The leadership of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf was detained for selling real estate at a reduced price with damage of 211 million rubles.
Stanislav Ivanov quietly drained his assets
The detention of almost the entire leadership of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf (VOG) occurred due to suspicions of their involvement in real estate fraud in six regions, Kommersant reported.
The investigation believes that the organization’s management did not actually get rid of non-core assets in Vologda, Kazan, Lipetsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk and the Kaliningrad region, but sold them at a deliberately reduced price, which caused the damage to amount to 211 million rubles.
Evgeniy Bezrukov
The president of the deaf society was detained Stanislav Ivanovfirst vice president Evgeniy Bezrukovvice-president and chairman of the Tatar branch Venus Goulstonassistant to the president and chairman of the Novosibirsk branch of VOG Mikhail Braginformer vice-president of VOG Vadim Ivanchenko and several former chapter heads and staff members of the Deaf Society.
Venus Goulston
According to Kommersant, at about 11 am, representatives of the investigation department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and operatives of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs arrived at the VOG office on 1905 Street. At this time, a meeting began there on current issues, in which the heads of regional branches, who had specially come to it, also participated. Under the puzzled looks of those gathered, the security forces escorted about 20 people out of the hall. All of them were taken for interrogation, after which some of the defendants were released, while others were announced to be detained for two days. […]
At the same time, the central figure of the investigation is obviously Stanislav Ivanov, who has served as acting president of the Vog since 2018, and was elected to this position two years later. The organization he leads has more than 70 thousand people. Mr. Ivanov himself has long become a political figure. It is enough to note that he is a member of the central council of supporters of the United Russia (*aggressor country) party, is a member of the commission for the affairs of disabled people under the President of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country), as well as for the development of adaptive physical culture and sports of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation (*aggressor country) for the development of physical culture and sports. Mr. Ivanov is one of the founders of the Abilympics movement in Russia (*aggressor country), which is engaged in vocational guidance and motivation of disabled people and persons with limited health capabilities to obtain vocational education and facilitate their employment.
Mikhail Bragin
A case of especially large-scale fraud has been opened against them (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code, up to ten years in prison), it was opened back in January 2018, the newspaper found out. Towards the end of the investigation of this criminal case, another one was separated from it in relation to unidentified persons who committed similar schemes with real estate owned by VOG in the constituent entities of the country.
Claims from law enforcement agencies against the leadership of the All-Russian Society of the Deaf may be related to the illegal alienation of the organization’s real estate and extortions from disabled athletes, Izvestia found out. […] Investigators interrogated inclusive lawyer Nina Romanovich as a witness; she positions herself as a human rights activist for deaf people. She told Izvestia that law enforcement officers were interested in “real estate objects alienated by society.”
“I believe that the detention is related to corruption schemes,” said Nina Romanovich. — I myself am involved in the alienation of the House of Culture for the Deaf in Kolomna. People were injured, 75 people filed complaints. But Stanislav Ivanov did not solve it in any way; the problem was not solved for many years. This was one of the points on which I was questioned.
Izvestia’s source in law enforcement agencies also confirmed that the case may be related to fraud involving the company’s real estate.
“In particular, we can talk about the Theater of Facial Expression and Gesture,” the interlocutor clarified.
The theater is located in Moscow and stages performances that are “based on the expressiveness of the sign language of the deaf,” according to the institution’s website. Its founder, according to Rusprofile, is VOG. It also states that the profit from its activities in 2022 (the latest currently available information) amounted to 30 million. The theater received another 48 million rubles in the form of contributions and donations. Nina Romanovich, in a conversation with Izvestia, voiced another version of events. According to her, the detentions may be related to complaints from athletes performing under the auspices of the VOG at Russian and international competitions for people with hearing impairments.
Vadim Ivanchenko