Biography. Interview with the former head of the Euroset security service Boris Levin Levin Chichvarkin

I answered phone calls, walked in circles between three phones, and for half a day the same thing was repeated. Many people congratulated and rejoiced. But I did nothing socially useful.

— Former co-owner of Euroset Evgeniy called you from London?

Yes, he also congratulated us, he was very happy for us.

— Didn’t you call me for a new job?

And where to? He doesn’t have any business in London.

While you were in the pre-trial detention center, did you communicate with your cellmates? Did they understand that you were arrested in such a high-profile case, did they sympathize?

Of course they understood. It was somehow not customary for us to sympathize with each other. They were simply hoping for my acquittal.

— The media said that staying in the isolation ward had a significant impact on your health. In particular, Chichvarkin said in his video message to the president that your hepatitis worsened in the isolation ward. How are you feeling now?

You will need to undergo a medical examination. It’s just that these two months were a difficult trial, it was physically very difficult. Now I can’t focus on how I feel because I’m exhausted. It was still normal to sit in court. On average, the meeting lasted from one to four hours, but it was normal. Everything else is very difficult. Traveling to court in a poorly equipped car, staying indoors 24/7, lack of sun, and so on. It's physically difficult. Chichvarkin spoke about the exacerbation of the illnesses that I had. Things got worse there, yes. But now I can’t say anything definite about how I’m feeling, I don’t understand it yet.

--Was there any pressure on you during the investigation?

No, but the operatives put pressure on my accomplices. It’s different for each: they tried to “communicate like a human being” with one, they tried to talk with another longer, the third was deceived, forced to testify, promising something in return, although I assume that the investigators themselves understood that this was a provocation.

--Do you mean your colleague Sergei A, who made a deal with the investigation and then terminated it?

- Yes. He was kept separately from us, and a generally unpleasant and incomprehensible story happened to him. He received from him exactly what the investigator needed to be completely happy and transfer the case to court, but he dumped it into one pile. Then Katorgin, of course, retracted his words. I was not present during the transactions with the investigation, but then from the case materials I realized that Katorgin expected that some charges against him would be dropped and released from custody, but the investigation did neither one nor the other.

— Why did you admit arbitrariness in court?

— It was in my last word, but I did not say the word “arbitrariness.” I admit guilt only to the fact that in 2003 I partially deprived Vlaskin of his freedom of movement, and I admitted that in some cases the return of stolen property was not carried out according to the algorithm that the law prescribed for us. It was essentially one episode. I was interested in what could be returned to the company. The Vlaskin family met us halfway and began to return the property purchased with the money he stole from the company, but without the consent of the owners we did not take a single step.

— Why do you think they remembered this story only five years later, in 2008, when they opened a criminal case against you?

- We had to find something. They understood that the plot of the main - smuggling - case, which caused problems for Euroset, was in no way applicable to me. I did not participate in this matter, I could not take part in it, but then such an opportunity presented itself. They remembered the case from five years ago and regarded it as a kidnapping and extortion. Although this was such nonsense in jurisprudence, when extortionists carefully documented everything and then handed it over to law enforcement agencies. Every element of the transfer of property was documented, we wrote everything down in a certificate and submitted it to the accounting department. The certificate form, by the way, was developed by investigator Tarasova, who helped us return the property, and by lawyers. Every time we were given money, we wrote a certificate. When Vlaskin’s parents told us that they were ready to give us a cottage in Tambov, we met them halfway. They are elderly and couldn’t sell it themselves, so they offered to do it for us. Although we sold this house for several more years, I fulfilled my obligations - I gave them a certificate stating that we no longer have any claims against them. I don’t know how they persuaded him to testify. I assume that he himself did not immediately go for it.

--Do you know where the former forwarder is now?

- I wasn’t interested. At home, probably.

— It was said a lot in the media that when you went to the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern Administrative District in search of Vlaskin, ex-major Evsyukov somehow took part in the case.

— At that time, Evsyukov generally headed some kind of unit that put people on the wanted list. When he was given a resolution to put Vlaskin on the wanted list, he signed it - in my opinion, not even himself, but one of his deputies. He did not take any personal part, but then the media tried to somehow play it up. None of us saw Evsyukov in person. This is just speculation on a big name.

— Can you now say who and why started the criminal prosecution of Euroset employees, who is behind it?

