With assistance of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, rights of defrauded people to impartial investigation of a financial crime perpetrated against them have been reinstated.

The High Commissioner received a complaint from a group of 14 people who requested the High Commissioner to file an application for cassational review of the court ruling on a fraud.

The complainants claimed that in 2011 they fell victims to a fraud committed by Mr V. who tricked them into loan contracts at Russian Agricultural Bank and appropriated the borrowed assets.

Based on the preliminary investigation, a district court of Rostov Region found Mr V. guilty of committing a grand fraud only in relation to the defrauded bank. According to the decision defrauded people were obliged to pay the loans appropriated by convicted Mr V. to the bank, in full.

In response to the request of the High Commissioner, the Rostov Region Prosecutor’s Office reported that after an additional inspection there has been an application filed for cassational review. The prosecutor received the criminal case back to eliminate the obstacles preventing it from consideration by court.

Therefore, only after the High Commissioner’s assistance the defrauded people received a chance to shift the credit obligations to convict V. The investigation of the case is followed on by the High Commissioner.