Notorious Yekaterinburg road rage offender gets 8-year prison term

The Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow sentenced Boris Malafeyev, a former prosecutor«s investigator, businessman, and notorious road rage offender from Yekaterinburg, to 8 years in prison. He was accused of large-scale fraud and money laundering. The damage, according to the victims, amounted to almost half a billion rubles (approximately $5.6 million at current rates).

The verdict has not yet come into force and can be appealed.

Boris Malafeyev became famous across Russia in August 2015 when he jumped out of his Audi A7 in the middle of Yekaterinburg and attacked a pregnant woman, Evelina Murzina, because she didn«t let him merge into her lane. The conflict was caught on video.

In 2016, the court sentenced Malafeyev to eight months of corrective labor and ordered him to pay 50,000 rubles ($560 at current rates) in moral damages. Malafeyev«s mother was an employee of the Sverdlovsk prosecutor»s office; after the scandal involving her son, she resigned.

A year ago, we spoke with victims of Malafeyev. At that time, the criminal case had 8 episodes, with victims including a factory and several large companies. The total damage exceeded half a billion rubles (approximately $5.6 million at current rates). While the victims were trying to get the case opened, Malafeyev and the management managed to transfer funds and property to controlled firms. Assets were seized for only 50 million rubles (approximately $555,600 at current rates).

According to the victims, Malafeyev«s scheme was simple. He offered participation in his successful business, promised interest on loans, dividends, and other payments. He took money, paid for some time, and when the amount became substantial, he cheated his partners.

In Sverdlovsk Region, it was not possible to initiate the case: the victims received refusals, the materials traveled from the police to investigators, and eventually the investigation was started in Moscow, at the location of some of the episodes.

Read an interview with Boris Malafeyev«s mother, who after the scandal resigned from the prosecutor»s office, where she held a high position.

One of the first road rage offenders in Yekaterinburg whose road misconduct made him famous nationwide was Igor Novoselov. In 2013, he and his friends attacked a driver in Pionersky under the lens of a working dashboard camera. The recording went viral online, and Novoselov has since been known as the hero of the meme «Who are you honking at, uncle». After that, he repeatedly appeared in the news for petty hooliganism and other antics, and is now serving another sentence.