The Sverdlovsk Ministry of Justice demanded the liquidation of the charity fund of the former mayor of Yekaterinburg, Yevgeny Roizman, reported «RIA Novosti» citing the agency's court documents. On April 2, it will be reviewed by the Oktyabrsky District Court of Yekaterinburg.
The reason for the lawsuit is still unknown. The interested parties in the case are listed as the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region, the tax service department for the Verkh-Isetsky District, artist Salavat Fazlitdinov, and Roizman's associate in the fund, Sergey Shchipachev.
In December 2024, the Ministry of Justice and the police conducted an inspection of the fund due to the collection of money for the drug Zolgensma for spinal muscular atrophy for Kostya Katkov and Mark Ugrekhelidze. The money for the children was collected back in 2021, but in the end, the boys received the drug injection from the state fund «Circle of Kindness». The fund froze the collection and offered donors to return the funds. Law enforcement reviewed documents for the 9 years of the fund's operation, but no violations were found. The fund stated that they did not spend the collected money — 222 million rubles.
According to the fund's representatives, the lawsuit for its liquidation is related to the fact that its employees tried to appeal the results of the Ministry of Justice's inspection, which took place in the fund last year. «This is related to the fact that the day before we appealed to the court to challenge the inspection report, which took place in the fall of 2024. It was also related to the distribution of collected funds for children with SMA», said It’s My City fund director Svetlana Kosolapova.
«It's fine, we continue to work. No one promised it would be easy», commented Yevgeny Roizman on the situation.
Politician Yevgeny Roizman founded the charity fund in 2015. The organization supports non-profit initiatives in the Sverdlovsk Region and participated in the creation of the first hospice in Yekaterinburg.
In the spring of 2022, Roizman was fined a total of 150 thousand rubles in three administrative cases for «discrediting» the Russian army due to statements on social media about the war in Ukraine. In November of the same year, the Ministry of Justice recognized Yevgeny Roizman as a «foreign agent».
In March 2023, the politician was detained for reposting the video «Why is Putin imprisoning Navalny?**» on «VKontakte». It contained symbols of Navalny's supporters, which were recognized as «extremist». The court placed the politician under administrative arrest for 14 days. In May of the same year, Yevgeny Roizman was fined 260 thousand rubles due to a stream on his YouTube channel, where he critically spoke about the war in Ukraine. The court found the politician guilty under a criminal article for repeated «discrediting» of the Russian army.
* Recognized as a «foreign agent» in Russia.
** Included in the list of «terrorists and extremists».