Russia: three and a half years for a planned scheme offering 'magical rituals to save the life and health' of elderly victims' relatives, which took 500,000 roubles from one woman

Proceedings

1. 2026-01-12 · conviction and sentence at first instance

   Sovetsky District Court of Krasnodar, Krasnodar Krai, Russia (Советский районный суд г. Краснодара). The defendant, anonymised in the published judgment as ФИО1, was convicted of fraud by deception committed by a group by prior conspiracy causing significant damage to a citizen under part 2 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and of the same offence on a large scale under part 3. She was sentenced to one year ten months on the first count and two years four months on the second, partially aggregated under part 3 of article 69 to three years, and then aggregated under part 5 of article 69 with a sentence imposed by the Krasnooktyabrsky District Court, with time already served credited, giving a final term of three years six months in a general-regime correctional colony. She remained in custody. The court found that she and an unidentified person, whose case was severed, 'entered into a prior criminal conspiracy and developed a criminal plan aimed at the theft of money and jewellery by deception from an indefinite circle of persons, including persons of advanced (elderly) age, under the pretext of performing magical rituals to save the life and health of the victim's relatives, without the intention or the real possibility of performing the obligations assumed'. The losses recorded include 165,000 roubles in respect of one victim and 500,000 roubles in respect of another, the latter being large-scale damage which the judgment records the victim describing as severe given her very small means.

Documented coercion mechanisms

• a criminal plan agreed in advance and directed at an indefinite circle of people, including the elderly
• the offer of magical rituals to save the life and health of a relative
• the taking of money and jewellery on that pretext, with no intention or ability to perform what was promised