Russia: a woman told a mother that a curse had been laid on her and her daughter, and took 155,000 roubles in handovers made in a parked car

Proceedings

1. 2019-12-17 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Zavolzhsky District Court of Tver, Tver Oblast, Russia (Заволжский районный суд г. Твери). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1, was convicted of fraud by deception causing significant damage to a citizen under part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and sentenced to two years' deprivation of liberty, suspended under article 73 with a two-year probation period and an obligation to report monthly for registration. The court found she formed 'a single direct criminal intent' to obtain the victim's money and property 'by deceiving her under the guise of removing a curse', and that acting on a previously developed criminal plan she told the victim, while in a Kia Rio parked near an address in the Zavolzhsky district, 'false information that a curse had been laid on her and on her daughter'. The total loss was 155,000 roubles, which the judgment records as significant for the victim.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• the assertion that a curse had been laid on the victim and on her daughter
• a single continuing plan pursued across a period rather than a one-off demand
• meetings and handovers conducted in a parked car