There are a lot of vectors here from simple to complex. The simplest one was revenge on me personally. I know it was reasonable. This is not Vlaskin or his colleague Smurgin. I argued in court that in that situation they were in seventh heaven because they were free, that they were simply taken by the scruff of the neck and told: “Give back what you bought with the stolen money, and then run away.” They were glad that they were only asked to return the property, and were not imprisoned or harmed. And there was something to touch there, Vlaskin knows this very well. He still got off very lightly. It was not he who took revenge. Those people who tried to rob the company of $20 million in 2006 could have taken revenge on me. I prevented this, achieved the return of the goods, and then they were imprisoned. At that time I was only interested in the return of the goods, I did not insist on their criminal prosecution, this was already a matter for the Moscow prosecutor's office. By the way, I believe that these people themselves got off lightly (the policeman, found guilty of appropriating Euroset phones, was sentenced to a fine of 50 thousand rubles, and the investigator Dmitry, who made the decision to confiscate the cell phones, was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for exceeding official authority - “Gazeta.Ru”). The same Latvian, for example, solved the problem, as they call it now. There was an investigator with me in the pre-trial detention center who received nine years in prison for exactly the same tricks - and the Supreme Court upheld the verdict. Unfortunately, in those years a legal complex was created that allowed the prosecutor's office, the Russian Federal Property Fund, and customs to rob businesses. At that time, the legislation allowed this to be done. As for Latvian, I have seen this man three or four times in my life. We had normal communication, I have no personal complaints about him at all. He, too, was a tool, and someone controlled it - above or to the side, it doesn’t matter.

— So there is no politics in the Euroset case?

“I talked about revenge, but I can’t talk about political motives.” We don’t know everything, but we don’t want to be a chatterbox.

— Why do you think the jury returned a not guilty verdict? Chichvarkin said that they were actively pressured, listened to, and they made such a decision.

“They saw what was happening. They simply do not know the Code of Criminal Procedure. Any rules and laws, in this case the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure, allow unscrupulous people to swim very confidently in these codes and interpret them as they see fit. The Code of Criminal Procedure has an excellent article 17, “Freedom of evaluation of evidence.” Paragraph one states that the judge, jurors, as well as the prosecutor and investigator evaluate the evidence according to their inner conviction, based on the totality of evidence available in the criminal case, guided by the law and conscience. A conscientious, decent person will be guided by the law and conscience, while a dishonest person will maneuver in the subparagraphs. There is no lawlessness now. Take an investigator or a prosecutor and ask why he did this heinous thing, and he will answer that he has such and such an article, such and such a point, and he will answer perfectly well.

— Does yesterday’s verdict mean that Chichvarkin will soon be able to return?

- If this verdict stands and enters into legal force, then prejudice begins. Yesterday's verdict confirmed that there was no crime event. Therefore, if the verdict comes into force, then all charges must be dropped.

— Are you sure that the verdict will stand in the Supreme Court?

“It’s hard to say, but we hope it will hold up.” I hope that the court will note that in all episodes the score is 12:0. The jury trial method is quite complex. It is very easy to find procedural violations there. From a formal point of view, you can find fault with anything. The prosecutor, for example, mentioned the words “smuggling” and “speculation”, although he had no right to do so. The judge should have stopped him and asked the jury not to take this phrase into account when reaching a verdict, but this was not done. This is already a formal reason for appeal. The verdict will be next Friday, judge Korotkov will announce it to us, and after that the prosecutor’s office has ten days to appeal. I'm sure they will do it. Otherwise, how could it be that the investigator kept five people in prison for two years, she agreed with this, and then she agreed with the indictment. Then she tried to accuse us in court. And if the prosecutor’s office now says “yes, we were all wrong,” then this will be nonsense.

—Are you not afraid that another case may be brought against you? Are you thinking about leaving Russia?

- Yes, I’m afraid of provocations, because I know who I’m dealing with. You never know what they'll come up with. They will find another thief who once stole something and was forced to return it, they will falsify something, they will find the people whom I fired. For example, in court the witnesses were people who were fired by me for some negative reasons. But I will never leave the country.

--What do you intend to do in Russia? Have an idea where to go to work?

- I do not know yet. I'm not a policeman who always knows where to go. I have never worked in law enforcement, that's why I was called to. Before Euroset, I was the director of cellular retail, but at Euroset I created 15 security services. Each branch is a separate service. I didn’t trust either the HR department or recommendations, I did everything with my own hands, and selected my bosses personally. They are all from the authorities, primarily from the police, because that was the main problem with them back then. One of the best was - he was from the Federal Penitentiary Service, and my deputy for the CIS was a former army officer.

