The state prosecution asks to sentence to eight years in prison the head of the “God Kuzi” sect, Yuri Tsukerman, who is accused of embezzling 215 million rubles. This was reported to TASS on August 7 in the Tushinsky District Court of Moscow, which is considering the case on the merits.
“The verdict will be announced on August 17 at 15:00 Moscow time,” said Marina Sviridova, the court’s press secretary.
According to the investigation, it was Zuckerman who prepared forged documents, on the basis of which, in 2016, the Khimki city court ruled to recover in his favor over 215 million rubles, which were stored in the authorized body as material evidence in a previously initiated criminal case against a spiritual sect leader Andrei Popov. During the arrest of Zuckerman in 2018, they found part of the stolen funds in the amount of more than 85 million rubles, and also confiscated the property acquired by the attacker with the stolen money.
In January, the court arrested Popov’s wife, Honored Artist of Russia and violinist Anastasia Chebotareva, in the case of embezzlement by the community of more than 15 million rubles.
In 2018, the founder of the sect, Andrei Popov, was sentenced to five years in a general regime colony. The court also sentenced the chief accountant of the sect, Galina Markevich, to four years and nine months in prison, and the two closest assistants of the sect leader, Nadezhda Rozanova and Zhanna Frolushkina, received four years and 10 months and four years and 11 months in prison, respectively.
The court concluded that the leader of the pseudo-Orthodox group was posing as a clergyman, while other persons involved in the case had a psychological and physical impact on citizens, and also misled them.