Conviction New religious movements Moscow, Russia · 2018

Andrei Popov ('God Kuzya'): convictions for religious-group abuse and fraud

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

self-proclaimed divine leader, founder of a pseudo-Orthodox religious group

Organization

God Kuzya religious group

Spiritual nexus

The cited record identifies claimed divine knowledge and power, strict hierarchy, punishment for disobedience and sin, and religious-rite and temple-fundraising pretexts as the material spiritual doctrine, practice, authority, or pretext connected to the documented harm. The relevant authority role is self-proclaimed divine leader and founder of a pseudo-Orthodox religious group.

Other spiritual authority or belief

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2018-07-16 · criminal judgment and sentence

Presnensky District Court of Moscow, Russia. Popov was convicted of creating a religious association whose activity involved violence or other harm to health and of two fraud counts. He received five years in a general-regime colony. Three co-defendants received separate fraud sentences.
2018-11-26 · criminal appeal

Moscow City Court, Russia. The court rejected the defense appeals and recalculated custody credit under amended rules, leading to Popov's release in February 2019.

Appellate history

2018-11-26 · undefined

The court left the conviction in place and recalculated time served.

Documented coercion mechanisms

claimed divine knowledge and power
strict hierarchy
punishment for disobedience and sin
religious-rite and temple-fundraising pretexts

Primary record

Sources

court reporting judgment report Russian Legal Information Agency, 'Court sentences God Kuzya to five years for creating a sect and fraud' (July 16, 2018).: Courtroom reporting records Popov's convictions, sentence, civil awards, the co-defendants' distinct fraud liability, the hierarchical religious structure, beatings and fundraising through purported rites and a promised temple.
court reporting appellate disposition Russian Legal Information Agency, 'God Kuzya will be released within three months' (Nov. 26, 2018).: The appellate report records rejection of the defense appeals and recalculation of custody credit under the new rules.

Contextual record

Background & context

Institutional and pattern-level sources on New religious movements, not specific to this one case.

ABC News (2005) ''Prince' of Former Cult Commits Murder-Suicide', ABC News, January. Available at: abcnews.go.com (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: The documented aftermath of the Children of God's abuse system: Ricky Rodriguez, raised as the movement's 'prince' and heir, 'stabbed his former nanny to death before committing suicide' in January 2005, after videotaping a statement about his childhood: 'How can you do that to kids and sleep at night?' Note: Rodriguez died the same day and was never prosecuted; this entry documents an outcome of the abuse system established in the Ward judgment above, not an adjudication — and his characterizations of individuals are his own claims, not court findings.
Wikipedia (2026) 'Richard Bandler' [summarizing the 1988 Santa Cruz murder trial and acquittal]. Available at: en.wikipedia.org (Accessed: 15 July 2026).: Richard Bandler, co-founder of Neuro-Linguistic Programming, was acquitted — that verdict leads this entry, which documents a trial, not a guilt. 'In 1986, Corine Ann Christensen... a former girlfriend of Bandler's friend and cocaine dealer, James Marino, was shot dead in her Santa Cruz townhouse with a .357 magnum owned by Bandler. Authorities charged Bandler with her murder. Bandler testified that he had been at Christensen's house, but that Marino had shot Christensen. After a short deliberation, a jury found Bandler not guilty.' The trial — and the contemporaneous reporting around it — remains the most extensively documented court event in the history of the human-potential movement's founder generation, and a window into the coercive-influence milieu from which NLP marketing later grew. Bandler was and remains legally innocent of the killing.

Related record

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