Boris Levin is vice president for security and legal support of Euroset Management Company LLC (took the post in December 2002). According to the information specified in the Information Memorandum of the Euroset Trading House, he previously worked for Rosi-Vest LG companies " and "Techmarket Line" as executive director, deputy general director and general director.

As vice president of Euroset for security and legal support, Levin appeared in the press: in particular, in 2007, he made comments in connection with the initiation of a criminal case against the head of Iled M LLC, Dmitry Sidorov, suspected of tax evasion on a particularly large scale. It was noted that in 2004-2005 this company supplied Euroset with cell phones and accessories. The initiation of a criminal case was reported by Kommersant, which indicated that “during the period of concluding dubious transactions,” the co-founder of Iled M was the chairman of the board of directors and co-owner of the Euroset company, Evgeny Chichvarkin (according to the newspaper, in 2006 he resigned from the co-founders).

On September 2, 2008, law enforcement officers conducted a search at the central office of the Euroset company. Later it became known that he was connected with the investigation into the kidnapping in 2003 of former Euroset forwarder Andrei Vlaskin, who was caught by the security service in stealing cell phones. The damage from thefts, according to the Kommersant newspaper, amounted to “several tens of millions of rubles” (Gazeta.ru, with reference to Chichvarkin, reported the theft of large quantities of telephones totaling about 20 million rubles, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta cited data on that the damage from the thefts was estimated at almost one hundred million rubles).

On the same day, Levin, as well as the deputy head of the Euroset security service, Andrei Ermilov, were detained for organizing a kidnapping. On September 3, they were charged with kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness (Articles 126, 163 and 330 of the Criminal Code). According to an official representative of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, the “abduction case” was separated from the investigation into the case of smuggling of mobile phones and, according to Kommersant’s source, “was resuscitated” on the initiative of Vlaskin’s father, “who is allegedly a high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.” . On September 4, the Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of Levin and Ermilov.

According to investigators, in early 2003, Levin and Ermilov kidnapped Vlaskin and demanded a large sum of money from him. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, citing its sources, reported that in 2003, Vlaskin, who was responsible for transporting goods from Sheremetyevo airport to Euroset warehouses, was convicted of systematic theft of large quantities of cell phones, which he sold through his own sales showroom. An internal investigation conducted by the Euroset security service, whose work was supervised by Levin, allowed the forwarder to be exposed. After this, Vlaskin promised to return the stolen goods, but disappeared, and company representatives were forced to contact the police. Vlaskin was put on the wanted list, but company security officers found him first, after which they tried to get “compensation for the damage caused” from him and kept him locked up under the supervision of a security guard. It was reported that Vlaskin partially compensated for the damage, and Levin, according to Kommersant’s source, received $5,000 as a reward for the successful conduct of the investigation. The media mentioned evidence found during a search in the safe of the head of the private security agency Euroset - a folder wrapped with tape, in which, among other papers, there was an explanatory note from an employee of this private security agency addressed to Levin, confirming that Vlaskin was forcibly detained by security.

The media also cited Chichvarkin’s story about what happened in 2003. According to him, Vlaskin, who was put on the wanted list, was detained in Tambov and taken to Moscow (by whom, it was not specified), however, despite a petition from Euroset, he was released on his own recognizance. “We rented him an apartment with the company’s money, where he lived during the investigation,” said Chichvarkin. According to him, during the investigation, Vlaskin admitted to attacking a procurement department employee, Boris Kommunnikov, who discovered the theft of phones, and said that at Euroset itself, “one person from the special services” helped him, but Vlaskin was never charged with the attempt. Admitting that there were facts of “certain pressure on Vlaskin,” Chichvarkin stated that the case against Levin and Ermilov was initiated by “those who failed to steal in 2006, and they were left with a bitter taste” (in March 2006, Euroset " declared about the illegal seizure of Motorola phones from her, confiscated by Directorate "K" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and proved she was right, after which part of the batch was returned, but law enforcement officials managed to destroy some of the phones "under the guise of goods harmful to health").

Yesterday at the trial of the vice-president of Euroset Boris Levin, his former subordinates in the company’s security service and an ex-operative of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern District of Moscow, one of the victims, Andrei Vlaskin, testified. During the speech and subsequent interrogation of the parties, the victim behaved quite confidently and answered questions calmly.

