Conviction Divination and fortune-telling services Tambov, Tambov Oblast, Russia · 2017

Russia: both wedding rings and a family's war decorations taken under a curse-removal pretext

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

a woman who obtained a shop worker's gold and her family's Soviet state decorations by offering help in removing a curse

Organization

Oktyabrsky District Court of Tambov (Октябрьский районный суд г. Тамбова)

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

The authority is the claimed capacity to help remove a curse, and this judgment is distinguished by what the claim reached rather than by its scale. The gold taken includes both wedding rings — the woman's and the man's — and the decorations include two Orders of the Patriotic War, awards made for service in the Second World War and held in a family across generations. Neither category is property a person parts with for a service they are weighing up. That they were handed over at all is the measure of what the claim was doing: the objects were required for the removal, so surrendering them was a step in the remedy. The offence ran across successive visits to the victim's workplace under what the court found was one continuing intent, which is what allowed the requests to escalate from jewellery to heirlooms.

Curse or witchcraft threat
Spiritual healing or treatment

Scope decision

The defendant is NAMED in full in the published judgment, which is unusual for a Russian first-instance decision of this kind. In accordance with CODEBOOK §10 the name is not reproduced here and the case is identified by number and court — case no. 1-229/2018, Oktyabrsky District Court of Tambov. The victim is unnamed and appears as a numbered complainant. The record is dated to 2017, when the offence period began, rather than to the judgment date of 5 June 2018. The second count is not a spiritual offence: unlawful acquisition of state decorations under ст.324 is a distinct provision protecting Soviet awards, and it is recorded because the decorations were obtained by the same curse-removal deception, not as a separate instance of the pattern. The individual sums quoted are those legible in the published text and do not sum to the stated total, further items being described in passages not quoted. The medals were returned to the victim and a television was returned in partial compensation, so the recorded loss was not permanently borne in full. The one-year term is served in a colony-settlement, the least restrictive custodial regime. The judgment states an appellate route but records no appellate outcome, and none was found.

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2018-06-05 · conviction and sentence at first instance

Oktyabrsky District Court of Tambov, Tambov Oblast, Russia (Октябрьский районный суд г. Тамбова). The defendant was convicted of fraud by deception and abuse of trust causing significant damage to a citizen under ч.2 ст.159 of the Criminal Code, and of unlawfully acquiring state decorations of the USSR under ст.324. The court found that from early December 2017, at a curtain kiosk on the ground floor of a shopping centre where the victim worked, she acted on a single continuing intent and, under the pretext of helping to remove a curse, obtained the victim's gold: a woman's 585-standard wedding ring weighing 2.49g worth 6,474 roubles, a man's 585-standard wedding ring weighing 3.27g worth 8,502 roubles, a snake-form ring worth 6,760 roubles, heart-shaped earrings, a square man's signet ring weighing 9.06g worth 23,556 roubles, a garnet-set ring and further items, together with a television. On a later visit, by the same deception, she unlawfully acquired the victim's Soviet state decorations — the 50 Years of the Soviet Armed Forces medal, two 60 Years of the Soviet Armed Forces medals, the 30 Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War medal, and two Orders of the Patriotic War. The total loss was 179,347 roubles. She received one year's deprivation of liberty on the fraud count and three months' corrective labour with 10% of earnings withheld on the decorations count, the lesser being absorbed by the greater under ч.2 ст.69, giving a final term of one year to be served in a colony-settlement. The court recorded in mitigation her chronic ill health, partial compensation through the return of the television, and the return of the medals to the victim, and awarded her 179,347 roubles.

Documented coercion mechanisms

repeated approaches at the victim's workplace, a curtain kiosk on the ground floor of a shopping centre, under a single continuing intent
the removal of a curse offered as help rather than sold as a service
the taking extending across successive visits, so that each request built on a relationship already established
objects of personal and familial significance surrendered — both wedding rings, and Soviet state decorations including two Orders of the Patriotic War

Cited record

Sources

court of record criminal judgment Приговор № 1-229/2018 от 5 июня 2018 г. по делу № 1-229/2018, Октябрьский районный суд г. Тамбова (Тамбовская область) — Уголовное.: The full text of the criminal judgment, read directly from the Russian judgments database sudact.ru. The court records that the defendant, «имея единый преступный умысел на хищение денежных средств и имущества, путем обмана и злоупотребления доверием Потерпевший №1, под предлогом оказания помощи в снятии «порчи», похитила кольцо обручальное женское... стоимостью 6474 руб.; кольцо обручальное мужское... стоимостью 8502 руб., кольцо женское... в виде змейки... стоимостью 6 760 руб.», with further items including «мужскую печатку... стоимостью 23 556 руб.» taken on a later visit «продолжая реализовывать свой единый преступный умысел». On the second count it records that she «имея преступный умысел, направленный на незаконное приобретение государственных наград СССР, путем обмана и злоупотребления доверием Потерпевший №1, незаконно приобрела медаль 50 лет Вооруженных сил СССР, медаль 60 лет Вооруженных сил СССР, медаль 60 лет Вооруженных сил СССР, без планки, медаль 30 лет победы в Великой Отечественной войне, и два Ордена Великой отечественной войны, которые являются государственными наградами СССР». The total is recorded as «значительный материальный ущерб на общую сумму 179 347 руб.». The operative part convicts under ч.2 ст.159 and ст.324, absorbs the lesser penalty into the greater under ч.2 ст.69, imposes one year «с отбыванием наказания в колонии-поселении», and awards the victim 179,347 roubles, noting in mitigation «частичное возмещение имущественного ущерба (возврат телевизора) и возвращение медалей потерпевшей».

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://sudact.ru/regular/doc/jLeWfC2C56Q9/ Corpus classification: court-of-record; evidentiary role: criminal-judgment.
Retrieval: 2026-07-29 · Preserved; Bound by Fear research cycle 2026-07-29 (Russian-language sweep; full judgment read via the browser pane; the workplace approach, the single continuing intent, the itemised gold including both wedding rings, the Soviet decorations and their statutory basis, the stated total, the sentence structure under ч.2 ст.69 and the mitigation including return of the medals taken verbatim from the judgment; the defendant is named in the published text and that name is deliberately not recorded)

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