Prosecution requests 12 years in a strict-regime colony for former co-owner of Moscow shopping centers Manashirov

Prosecution requests 12 years and confiscation

The prosecution has asked the Tverskoy Court of Moscow to sentence in absentia Solomon Manashirov, a former co-owner of a chain of shopping centers in the capital, to 12 years in a strict-regime colony in a case involving extortion, tax evasion and money laundering. This was reported by Kommersant citing the court hearing. In addition to imprisonment, the prosecutor requested the confiscation of the defendant's assets worth 141 million rubles and the granting of a civil claim by the victims for 530 million rubles.

The essence of the case

The trial of the 55-year-old businessman is being held in absentia — he is outside Russia. The case was opened in the spring of 2016 after tax evasion was detected at the company Karenfor, which owned a shopping center on Kirovogradskaya Street in Moscow. Manashirov founded the firm in 1998 together with his elder brother Gennady. According to the investigation, in 2012–2014 he underpaid almost 978 million rubles in VAT, withdrawing these funds through 18 organizations connected to him and thereby laundering them.

Flight, manhunt and extortion charge

In the autumn of 2016, Manashirov was charged in absentia with tax evasion. According to the publication, six months earlier he had used an Israeli passport, flew to Tel Aviv on the pretext of medical treatment and never returned; he was soon placed on an international wanted list, and the Presnensky Court of Moscow ordered his arrest in absentia. In addition, Solomon and Gennady Manashirov are charged with extorting 175.3 million rubles for assistance in freeing Zhauko and Don Rafailovs from criminal prosecution. Gennady Manashirov and his acquaintance, an investigator who promised to resolve the matter for 10 million rubles, were caught red-handed during the transfer of the first tranche.

What has already been decided in the case

Some of the claims against the family have already received a judicial assessment: in the summer of 2023, Gennady Manashirov was sentenced to 15 years in a strict-regime colony, and recently a new trial against him began in the Izmaylovo Court of Moscow — this time on charges of blood feud for a crime committed in the autumn of 2022 and solved 23 years later. Earlier, the court also recovered several billion rubles from Solomon Manashirov. Thus, the current proceedings in the Tverskoy Court determine only the criminal punishment for the businessman himself, who is abroad — the verdict handed down in absentia will take effect regardless of his presence, but the enforcement of the sentence and the confiscation will depend on his return to Russia or extradition.