According to Mr. Vlaskin, he came to work at Euroset in 2001 as a driver, then, becoming a freight forwarder, he delivered boxes with mobile phones from customs to the warehouse. One day, the victim said, a girl he knew (one of the company’s employees) called him and warned: “Smurgin is being pressed by the security service, and they’ve already come for you.” “I was scared, I knew what kind of person Levin was, so I left for Tambov,” explained Andrei Vlaskin. According to him, soon his father called him, saying that Boris Levin had visited him, stated that Vlaskin Jr. had stolen $30 thousand from the company, and demanded compensation for this amount. “When asked by the father, where is the evidence of his son’s guilt, Levin replied: “I know that,” the victim said. According to Mr. Vlaskin, shortly after his departure, Euroset security officers arrived in Tambov, conducted surveillance on his relatives, “met with them and demanded that they sell everything.” Soon, Mr. Vlaskin said, posters with his identikit were hung around the city, announcing the search for the forwarder, and an announcement about this was also made on local TV. (According to investigators, some of the accused, threatening and beating freight forwarder Dmitry Smurgin, forced him to write a statement to the police that Andrei Vlaskin had stolen the company’s money; last year, the case opened against the freight forwarder was closed by the prosecutor’s office “due to the absence of a crime.”) Andrei Vlaskin was detained by police as he was leaving a friend’s party. One of the law enforcement officers, according to the victim, showed him documents addressed to Alexander Kurta (former operative of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern Administrative District of Moscow, one of the defendants in the case). “There were no police cars near the station where I was taken, only foreign cars of security service officers,” said Andrei Vlaskin. “I was even scared, I thought they would bury me.” According to him, when Levin and Kurta brought him to the investigator of the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Southern Administrative District, Boris Levin behaved there “as if in his own office.” “The investigator told me: I will release you on your own recognizance, but Levin still won’t let you go,” said the victim. As follows from his further story, security officers took him to an apartment in Reutovo, and then regularly transported him from one rented apartment to another. According to the victim, he was severely beaten, demanding a detailed account of his family's property.

According to Andrei Vlaskin, as a result, his parents were forced to sell the apartment and other property they had received in Soviet times “from ZIL” (in total, according to the prosecution’s calculations, property and money worth 13 million rubles were taken from both victims - former freight forwarders. ). And Mr. Vlaskin managed to escape when the guards brought him home for money. “Then for a long time I hid from them in Brateevo,” added Andrei Vlaskin.

The defendants' lawyers asked what the victim's salary was and where he got the money for expensive cars. “The salary is $1200, and the real earnings are $30-40 thousand,” he answered. The victim said that at the customs office where he went to pick up the goods, there were always unclaimed packages with phones. “I called Shirokov (Alexey Shirokov was the executive director of the Euroset Wholesale company, he is accused in a high-profile case of cell phone smuggling - Kommersant), he said that according to the documents our phones were not there,” the victim explained. “I even I brought the shipment, they checked the numbers. After that, I took money from my father and began buying unclaimed phones and selling them.”

“Is it true that you drank together with Sergei Katorgin? (one of the defendants - Kommersant),” asked one of the lawyers. “Yes, when my guards were bored, they took me with them to parties a couple of times,” Mr. Vlaskin answered. “But there I was handcuffed all the time.” […]

“Levin repeatedly gave instructions to employees who would be on duty with Vlaskin at the rented apartment on what shift.”

The ex-head of the economic security service of Euroset testified in the case of the kidnapping of a freight forwarder

Anastasia Mikhailova

On Tuesday, the Moscow City Court began interrogating witnesses at the scandalous trial against the management of Euroset. A former colleague of the defendants, the ex-head of the company's economic security service, Elena Sornikova, testified in the courtroom.

The woman told the jury about the procedures that were in the office, about the methods of influence of security officers on the company staff and about baseball bat Vice President of Euroset Boris Levin.

The only witness

“How can we consider a case without questioning the victims? Our entire accusation is based on their testimony!” - the defendants' lawyers were indignant.

“There are no casualties, and that’s great! It’s better for you!” - Judge Andrei Korotkov tried to calm the defenders. As a result, the court decided to proceed to the interrogation of Elena Sornikova, who had arrived.

The former head of the company's economic security service turned out to be a plump woman of 50 years old with glasses. She hesitantly walked into the hall and stopped in front of the jury stand. At the beginning of the interrogation, the judge explained her rights and asked her to sign that she had been warned of liability for giving false testimony. After this, state prosecutors Dmitry Dyadura and Andrei Sergeev began interrogating her.

