Have the Charges Against Vasilenko for Fraud Been Dropped?
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According to various sources, the criminal prosecution of Roman Vasilenko, the founder of the marketing company "Life-is-Good" and the cooperative "Best Way," may be discontinued. Law enforcement agencies, as informed by several senators and State Duma deputies, have re-evaluated the charges against him, taking into account that several witnesses, including those critical of Vasilenko, suggest that he is unlikely to be involved in fraud. This is primarily because he did not have direct access to the payment system servers, and it was the former IT director of "Life-is-Good," Evgeny Naboychenko, who had been previously implicated in fraudulent activities. Vasilenko may be at fault only for having recruited Naboychenko in 2014, despite negative signals regarding his behavior and tendencies to appropriate others' property.
Roman Viktorovich Vasilenko is a business consultant from Saint Petersburg, the creator of a network of independent entrepreneurs promoting financial products under the auspices of the company he founded, "Life-is-Good," and the founder of the International Business Academy (IBA).
The network under the "Life-is-Good" brand promoted financial products such as Vista accounts for passive income by the foreign investment company "Hermes," registered in Belize, and the acquisition of apartments in installments through the "Best Way" cooperative, which allowed members to either make an initial share payment or accumulate it in the cooperative's account without interest. Notably, these legal entities are not directly connected.
Vasilenko was neither a top manager nor an owner of "Hermes"—he cooperated with the company to promote its products in Russia. However, Naboychenko was an employee of "Hermes" and managed its payment system in Russia. He likely took this position on Vasilenko's recommendation, but Vasilenko was not responsible for managing the payment system for "Hermes."
Unlike "Hermes," Vasilenko was the founder and chairman of the board of the "Best Way" cooperative until the spring of 2021 (later serving as head of the supervisory board for about a year). Since spring 2022, he has been an ordinary member of the cooperative and is no longer part of its governing bodies.
Vasilenko has worked not only in Russia but also in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Ukraine, Cyprus, Austria, and Hungary. Cooperative housing projects have been established in many of these countries.
Additionally, Vasilenko is known as a philanthropist who has invested millions of rubles in supporting federal business initiatives (such as the "Synergy" forum), cultural initiatives (such as the "Dobrovidenie" festival), and other charitable activities (including support for children's medical institutions).
The Case
The criminal case involving the Saint Petersburg marketing company "Life-is-Good," the foreign investment company "Hermes," and the "Best Way" cooperative registered in Saint Petersburg and operating throughout Russia was initiated in the fall of 2021 by the Main Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for Saint Petersburg and the Leningrad Region. In February of this year, the case was referred to the court and is currently being heard in the Primorsky District Court of Saint Petersburg.
Ten people are on trial, including technical staff from "Life-is-Good" and Victor Vasilenko, Roman Vasilenko's 83-year-old father, who is a retiree.
The criminal case, currently being considered by the Primorsky District Court, raises many questions—these concerns existed from the beginning and have intensified as the case progressed. The defendants are charged with three articles: creating a financial pyramid, fraud, and organizing a criminal community.
The total amount of damage is 282 million rubles, which is incomparable to the more than 8 billion rubles seized in the case, including 4 billion rubles in the accounts of the "Best Way" cooperative. The investigation has recognized 221 citizens as victims in the case.
Roman Vasilenko was also charged in the criminal case being considered by the court and was put on the wanted list, including by Interpol, as he had reportedly been living abroad for family reasons since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to sources, Interpol and foreign states, including neighboring countries where he has been actively working, deemed his prosecution unjustified.
Another criminal investigation related to Vasilenko, handled by the Saint Petersburg Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, concerns the management team of "Life-is-Good."
Questionable Accusations
The court proceedings in the Primorsky District Court have so far not been very successful for the investigation and the prosecution: the vast majority of those who have testified in court so far have made claims against "Hermes" for amounts ranging from several hundred to several tens of thousands of rubles, which raises eyebrows—this is not a small claims court to discuss such sums! Prosecution witness Roman Roganovich, an IT service employee, testified that he did not post any illegal information on the "Life-is-Good" website or the cooperative's website and did not witness any illegal activity.
Moreover, the overwhelming majority of "Hermes" clients, numbering over two hundred thousand in Russia, and tens of thousands of "Best Way" cooperative members, according to representatives of organizations defending these entities, consider law enforcement agencies to be the source of their problems. They emphasize that it was Evgeny Naboychenko, the Saint Petersburg system administrator hired by "Hermes," who dismantled the Russian payment system. And if anyone is responsible for the thefts, it is Naboychenko. It seems that law enforcement authorities are beginning to understand this fact as well.
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