He left in German: Ilan Josef Medvedev, accused of a luxury car scam, was released

Ilan Josef Medvedev, a German citizen, whose detention was reported by the media in early June, has been put on the all-Russian wanted list, Izvestia found out. He was charged with fraud on a particularly large scale. According to the Investigative Committee, a native and resident of Berlin is one of the organizers of a large—scale scam involving the supply of luxury cars from Europe, the damage from which can reach 1 billion rubles. At the same time, according to Izvestia, only two victims are currently involved in the case, and the investigation uses the phrase "over one million rubles" in describing the amount of damage.

The plot of the case

The investigation is being conducted by the Kuntsevo interdistrict department of the Moscow Department of the Investigative Committee. The case was opened on April 25 of this year. In addition to Ilan Medvedev, Vitaly Kocheshkov, who is not working, appears in it. Both of them have been charged with fraud on a particularly large scale. According to the investigation, the crime was committed by an organized group that abused the trust of the victims.

According to the investigation materials, no later than March 4, 2025, both defendants, along with other unidentified persons, conceived a scam. Taking advantage of the trust of friends, they offered to buy luxury cars and promised to bring them to Russia at a price significantly lower than the market price. The victims agreed, while, according to investigators, the defendants understood from the very beginning that they would not be able to fulfill their obligations.

In the period from March 4 to November 13, 2025, at the office on Vasilisa Kozhina Street, 13, scammers received money from customers to purchase luxury cars. However, none of the buyers of the car did not wait. According to the investigation, the defendants disposed of the cash "at their discretion."

Izvestia found out that the defendants told customers stories about all sorts of unforeseen obstacles — the car was deployed at customs in Brest, and now it will have to be driven out of Germany again; the ship that was supposed to deliver the car to the Black Sea port was idle at sea for several days due to drone attacks, after which the route was changed. and it came back.

In early June, the media, referring to Alexander Dobrovinsky, the lawyer of one of the victims, reported on the detention of Ilan Medvedev. However, as Izvestia found out, the investigation now emphasizes that it is currently impossible to locate the accused. At the same time, the TFR is confident in the involvement of the 31-year-old Berlin native in the fraudulent scheme.

Operatives of the criminal investigation department from the Department of Internal Affairs of the Western District will search for him. But if Medvedev has already left Russia to extradite him would be almost impossible — Germany does not extradite its citizens, even in the event of criminal prosecution.

Protection of Kocheshkov

Medvedev's accomplice, Vitaly Kocheshkov— was detained a few hours after the case was opened, and on April 27, the Kuntsevo court sent him to jail for two months.

Protesting the court decision, the defense of the defendant considered the arrest of his client illegal, unjustified and subject to cancellation. According to the defense, there are no documents in the case file confirming Kocheshkov's intention to hide from the investigation or the court and obstruct the investigation of the case. On this basis, the lawyers requested that Kocheshkov be either placed under house arrest or released on bail.

Also, according to the defense, the accusation does not have sufficient grounds: we are talking about debt obligations, and the lawyers consider the loan agreement referred to by the investigation to be fictitious. However, all these arguments did not affect the position of the Moscow City Court, and it left the arrest decision unchanged, and the defense of the defendant confirmed to Izvestia that he still remains in jail.

The second case of a German citizen

The investigation of the luxury car supply scam is the second criminal case involving Ilan Medvedev. So, on December 25, 2024, the Khoroshevsky District Court found him guilty of fraud on an especially large scale.

At that time, it was about a scam involving the supply of 300,000 respirators of two types from SoftLiftPlus. The events took place in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. As follows from the text of the verdict, a businessman living in Berlin on Bernadotte Strasse, during personal meetings and correspondence with the company's management, knowingly provided false information about the possibility of supplies through Foreson International Ltd, controlled by him.

On April 30, 2020, an agreement was signed with Medvedev's company for the supply of personal protective equipment, and on May 7, the Russian side transferred an advance payment. However, the goods were never delivered.

At the same time, the district court. having found the German citizen guilty of committing fraud on an especially large scale, he limited himself to a fine, refusing even to satisfy a civil claim for recovery from the convict of the entire amount of material damage caused to the buyer.

Former investigator of the Main Investigative Department of the Moscow Police, lawyer Alexander Burchuk stressed that the scam with the supply of cars from Germany has been operating for decades, but with the introduction of sanctions, fraudsters begin to mimic and adjust it to the current realities. The lawyer noted that he had investigated a similar case: it was about the supply of 30 cars, and recently he defended a client, who was also promised to bring a car from Germany for an advance payment, at a price 30% below the market. The woman was assured that savings were achieved by registering the car as an individual, and she believed it. The car was never received in the end.

Now, according to Alexander Burchuk, it has become much more difficult to track the crossing of the border by car. He notes that participants in such schemes, in an effort to avoid criminal liability, transfer everything to the civil law plane: instead of purchase and sale agreements, loans and receipts are issued, and documents are often written down to third parties formally responsible for customs clearance. Such schemes are based on the dilution of responsibility, which makes it difficult to investigate and prove criminal intent.