The defense of Anton Vikharev, who confessed to conspiracy to commit fraud in the United States, sent its final opinion to the court on the eve of sentencing, according to which 35 months of imprisonment, taking into account the time spent by the Russian in custody, is a sufficient punishment.
"The gravity of Mr. Vikharev's offense is largely mitigated by taking into account his role in the conspiracy, as well as his demonstrated remorse and acceptance of responsibility. There is no need to further restrict the legal capacity of Mr. Vikharev in order to prevent him from committing crimes in the future, given his extremely low risk of recidivism, the absence of any criminal past, as well as his voluntary consent to deportation upon completion of this case," reads the document, which was reviewed by RAPSI.
"What Mr. Vikharev did was wrong, and he accepts full responsibility for what he did, but he was in no way informed that his withdrawal was a fraudulent tax refund, and, as the US government admits, he was not informed that the withdrawal was a fraudulent tax refund. and as far as this is confirmed by evidence, he never participated in the processing of these returns, " the defense explains.
The prosecution, in turn, also presented its final opinion to the court, insisting that a prison sentence should be applied to the Russian citizen, taking into account the two years he spent in custody in Canada awaiting extradition to the United States. In addition, according to the prosecution, Vikharev is obliged to pay damages in the amount of about 2 million dollars, another 537 thousand dollars (about 50.8 million rubles) are subject to confiscation. Finally, the prosecution filed a separate motion demanding Vikharev's expulsion from the United States.
At the same time, the prosecution's final opinion draws attention to the fact that questions remain unresolved regarding the total amount of damage caused, Vikharev's role in the commission of the offense.
As previously reported, Vikharev was arrested at the request of US law enforcement agencies while boarding a flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, from where he intended to go to Moscow. He was subsequently extradited to the United States, where he was tried in Federal Court for the Western District of Missouri in July 2023.
According to the US authorities, Vikharev, acting in collusion with two Russians, Alexander Pavlov and Dmitry Schenke, as well as a naturalized US citizen Stanislav Lukyantsev, participated in the theft of personal data of US citizens and filing applications for compensation of allegedly overpaid taxes on their basis.
According to the case file, in 2011-2016, the defendants filed more than 7,100 fictitious tax returns in the amount of more than $ 11.2 million, of which the National Tax Service paid $ 2 million to the defendants. After cashing out and transferring fraudulently obtained funds to their own accounts in American banks, the defendants in the case, as indicated by the US Prosecutor's Office, transferred them to Russia.
The verdict against Anton Vikharev is expected to be announced on March 28.
"The gravity of Mr. Vikharev's offense is largely mitigated by taking into account his role in the conspiracy, as well as his demonstrated remorse and acceptance of responsibility. There is no need to further restrict the legal capacity of Mr. Vikharev in order to prevent him from committing crimes in the future, given his extremely low risk of recidivism, the absence of any criminal past, as well as his voluntary consent to deportation upon completion of this case," reads the document, which was reviewed by RAPSI.
"What Mr. Vikharev did was wrong, and he accepts full responsibility for what he did, but he was in no way informed that his withdrawal was a fraudulent tax refund, and, as the US government admits, he was not informed that the withdrawal was a fraudulent tax refund. and as far as this is confirmed by evidence, he never participated in the processing of these returns, " the defense explains.
The prosecution, in turn, also presented its final opinion to the court, insisting that a prison sentence should be applied to the Russian citizen, taking into account the two years he spent in custody in Canada awaiting extradition to the United States. In addition, according to the prosecution, Vikharev is obliged to pay damages in the amount of about 2 million dollars, another 537 thousand dollars (about 50.8 million rubles) are subject to confiscation. Finally, the prosecution filed a separate motion demanding Vikharev's expulsion from the United States.
At the same time, the prosecution's final opinion draws attention to the fact that questions remain unresolved regarding the total amount of damage caused, Vikharev's role in the commission of the offense.
As previously reported, Vikharev was arrested at the request of US law enforcement agencies while boarding a flight from Toronto to Frankfurt, from where he intended to go to Moscow. He was subsequently extradited to the United States, where he was tried in Federal Court for the Western District of Missouri in July 2023.
According to the US authorities, Vikharev, acting in collusion with two Russians, Alexander Pavlov and Dmitry Schenke, as well as a naturalized US citizen Stanislav Lukyantsev, participated in the theft of personal data of US citizens and filing applications for compensation of allegedly overpaid taxes on their basis.
According to the case file, in 2011-2016, the defendants filed more than 7,100 fictitious tax returns in the amount of more than $ 11.2 million, of which the National Tax Service paid $ 2 million to the defendants. After cashing out and transferring fraudulently obtained funds to their own accounts in American banks, the defendants in the case, as indicated by the US Prosecutor's Office, transferred them to Russia.
The verdict against Anton Vikharev is expected to be announced on March 28.
