Russia: two women posing as charity collectors for fire victims, five counts, every victim a pensioner

Proceedings

1. 2018-02-08 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Kansk City Court, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia (Канский городской суд Красноярского края). Two defendants, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1 and ФИО2, were convicted under ч.2 ст.159 of the Criminal Code on five counts in total, all fraud causing significant damage to a citizen. Both were convicted of two counts committed as a group in prior conspiracy; the first of one further count alone; the second of three further counts alone. The offences ran from 19 May to 1 October 2017. The court found that on 9 June 2017 the pair came to a home posing as volunteers collecting goods for people burnt out of their homes, judged that the householder would have money and would be easy to mislead, asked her for unwanted items to create a pretext for conversation, and were invited inside — where they told her a curse was upon her and, under the pretext of removing it, obtained her money. The same pattern is recorded on the later counts, including a false assurance that the money could not be collected for a stated period. One victim withdrew 382,000 roubles from her Sovcombank account for the removal rite. The court recorded on each count that the damage was significant because the victims were pensioners without other income. Each received one year two months per count, aggregated by partial addition under ч.2 ст.69 to one year eight months and two years six months respectively, both in colony-settlements. The second defendant's sentence was deferred under ч.1 ст.82 until her son reaches the age of 14 in 2031; the first remained in custody, with time served from 30 June 2017 credited.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a false charitable identity used to reach the doorstep — the court found they arrived «представляясь волонтерами по сбору вещей для погорельцев», posing as volunteers collecting for people burnt out of their homes
• a request for unwanted clothing used deliberately to manufacture a conversation, the judgment recording it as «тем самым создав повод для разговора»
• the victim's own invitation into the flat obtained on that footing, before any curse was mentioned
• the curse announced only once inside, and its removal made the basis for handing over money
• a stated waiting period before the money could be reclaimed, which deferred discovery
• victims selected among pensioners: the court recorded on each count that the damage was significant because the complainant was a pensioner with no other income