Disappeared on the way: Muscovites complained about "gray" car dealers
Several allegations of embezzlement of funds for the supply of cars from abroad were filed with the OMVD of the Presnensky district of Moscow. Izvestia dealt with the situation.
They bought into the cheerful "Germans"
One of the victims, a 40-year-old employee of a large IT company, was attracted by the price of a Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 announced in a specialized Telegram channel for used cars — sellers wanted a little more than 3.5 million rubles for a car from Germany. He contacted the administrator and he made an appointment for him at the Moscow City office. There, after a conversation with a courteous manager, the man signed a contract for the supply of a car from the European Union. The car was supposed to be delivered by an individual entrepreneur from Tatarstan through his representative Evgeny P. (the data is available in the editorial office). The prepayment amounted to 3 million 520 thousand rubles. The Muscovite was promised to provide a car by the end of June after the customs clearance procedures were settled.
At first, the client was informed that everything was going according to plan and the car was allowed through an inspection point in Belarus. Then the distiller announced the workload and postponed the delivery for several days. The Muscovite has not received the car yet.
An entrepreneur from Lipetsk, who also studied offers on Telegram, found himself in a similar situation. He liked the Audi A6 Allroad with a symbolic mileage of 21 thousand km. The negotiations were conducted by the same Evgeny P. The contract was signed, the Penza resident handed over almost 3 million rubles as an advance payment. He didn't get a car or money. In the same way, he was first informed about the "shift to the right" of the delivery dates of the ordered and paid car, then they stopped contacting him.
As a police source explained to Izvestia, the decision to institute a criminal case on the allegations has not yet been made. Formally, force majeure is possible in the supply of cars, which translates the conflict into a civil law issue. The operatives will have to establish the dealers' intent to steal funds. However, according to the source, several other citizens lost money in similar circumstances.
In the name of the King
As Izvestia found out, the individual entrepreneur on whose behalf the managers at Moscow City acted is an active player in the car sales market. It is possible that his name was simply used for selfish purposes. The businessman has been working in Tatarstan for a long time and is well known in the republic. He was and remains the co-founder and head of several companies related to the trade in foreign cars, logistics, transport maintenance and other activities with a huge cash turnover. In particular, one of the companies associated with the entrepreneur, according to the tax service last year, had a turnover of over 4 billion rubles. After the sanctions were imposed, the company, which had previously traded mainly in American and European cars, switched to trading in "Chinese".
The peak of fraudulent activities occurred in 2022-2024, according to a source of Izvestia in law enforcement agencies.
— With the departure of well-known car brands, the "fraud exchange" has significantly revived. One of the first to appear was a scheme with a "window at customs" — they took an advance payment from a person and promised to overtake a used car from Europe, after which the crooks disappeared. But this was done, as a rule, without documentation, only on trust. Then the legend about the transportation of American and European cars through the countries of Transcaucasia became widespread. In this way, foreign cars actually got into Russia, but the share of deception in transferring money was exorbitant — just a lottery," the source tells Izvestia.
Earlier in March, REN TV reported on numerous facts of dealers delaying the supply of cars from abroad and deceiving buyers. In particular, it was about a St. Petersburg woman who was deceived in one of the car dealerships of the city on the Neva. After she handed over the agreed amount, another 500 thousand rubles were demanded from her. Later, she did get a car, but the vehicle turned out to be in a faulty condition. The court and Rospotrebnadzor, in case of delayed delivery of cars, usually side with the buyer — there are already precedents when dealers were punished with rubles for delay and fraud.
Lawyer's opinion
— An office in a prestigious location is not a guarantee of the seriousness of the company's intentions, it is an important rule of doing business, — says lawyer Ekaterina Krasnova. — Rented premises can be used to throw dust in the eyes of the client. Any transaction with a 100% prepayment should be suspicious, especially if it involves large amounts.
Krasnova recommends checking the seller before negotiating and concluding agreements on INN, OGRNIP and registers of the Federal Tax Service. The lawyer is skeptical about the advertising of companies that are active exclusively in social networks and messengers.
"Telegram's activities are poorly regulated by law, so it is convenient for various kinds of crooks,— says Krasnova. — Positive as well as negative reviews about companies here may turn out to be fake. You should not build an opinion about the company based on reviews without actual verification.
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