Yekaterinburg road rage offender gets 8 years for fraud

The Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow has sentenced Boris Malafeyev to eight years in a penal colony. Malafeyev, a former prosecutor«s investigator, businessman, and infamous road rage offender from Yekaterinburg, was found guilty of large-scale fraud and money laundering. According to the victims, the damage amounts to nearly half a billion rubles (approximately $5 million at current rates). The court»s decision has not yet come into force and can be appealed.

Malafeyev gained nationwide notoriety in August 2015 after a road incident in Yekaterinburg. Jumping out of his Audi A7, he attacked pregnant Evelina Murzina, who did not yield the lane to him. The recording of the conflict quickly spread online. In 2016, for this offense, a court sentenced him to eight months of correctional labor and ordered him to pay 50,000 rubles (about $500) in moral damages. Malafeyev«s mother, who held a high position in the Sverdlovsk Region prosecutor»s office, resigned after this scandal.

The criminal case on fraud included eight episodes, with victims including an industrial plant and several large companies. The total damage exceeded half a billion rubles (around $5 million). While the victims were seeking to initiate the case, Malafeyev and his accomplices managed to transfer assets to controlled organizations. As a result, bailiffs were able to seize property worth only 50 million rubles (approximately $500,000). As the victims explained, the deception scheme was simple: Malafeyev lured investors with offers to participate in profitable businesses, guaranteed interest payments and dividends. After receiving significant sums, he stopped fulfilling obligations, leaving partners without money.

Initially, attempts to initiate a criminal case in Sverdlovsk Region faced refusals, and the materials were passed from one authority to another. The investigation was only able to begin in Moscow, where some of the crimes were committed.

Boris Malafeyev is not the only Yekaterinburg resident to gain nationwide fame due to road hooliganism. Earlier, in 2013, Igor Novosyolov with a group of people attacked another driver in the Pionersky district, and the dashcam recording spread online. Novosyolov became the subject of the meme «Who you honking at, uncle?» Subsequently, he has been repeatedly held accountable for hooliganism and is currently in prison.