The Story
Criminal case timeline
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against me under Article 195(3) of the Criminal Law - for alleged large-scale money laundering.
I only found out about this date on May 9, when I received a copy of the decision to seize the property.
Chief Inspector Ieva Gorska, Head of the Organised Crime Unit, Division 2 of the General Criminal Police Directorate, has taken a decision to seize my accounts and my car.
They sent this decision to the bank and the prosecutor, but they did not send the decision to me even though it is prescribed by law.
The SEB bank gets a decision and freezes my accounts.
I did not know anything about it. Nobody notified me.
I tried to make a purchase with my credit card, but the payment failed. I called the bank and discovered that the police had seized my accounts.
When I called the bank, they refused to give me any details and said I should have received a notice in the mail. It was not there.
Realizing something was wrong and the notice was not coming, I contracted with lawyer Armands Rasa.
The lawyer makes a request to the police for a copy of the decision to seize the property.
The lawyer called Ieva Gorska, the investigator, asking them to issue a decision to seize the property. They refused.
During the phone conversation, they arrogantly pointed out the need to wait for an answer in the manner prescribed by law.
I signed a power of attorney to have my affairs handled by a lawyer at a notary public.
Ieva Gorska replied that the attorney does not have the right to make requests on his own, so the application should be left without consideration.
They referred to the fact that a power of attorney was not correctly executed. However, at that time, there was already a power of attorney signed by a notary, and this was public information.
The lawyer sent a complaint to the Head of the Organised Crime Unit of the General Criminal Police Directorate, Pēteris Bauska, and Deputy Head of Unit Kristīne Nicmane, demanding to replace the investigator due to non-cooperation and requesting to send us a copy of the decision on the seizure of the property.
At that time, we absolutely did not understand what was going on and why it took us so long to get the paper, which should have been issued from the beginning.
The reply received from the Deputy Head of the Division, Kristīne Nicmane, in which they informs that according to the law, a lawyer has no right to ask for anything and can only participate in the proceedings "together with the person."
It was absolutely shocking and provocative because it was a malicious and incorrect interpretation of the law. In fact, they said that the lawyer had no rights whatsoever.
Another complaint was sent to Pēteris Bauska, in which the lawyer had to explain what a lawyer's job is and how the laws work. Once again, a request has been made to replace the investigator due to non-cooperation and to issue a copy of decision on the seizure of the property.
It's been a month since the property was seized, and I still have no information about what's going on.
The Prosecutor of the Specialised Prosecutor's Office for Organised Crime and Other Sections, Uldis Cinkmanis, decided to cancel Ieva Gorska's unlawful refusal to cooperate and directed that the application of February 18, 2021 be reconsidered.
Two months of obscurity! It becomes clear that by taking advantage of bureaucratic delays, Ieva Gorska is deliberately breaking the law to postpone the moment I find out what I am accused of and can file an official protest. Despite the prosecutor's decision, Ieva Gorska does not send us anything.
The lawyer sends another request to Ieva Gorska, asking for a copy of the decision to seize the property.
Kristīne Nicmane, Deputy Head of the 2nd Division of the Organised Crime Combating Department of the Main Criminal Police Directorate of the State Police, wrote in her reply to the prosecutor's decision that a copy of the decision was sent to my address by post (No!) and "therefore there is no reason to re-send copies of the decision neither to the provider of legal assistance, lawyer A.Rasa, nor to I.Borisovs."
I don't even know how to comment on that.
A request has been sent to Kristīne Nicmane to provide proof that the decision to seize Ilya Borisov's property has been sent to Ilya Borisovs at his declared place of residence.
No response.
A complaint has been sent to the specialized prosecutor's office for organized crime and other sectors, stating all the above circumstances. A copy of the decision to seize the property has been requested again.
It began to seem like it would go on forever.
