Elena Gladysheva, Managing Partner of RI-Consulting, commented live on the case of the owners of the Rive Gauche chain.

Link to the airing recording https://www.vesti.ru/article/2649826

August Meyer and his wife and partner Inna Meyer, co-owner of Yulmart, once the largest online retailer in Russia, as well as the Rive Gauche cosmetics chain, were detained in St. Petersburg on suspicion of large-scale fraud.

The spouses are suspects in the case of the theft of 2.3 billion rubles from Sberbank, which the financial structure for several years allocated in the form of loans for the development of the network business. The investigation began back in 2017, then another co-owner of Yulmart Dmitry Kostygin was detained (he together with Meyer owns 61.5% of the company).

A few days ago, the Moskosky district court of St. Petersburg ruled that Inna Meyer, wife and business partner of August Meyer, be placed under house arrest. This was reported in the joint press service of the city courts. The businesswoman is accused of committing crimes under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code (2 episodes). The day before, on December 8, she was detained in accordance with Article 91 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation and on the same day she was also indicted.

Inna Meyer is prohibited from leaving her apartment until February 7, 2022, except for walks of no more than four hours daily, using the Internet and other means of communication, and communicating with anyone except relatives, a lawyer and an investigator.

Due to a conflict of shareholders Yulmart has actually stopped its activities for two years, and a number of its structures are in bankruptcy. During this time, Sberbank managed to sue the company for 1 billion rubles.

Due to financial problems, Yulmart actually stopped operating in 2020 - bankruptcy proceedings are underway.

August Meyer is also the owner of Rive Gauche, if the guilt is proven, the funds in the enforcement proceedings can be recovered from this business, believes Elena Gladysheva: "At a public auction it will be sold to third parties, the money will be received by the creditor and the claims will be satisfied. There is still a possibility of peaceful settlement in the form of Sberbank taking this share in the business to compensate for claims against another legal entity," - the Attorney notes.