Victims Appeal Dismissal of Builder's SVO Case

The Volzhsky City Court«s decision to terminate the criminal case against ex-businessman Ivan Krakhmalev has been appealed in the Volgograd Regional Court.

Krakhmalev is accused of fraud: he collected money from residents of Volgograd and Volzhsky for the construction of individual homes but did not fulfill his obligations.

After a video appeal to the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, the suspect was detained, but the court chose a preventive measure in the form of house arrest.

At the beginning of 2025, the case began to be heard, but in February the proceedings were suspended because Krakhmalev signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense and went to the zone of the special military operation. Notably, he signed the contract not in the Volgograd region but in the Samara region.

On November 25, the court resumed the proceedings and on the same day terminated them, citing the defendant«s contract service during the mobilization period and his injury.

One of the victims, a resident of Volzhsky whose rights were recognized by the court, expressed disagreement: «I believe that our rights were violated. We saw Mr. Krakhmalev in a new car. He seemed to be in excellent health and everything was fine with him. Well, how can that be? The man went to the combat zone, within two weeks ended up in a hospital, from there he was transferred to another hospital, then another transfer to a place where there was a scandalous story involving corruption. As a result, in less than six months he was demobilized».

According to her, among the deceived clients there is an active participant of the special military operation and the widow of a fallen soldier, but none of the victims have received compensation.

The victim also noted that among the case materials there are documents classified as «secret», which mention serious skull injuries, but the court did not personally verify this information. She insists on a re-examination of the injury. In addition, in December the victims met with representatives of the Moscow prosecutor«s office and are now awaiting the results of the inspection.