The Chief Inspector and Investigator, Ieva Gorska, has sent a notification that the application for a copy of the decision to seize the property has been left unprocessed, as "the reply has been provided to you previously, and the content of the application has not changed substantially about the legal or factual circumstances set out in the previous application."
Now the absurdity of the situation has reached an absolute.
Prosecutor Uldis Cinkmanis responds to another complaint by sending copies of the arrest decision himself. He breaks the endless chain of complaints and responses, foiling police plans never to issue a decision's copy.
Three months after my arrest, I finally found out my status, what I was accused of, and that the deadline to file a protest expired two and a half months ago.
A request has been submitted to the Riga Regional Court to renew the time limit for appeal against the decisions of 9 February 2022 and 10 February 2022 on the seizure of property. And a complaint for unlawful seizure of property.
Now there was an opportunity to go to court, and the police could no longer prevent it.
Ieva Gorska has sent to the lawyer a notice informing me that I am legally obliged to prove the legal origin of my funds from 1 January 2021. She explained that I have 45 days to do so and that the evidence provided must be verifiable and indicate the source of the funds, the natural or legal persons involved in the transactions, and their representatives.
Suddenly, Ieva Gorska acknowledged my lawyer's rights and started interacting with him.
The decision of the Regional Court to cancel the decision of the investigating judge of the Vidzeme Suburbs Court of Riga City on 10 February 2022 in the form of a resolution confirming the decision of the Chief Inspector of the Organised Crime Combating Division 2 of the State Police Headquarters Criminal Police Department, Ieva Gorska, of 9 February 2022 on the seizure of property has been received.
In the decision, it was written that Ieva Gorska's decision to seize the property was illegal and unreasonable and was carried out with violations of the law and human rights. They tried to arrest everything and forever without even justifying it.
I upload electronically signed court decisions to my account at SEB bank and write an application to have my accounts unblocked.
At that moment, my mind was only on one thing: I had the opportunity to pay my income tax now.
I received a call from SEB bank, and it was explained to me that my accounts will not be unblocked because the bank has to get court decisions through "official channels."
I asked why electronically signed documents from the court are not official but got no answer.
The lawyer called the police and was told that the investigator of my case, Ieva Gorska, had quit.
An unexpected twist.
At 9:00, the Chief of the Organised Crime Unit of the Main Criminal Police Directorate, Peteris Bauska, sent us two new property seizure decisions, which Prosecutor Uldis Cinkmanis signed as a matter of urgency on Sunday. They specify the specific amounts to be seized and that I am suspected of being involved in money laundering through a complex business scheme.
I felt like I was in a movie. The prosecutor is called in on his day off to sign the arrest as a matter of urgency while the bank delays unblocking the accounts.
At 9:10, SEB Bank held back from me the amount specified in the attachment decisions. It exceeds my capital by 12,5 thousand. I am now a debtor.
This time the bank reacted with lightning speed. Apparently, the channels were official enough.
We filed a protest with the court against the decision to seize my accounts dated July 3, 2022. The protest was accompanied by all available documents from the case and files with all my transactions and my activities as an artist.
My only hope is that whoever gets all the documents will sooner or later begin to deal with the case.
SEB bank sent me a letter informing me that they are unilaterally terminating cooperation with me and I have to transfer my money to another credit institution.
Now, thanks to the criminal case against me, I am a debtor who faces up to 12 years in prison, without a bank account. Just because I was making and selling my art.
A complete report of my activities and my history as an artist was sent to the police as proof of the legal origin of my funds.
I spent several weeks collecting all the information, organizing it, and making it usable. It's a .xlsx file with all the links and .pdf files with instructions on checking wallets and transactions. I wrote my story as an artist and chronicled all my actions — basically, everything on this site but in the form of documents. I acted blindly because I did not know what they wanted to know. After all, they refuse to communicate. I just tried to do my best to make the obviousness of my innocence visible at a glance.
