Russia: a conversation outside a market pavilion in Krasnoyarsk that began at 200 roubles and reached 310,200, on the promise of curing a curse

Proceedings

1. 2020-05-26 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Leninsky District Court of Krasnoyarsk, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia (Ленинский районный суд г. Красноярска). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1, was convicted of fraud by deception on a large scale under part 3 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 obligations to register and not to change residence without notice. The court found that she met the victim, a stranger, outside a trading pavilion on prospekt imeni gazety Krasnoyarsky Rabochy; that in the course of conversation she 'entered into a trusting conversation' and 'told the latter knowingly false information that a curse had been laid on her and that it was necessary to perform a rite for the purpose of curing her, offering her services in healing, in reality having no real possibility of performing the obligations assumed'; and that the victim, deceived, agreed. The judgment itemises the payments that followed, beginning at 200 roubles and including 2,000, 44,000, 20,000, 94,000 and 150,000, amounting to 310,200 roubles in total.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a conversation struck up with a stranger outside a market pavilion
• the assertion that a curse had been laid on the victim and that a rite was needed to cure her
• an offer of healing services the defendant had no real ability to provide
• escalating demands across the sequence, from 200 roubles to 150,000