The case of Larisa Dolina. How scammers robbed the singer of her money and apartment

In Balashikha, Moscow region, a trial has begun in the case of fraud against singer Larisa Dolina. There were four people in the dock accused of fraud. Dolina suffered damage in the amount of more than 300 million rubles, she almost lost her apartment in the center of Moscow, she and her lawyer were threatened with murder. What is known about the high—profile fraud case is in the Izvestia article.

What are the defendants accused of?

• There are four defendants in the Larisa Dolina fraud case. These are Artur Kamenetsky, a resident of Kazan, and Dmitry Leontiev, a native of Yoshkar-Ola, who had previously been convicted of robbery and extortion, Angela Tsyrulnikova, an employee of the Moscow library, and Andrey Osnovy, a resident of Tolyatti. They were charged with committing fraud organized by a group on an especially large scale and resulting in the deprivation of the victim's right to housing (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

• In the indictment, the Prosecutor's Office of the Central Administrative District of Moscow reported that the defendants committed embezzlement by deception, causing damage to the People's Artist of Russia in the amount of 317.6 million rubles. Their group operated from April 2 to July 12, 2024. During this time, the defendants stole money from Dolina in the amount of 175.12 million rubles, and also forced her to sell an apartment in Ksenevsky Lane in Moscow worth 138 million rubles. The scammers told Dolina that her funds were allegedly at risk and convinced her to transfer the money to a "secure account." Tsyrulnikova is also accused of similar deception of three other pensioners.

• The investigation revealed that Tsyrulnikova acted as a courier in the fraudulent scheme and took large amounts of money from the victims. Leontiev was the owner of a bank card to which Dolina transferred one of the tranches in the amount of 10 million rubles. Kamenetsky involved him in criminal activities. Osnovy was also engaged in cashing out the singer's money using his card and transferred 2.7 million rubles to his accomplices.

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• There are also unidentified accomplices in the case who acted as droppers — owners of bank cards with which the stolen funds were transferred. One of them, Alexander Keldybaev, transferred a total of 15 million rubles. He died before the start of the court proceedings.

How is the process going?

• The trial on the merits began on November 10 in the Balashikha City Court of the Moscow Region. During the first meeting, lawyer Dolina announced that another criminal case had been opened on a death threat. According to him, unknown persons in September 2024 threatened him and his client to blow up the car if the fraud case was not terminated. In this regard, Dolina applied for state protection, but now the case has been suspended due to the fact that the suspects have not been identified.

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• Subsequently, Dolina's defense filed a motion for the trial to be held behind closed doors without the participation of media representatives and viewers. The court agreed with the arguments of the lawyer, as it is planned to announce the data on the psychological and psychiatric examination conducted in relation to the singer as part of the consideration of the case. The defense also petitioned Dolina not to participate in the trial personally.

• During the first hearing, the defendants refused to fully admit their guilt in committing the crime. At the same time, Kamenetsky partially admitted that he had participated in cashing out the funds of the deceived victims. Osnovy previously stated that he himself was the victim of deception and accidentally became a dropper at the request of a friend, but did not participate in the Valley deception.

What happened to the apartment

• In parallel with the development of the criminal case, Dolina filed a lawsuit with the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow demanding that the sale of her apartment in the center of the capital be declared invalid. The owner of the living space was a single mother and the daughter of a top manager of an IT company, Polina Lurie. The court terminated her ownership and refused the request to evict the singer from the apartment. There is no decision yet on the refund of the funds paid to Lurie for the purchase of the apartment.

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• Court documents allege that Dolina did not express her true intention to alienate the apartment when making the transaction. The actress was sure that she was involved in a fictitious sale and was cooperating with law enforcement agencies so that they would identify and detain the fraudsters. Subsequently, the Moscow City Court confirmed the legality of the decision of the court of first instance. In late October, Lurie filed a new complaint with the Court of Cassation.