Unprofessional methods

Her direct boss was Boris Levin. All other defendants worked as employees in security departments and also reported to Levin. The latter was subordinate only to the owner of Euroset, Evgeny Chichvarkin, who is currently charged in absentia.

Her responsibilities included investigating the theft of company funds. However, the woman only knew from the words of her employees that Euroset freight forwarder Andrei Vlaskin was suspected by the security service of stealing company products worth almost $1.4 million.

“From an accounting point of view, we had a real hole,” admitted Sornikova. “Accounting was kept only for sales of goods, because products often arrived at the warehouse without invoices.” But, according to Sornikova, the security service did not have any documents confirming the guilt of the forwarder.

“Are you aware of the use of violence against Vlaskin and Smurgin?” - State Prosecutor Sergeev finally asked the witness a question.

“Yes, we know,” Sornikova answered. However, during the interrogation it turned out that the woman also knew about the events from the words of the defendants themselves. She herself only saw how Dmitry Smurgin was taken into Levin’s office. She again heard from her colleagues that Smurgin was beaten with a baseball bat and locked in the weapons room for a day.

Moral Impact

“Yes, I was. He kept the bat in his office and sometimes carried it in his car. “It was needed for moral influence on subordinates,” said the witness. “But I have repeatedly told Levin that the use of such methods is not professional!” Meanwhile, looking at the leader, Levin’s deputy, Sergei Katargin, also purchased a baseball bat, according to the woman.

According to the woman, the entire office knew that the security service was looking for Vlaskin. She said that her management asked her several times to participate in his search. The former deputy head of the internal control service, Andrei Ermilov, and currently a defendant in the case, once asked to call Vlaskin’s mother at work. And once she and Ermilov even went to the Tambov region to visit the relatives of the freight forwarder.

“Did you witness that Vlaskin was kidnapped and held in a rented apartment?” - asked Levin’s lawyer Marat Faizulin.

“No, my subordinates told me,” Sornikova said. “In front of me, Levin repeatedly gave instructions to employees who would be on duty with Vlaskin in the rented apartment on what shift.”

Vice President for Security and Legal Support of Euroset Management Company LLC since 2002. In September 2008, he was arrested on charges of kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness.

Boris Levin is vice president for security and legal support of Euroset Management Company LLC (took the post in December 2002). According to the information specified in the Information Memorandum of the Euroset Trading House, he previously worked for Rosi-Vest LG companies " and "Techmarket Line" as executive director, deputy general director and general director.

As vice president of Euroset for security and legal support, Levin appeared in the press: in particular, in 2007, he made comments in connection with the initiation of a criminal case against the head of Iled M LLC, Dmitry Sidorov, suspected of tax evasion on a particularly large scale. It was noted that in 2004-2005 this company supplied Euroset with cell phones and accessories. The initiation of a criminal case was reported by Kommersant, which indicated that “during the period of concluding dubious transactions,” the co-founder of Iled M was the chairman of the board of directors and co-owner of the Euroset company, Evgeny Chichvarkin (according to the newspaper, in 2006 he resigned from the co-founders).

On September 2, 2008, law enforcement officers conducted a search at the central office of the Euroset company. Later it became known that he was connected with the investigation into the kidnapping in 2003 of former Euroset forwarder Andrei Vlaskin, who was caught by the security service in stealing cell phones. The damage from thefts, according to the Kommersant newspaper, amounted to “several tens of millions of rubles” (Gazeta.ru, with reference to Chichvarkin, reported the theft of large quantities of telephones totaling about 20 million rubles, and Rossiyskaya Gazeta cited data on that the damage from the thefts was estimated at almost one hundred million rubles).

On the same day, Levin, as well as the deputy head of the Euroset security service, Andrei Ermilov, were detained for organizing a kidnapping. On September 3, they were charged with kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness (Articles 126, 163 and 330 of the Criminal Code). According to an official representative of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation, the “abduction case” was separated from the investigation into the case of smuggling of mobile phones and, according to Kommersant’s source, “was resuscitated” on the initiative of Vlaskin’s father, “who is allegedly a high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.” . On September 4, the Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of Levin and Ermilov.

