I’ve been following the case of Georgy Bedzhamov, a Russian billionaire who allegedly scammed investors out of hundreds of millions. It’s honestly crazy that he’s not facing any serious consequences.
Why is it that some billionaires seem untouchable? They steal massive amounts of money, and it’s like nothing even happened to them. I’m not talking about small amounts, but hundreds of millions. The bigger the scam, the more they seem to get away with it. Does anyone know why this happens?
And now, he’s in the UK why do these people come to our country and cause all this mess? Why isn’t the UK government doing anything about it?
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Because the billionaires run the world.
Rich Russians who have trouble in Russia are typically those who are no longer in favour with Putin.
He came to the UK I’d guess, because regardless of whether you’ve actually done immoral things, a lot of people not in favour with Putin seem to have very insecure 5th story windows they accidentally fall out of with some considerable force.
>They steal massive amounts of money, and it’s like nothing even happened to them.
This is effectively the Russian political system for centuries now.
Have you seen the leaders of the world? Billionaires are immune to consequences. The punishment for things is fines, most of the time, unless Bezos shoots someone in the head, and he can pay fines for the rest of time and not make a dent in
Money, mate.
In Russia, so long as you keep paying Putin you can do whatever you want.
Has he committed any crimes in the U.K.? And why should we care about what Russian courts say?
Because billions nearly always = corruption + access to very good lawyers and accountants.
Some billionaires? most billionaires get away with everything OP.
Russia is a little different, because the “government” will still give you a hard lesson in gravity if you step out of line. I’d genuinely argue it’s less beneficial to be a billionaire in Russia than pretty much everywhere else in the world right now. (That’s not necessarily a good thing).
Firstly he’s not been convicted and he’s not been charged with anything in UK. Relying on Russian allegations is difficult.
Secondly, he was previously decorated by Putin but he fled Russia, alleging the charges were politically motivated. This links back to the reliance on Russian allegations. His sister did plead guilty though.
His assets have been frozen in the UK since 2019,
I believe this is being treated as civil case rather than criminal, as it was brought by a Russian bankruptcy trustee. I note that the NCA are not pursuing this using a UWO (that I can see anyway). The debts are being chased by Mikhail Fridman and A1:
https://archive.ph/jfCp3
Fridman has been sanction since 2022 and was allegedly arrested in 2022 by the NCA:
https://www.spotlightcorruption.org/cases/mikhail-fridman-sanctions/
Lastly, Georgy Bedzhamov’s extradition was denied in 2021: https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/extradition-russia-discharged-abuse-process-court
There is so much more to this case than your post states and I suspect this is a lot more political than criminal.
Money is power. Why would they freeze billions when they can get a slice
Why do ALL billionaires get away with everything? Why do ANY billionaires get away with anything?
If youre private army is better funded than the cops, how are they possibly gonna get close to you for long enough.
Were any of these alleged offences committed in this country? If not, then he’s not going to be prosecuted here. And while most Russian billionaires are probably dodgy, an accusation by Putin’s government can easily be false.
Every billionaire gets away with everything they want to get away with. Anything they look to not get away with, it’s only because the consequences are inconsequential to them and stopping them would’ve been more time/effort than they felt it was worth.
Not saying billionaires don’t get away with stuff but you picked a bad example and not sure exactly what the UK gov should do considering he has r committed any crimes here. The gov are on the hook for a lot of things they’ve fucked up please don’t lie about things that are nothing to do with them
Bit more digging shows he was found guilty in his absence, this year:
https://tadviser.com/index.php/Person:Bedzhamov_Georgy_Ivanovich
And OCCRP did an interesting piecd on him:
https://www.occrp.org/en/project/the-pandora-papers/fugitive-russian-banker-used-cypriot-law-firm-to-hide-assets-move-money
The Russian’s want him, we won’t turn him over. All his assets are frozen. If the NCA believe the court case has merit, they’ll no doubt go after him under an UWO. But this a political hot potato and if he’s anti-Putin, he no doubts has friends in the UK. Personally I don’t trust the Russian court. But that’s not to say he hasn’t done anything criminal.
I also note that Reddit has been spammed lately by comments about him, all roughly the same, some in in appropriate pages. I believe he’s being used as topic for pro-Kremlin trolls to stir up anger. And each comment comes from an NSFW account and as I refuse to verify, I can’t dig deeper. Unintended consequence of a BS law perhaps?
Regardless, this is not a black or white case.
lol because they are rich, they can just buy their way out of everything