Bershtam Evgeny Semyonovich

Bershtam Evgeny Semyonovich

Biography

2019: Major fraud arrest

According to Kommersant, Yevgeny Bernstam was detained in early July 2019, he was charged with especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, the businessman misled potential lenders about the solvency of the company. He did not admit guilt, his lawyers called the actions incriminated to him entrepreneurial activity.

The businessman was sent to a pre-trial detention center, and this preventive measure was then repeatedly extended. Speaking in court, Yevgeny Bernstam assured that he was not involved in the criminal scheme, since he is only a pensioner who lives on a pension of 22 thousand rubles and a subsidy of 2 thousand rubles.

Bernstam also insisted that his breath stops 138 times a night, and a slanderous company has been unleashed against him using the site "Put the ghoul behind bars," the newspaper reports.

In 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court recognized the statement of Interkommerts Bank represented by the Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA, bankruptcy trustee) on the bankruptcy of Home Money as justified and introduced a monitoring procedure against the company, including a debt to the bank in the amount of 2.8 billion rubles in its register of creditors. Bernstam was declared bankrupt in 2019. In September 2020, Yevgeny Bernstam was replaced by a preventive measure for house arrest.

By the time its owner was arrested, Home Money was one of the largest Russian microfinance companies (IFC), controlling almost 25% of this specific market, Kommersant notes.

2023: Sentence - 5 years in prison for fraud

On July 17, 2023, the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Yevgeny Bernstam, founder of the Home Money microcredit organization, to five years in a general regime colony. The businessman was found guilty of committing 76 crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale), according to the Telegram channel of Moscow courts of general jurisdiction.

Bernstam was tried in absentia, by July 18, 2023 is wanted. The term of punishment for an entrepreneur will be calculated from the moment of his detention in Russia or extradition.^[1][2]

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