According to investigators, in early 2003, Levin and Ermilov kidnapped Vlaskin and demanded a large sum of money from him. Rossiyskaya Gazeta, citing its sources, reported that in 2003, Vlaskin, who was responsible for transporting goods from Sheremetyevo airport to Euroset warehouses, was convicted of systematic theft of large quantities of cell phones, which he sold through his own sales showroom. An internal investigation conducted by the Euroset security service, whose work was supervised by Levin, allowed the forwarder to be exposed. After this, Vlaskin promised to return the stolen goods, but disappeared, and company representatives were forced to contact the police. Vlaskin was put on the wanted list, but company security officers found him first, after which they tried to get “compensation for the damage caused” from him and kept him locked up under the supervision of a security guard. It was reported that Vlaskin partially compensated for the damage, and Levin, according to Kommersant’s source, received $5,000 as a reward for the successful conduct of the investigation. The media mentioned evidence found during a search in the safe of the head of the private security agency Euroset - a folder wrapped with tape, in which, among other papers, there was an explanatory note from an employee of this private security agency addressed to Levin, confirming that Vlaskin was forcibly detained by security.

The media also cited Chichvarkin’s story about what happened in 2003. According to him, Vlaskin, who was put on the wanted list, was detained in Tambov and taken to Moscow (by whom, it was not specified), however, despite a petition from Euroset, he was released on his own recognizance. “We rented him an apartment with the company’s money, where he lived during the investigation,” said Chichvarkin. According to him, during the investigation, Vlaskin admitted to attacking a procurement department employee, Boris Kommunnikov, who discovered the theft of phones, and said that at Euroset itself, “one person from the special services” helped him, but Vlaskin was never charged with the attempt. Admitting that there were facts of “certain pressure on Vlaskin,” Chichvarkin stated that the case against Levin and Ermilov was initiated by “those who failed to steal in 2006, and they were left with a bitter taste” (in March 2006, Euroset " declared about the illegal seizure of Motorola phones from her, confiscated by Directorate "K" of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, and proved she was right, after which part of the batch was returned, but law enforcement officials managed to destroy some of the phones "under the guise of goods harmful to health").

Boris Levin and deputy head of the company's security service Andrey Ermilov. They are accused of three counts - involvement in kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness. As reported by the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, Levin and Ermilov were identified during the investigation of another criminal case in which Euroset appears - about the smuggling of mobile phones.

Criminal scandals plague Euroset. The case of cell phone smuggling has not yet been forgotten as a new charge. This time of a criminal nature. The vice-president of the company, Boris Levin, is suspected of kidnapping, as well as extortion and arbitrariness. The same charges have been brought against the deputy head of the Euroset security service, Andrei Ermilov. We are talking about events that happened 5 years ago.

“Two employees of the Euroset company were charged with involvement in kidnapping, extortion and arbitrariness. During the investigation, it was established that the vice-president of Euroset, head of the security service Boris Levin and his deputy Andrei Ermilov were involved in arbitrariness, kidnapping in 2003 former employee of the company and extorting a large sum of money from him. Yesterday, Euroset employees were charged,” said UPC official Vladimir Markin.

According to investigators, in 2003, Levin and Ermilov kidnapped the company's freight forwarder Andrei Vlaskin and extorted a large sum from him. All because he allegedly stole large quantities of mobile phones and did not do it alone. The damage, according to Euroset, then amounted to 20 million rubles.

“A group of forwarders, receiving goods from Russian suppliers, began to quietly pull out their phones. After this, the man went on the run,” said the chairman of the board of directors of the Euroset company.

Although Vlaskin acted in company with others, they decided to ask him, apparently, as the eldest. The investigation is now looking into what methods were used to influence the enterprising forwarder. Representatives of the company claim that their employees did not commit criminal offenses in dealing with Vlaskin and emphasize that he deserved it.

“I have no reason to believe that Boris Veniaminovich Levin and another employee, with whom I do not even have direct contact, were engaged in robbery, extortion and forcible detention of people,” assures Evgeny Chichvarkin, chairman of the board of directors of Euroset. “Yes, from the outside.” There could have been pressure from the security services, even arbitrariness to some extent. But now there is a possibility that the criminal may be the winner.”

The suspects completely deny their guilt. And their lawyers express bewilderment why the victim remembered the events 5 years later. “This is very strange. After 5 years, a person thought that a crime had been committed against him. Probably, some common sense should work. We’ll see,” said Marat Faizulin, Boris Levin’s lawyer.

The searches at the Euroset office were reminiscent of a case two years ago, when the company lost 530 million rubles due to accusations of smuggling. The details of the new accusation have yet to be sorted out by the investigation: why the theft forwarder, if he was one, initiated proceedings against his former employers 5 years later.