The Crow in the law: will the criminal case generate new interest in Linda's work
Singer Linda, known for the hits "The Crow" and "Little Fire," was detained and interrogated as a witness in a fraud case. The stumbling block is the rights to the songs by Maxim Fadeev. According to the producer and composer, the documents with his signature on the transfer of these rights were forged. At the same time, the artist has a rather busy concert schedule. On May 14, she was scheduled to have an immersive aroma-sound performance, "Theater of Sound in the Dark with Linda." As Izvestia found out, the event will take place anyway, and fans are in no hurry to hand over tickets purchased for Svetlana's future concerts.
Little fire
On May 12, the Telegram channel 112 reported on the detention of Linda (real name — Svetlana Gaiman). There were reports that the singer and her producer Mikhail Kuvshinov were searched. Later, both were taken for questioning in connection with the investigation into the case of Andrei Cherkasov, the CEO of the Jam music publishing house, who works with Linda. Operational actions were also carried out in the companies Profit LLC and Top 7 Company, owned by Cherkasov and his wife.
The source of Izvestia claims that with the help of forged documents, the director of Profit, Daria Shamova and Linda, allegedly appropriated the rights to the musical works of producer Maxim Fadeev.
The conflict over the rights to Linda's songs is long-standing. Her most famous hits ("The Crow", "Little Fire", "Chains and Rings", "Dancing under Water" and others) were written from 1994 to 1999 by Maxim Fadeev, when Linda's activities were funded by her father, banker Lev Gaiman. Fadeev came up with her image — mysterious, gloomy, exotic. But at the turn of the century, the collaboration between the singer and the producer stopped. But the question of who owns the entire repertoire remains.
Maxim Fadeev
Maxim Fadeev commented on social media that this is not about bans on the performance of his texts, but about the protection of copyright and related rights:
"I'm sorry that Linda and I ended up at this point. For 30 years, I have been trying to resolve this issue peacefully through her representatives, Kuvshinov and Cherkasov (who is currently in jail), but this has not yielded results. Such issues should be resolved not through interviews with bloggers and public polemics, but through facts, documents, expertise and in the legal field."
Chains and rings
The case gained new momentum when Andrey Cherkasov, CEO of the Jam music publishing house, was brought to justice. In July 2025, the Moscow Arbitration Court sided with composer Leonid Velichkovsky, declaring Jam Publishing House LLC bankrupt. It was established that Cherkasov had appropriated the rights to hits by Lada Dance, Strelki, and Technologiya groups, written by Velichkovsky.
Now, according to the source, Cherkasov is charged with fraud on an especially large scale committed by an organized group (part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and fraud committed by a person using his official position, as well as on a large scale (part 3 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the founders of the group "Hands up!" Sergey Zhukov are recognized as victims. and Alexey Potekhin. The investigation believes that the documents on the basis of which "Jam" claimed the rights to their hits were forged. The suspect pleaded not guilty. He has been in jail since March. Now it has come to Fadeev's texts.
The question is, how will all this affect Linda? So far, the actress has been released as a witness after an eight-hour interrogation. The singer herself had previously claimed that she was under psychological pressure and wanted to limit her performance of songs.
An inside look
Due to the detention of Linda and her sound producer and sound engineer Mikhail Kuvshinov, the concert scheduled for May 14, "Theater of Sound in the Dark with Linda", an immersive sound event, was threatened. Izvestia contacted the Sound Relaxation Center to clarify whether the event has been canceled.
"At the moment, I cannot say whether it will take place," the center replied. — Neither Mikhail nor Linda are in touch with us. According to rumors, Linda's phone was taken away. Accordingly, most likely, we will hold a meditation concert in support of the singer. Let's get together with those who wanted and bought tickets. We can't know what her mental and physical condition is. Chances are good that Linda won't show up tomorrow, as will Mikhail, who is responsible for the sound. But we will hold our performance. If someone wants to refund the money for the ticket, we will refund them.
Linda's performance schedule is scheduled until December 27. Concerts without meditation are planned at the Academic Jazz Club in Moscow. The Izvestia club reported that tickets for the next concert on May 24th were on sale and no one handed them over.
"Sales are underway," the club said. — 10 days before the concert, tickets can be returned without loss. If the concert is cancelled on our initiative, the money is even more refunded. We also have an "open date" service: if a person leaves, falls ill and does not have a certificate, we provide an "open date" so that his tickets do not disappear.
It is possible that the current scandal will only spur interest in the actress. However, the question of her future repertoire remains open.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
