $50 thousand (~4.4 million rubles) of savings. Anatoly Korovin, a lawyer helping the Heers, told RBC.

He said that a week later the family met with the pastor of the Russian Baptist church Vitaly Vlasenko, in whose house they later settled.

After that, the clergyman's son Daniel offered to borrow the family's savings, promising a large interest on the loan in the future. At the same time, the Heers took from him only a receipt in Russian, which was poorly understood. The fraudster specifically refused to draw up a contract in English under the pretext that in the country allegedly such agreements are not legally valid.

"Taking advantage of their ignorance of Russian, Daniel wrote the receipt incorrectly from the legal point of view, specifically not specifying in it the full name and passport data of the lenders <...> Daniel thereby wrote them a receipt that has no legal force," the lawyer said.

After that, the family was able to get back only 610 thousand rubles. It is reported that the Vlasenko family has fled and is hiding from law enforcement agencies. It is specified that the police are currently conducting a check.

August 15, the Heer family received temporary asylum in Moscow region. The spouses said that they adhere to the Christian worldview. Leo Lionel and Chantel Felice Haer lived in their native New York, they are raising three children. The reason for their move from the United States was Washington's abolition of traditional moral and family values. They were also attracted to Russia by its high level of education.