Child beaten up in Yekaterinburg for mother’s debts, though possibly not. Meduza’s report.
On April 5, loan collectors in Yekaterinburg beat up an eleven-year-old boy as punishment for a debt of 300,000 rubles (approximately $5,275) allegedly held by his mother. The woman herself claims that she has no debt, but that her twin sister took out a loan for this amount in 2011. The collection agency that dealt with her sister’s debt officially closed in March 2016. It is unknown who actually beat the boy up.
The boy was attacked after school on April 5. Irina Nikitina, the victim’s mother, told Life magazine that the boy studies at a correctional school, as he has epilepsy. According to her, on April 4, unidentified persons doused the child with beer and threatened him. After school the next day, three men entered the elevator with her son, forced him off on the third floor, and beat him. Nikitina’s son said that the attackers asked him: “When will your mother pay back [her] debt of 300,000 [rubles]?”
Nikitina claims that she does not have such a debt. According to her, her twin sister Olga had taken out a loan at Home-Bank in 2011. The women’s private information – surname, date of birth, and permanent address – completely coincide. “Despite the fact that she paid back the 300,000 [rubles], the same amount still remained due. In 2015, her debt was bought up [by another company], and nobody bothered us,” said Nikitina. A few weeks ago, she received a receipt for her utility bill payment that read: “Enough living at your neighbors’ expense.” The Yekaterinburg prosecutor’s office is checking whether the family has utilities debts which could have been handed over to collectors. According to investigators, Olga Nikitina owes debts to three banks.
The collection company that bought the debt no longer exists. In 2015, the company Morgan, once one of the largest collection agencies in Russia, purchased the debt from the bank. According to the website of Russia’s National Association of Professional Collection Agencies (NAPK), Morgan ceased to exist in March 2016 and its leadership disappeared. The NAPK website reports that, at the time of its closing, Morgan had over half a million active loans totalling about 20 billion rubles (approximately $ 351,187,200) purchased from various banks. When Meduza’s editorial team called the company’s official telephone number, it heard the recording “This number can now be bought.”
Russia’s Investigative Committee has initiated criminal proceedings under an article on extortion of funds with the use of violence committed by a group of persons. The Committee states that the main task is to find out who the attackers were and to determine whether they represent a collection organization. Authorities have promised to make “the most rigid and principled legal [investigation]” into the attack against the child. Russia’s children’s rights commissioner Anna Kuznetsova also said that the responsibility for the incident should be borne not only by the attackers, but also by the credit organization for which they work.
Yuliana Skibitskaya