The district court dismissed the challenge to the "urgent" new arrest order issued on July 3. The motive is this: the investigation is confidential, and the police have reason to believe that my money was obtained illegally. And the funds are seized so that they can be confiscated later.
We sent the court all the documents and files collected on this site to show that the case is extraordinary. But the judge is not interested. The decision is formal, and the court sides with the police.
The new investigator in my case, Ņina Samorodova, received and in one day reviewed all the materials that we had been preparing for a month and a half. All my transactions, artist's history, sales, and everything from this website's “Income Data” section. And rejected the request to cancel the seizure of property. Motive: investigation has not, at this stage, obtained a credible explanation as to the lawful origin of the seized property.
The primary weapon of technically illiterate police officers is the possibility of bureaucratic delays. They do not make any demands and do not show which transactions are suspicious (all of them?). We are forced to point our fingers in the sky, trying to guess what to send them next time, and they can respond: this does not fit. And I am sure that they will use this opportunity until the end. But the size of my lawsuit will grow in proportion to the length of time my accounts have been seized.
We received an answer from the investigator that she was not obliged to give any explanations, but at the same time, the burden of proof that my funds were not obtained by illegal means was on me. But they will give us the necessary explanations during the interrogation on August 16.
It all came down to this point: August 16. Because everything that's happened before is just bureaucratic delays and law violations. This is the first attempt at an interaction on the part of police representatives.
I was interrogated for three hours, talking about my career as an artist, how I sold my art and everything that could be related to this case. It was all filmed on camera.
This was my first direct interaction with the police, and it went on a positive note. I got the impression that I was the victim of a misunderstanding and negligence on the part of the previous investigator.
Today I spent two hours using my laptop to prove that Shvembldr is me, that I am a generative artist, and that all my activities in selling NFT art are transparent and legal. It was all filmed with a video camera
I think that was my last interaction with the police because I can't imagine what other information I could provide for this case. The only thing left is waiting for it to be closed.
The State Tax Service decided to forcibly collect my unpaid taxes and penalties for overdue payments and sent me a notice about this. It also seized my accounts that had already been blocked by the police.
My worst nightmare came true. Not only have I been charged with a crime, but I am now a tax debtor, and this could have the saddest of consequences. And my debt increases every day by more than a thousand euros.
SEB bank terminated the contract with me unilaterally without giving a reason.
Now I don't have a bank, and I can't become any financial institution client until this case is over.
Investigator Nina Samorodova sent a refusal to our request to unblock the funds necessary to pay taxes. She refused because the case circumstances had not changed, I am suspected of committing a particularly serious crime, and the need to pay my taxes is not a reason to revoke the arrest.
The funny thing is that, in her opinion, the circumstances of the case have not changed. Three hours of video interrogation and two hours of video where I showed and explained all my activities on the laptop did not change the circumstances of the case. Even though the police did not conduct any investigative activities until August 18, they didn't even know that I was still working and had a new release. I think no one did anything further there, and my interrogation is just on the shelf.
In response to our request for information about the investigation process and what additional information I could give to the police to help the investigation, we received an answer from investigator Nina Samorodova that "the investigation is proceeding in a general manner" and "if there is any need for information from Ilya Borisov, they will request it.
Another bureaucratic filing from people who can't even formulate their questions. As the case lay on the shelf before my interrogation, I think it went back there. There is no investigation, nor was there one.
In response to my application to the State Revenue Service for them to suspend the forced collection of taxes and cancel penalties for late payment because the police arrested my accounts until the moment when this case is solved, I was told that "paying taxes is my duty and tax evaders who do not pay taxes in full, cause not only financial losses to the budget but also losses to society, which cannot be measured in monetary terms". And the decision to enforce collection will not be stopped.
It is hard to convey my feelings when I read this. I understand it was written by some "cog" in the system, just quoting excerpts from the law. But nevertheless: I had the opportunity not to pay a cent of the money I earned from art. I made a conscious decision and brought more than three million euros into the country's budget. And now I am inflicting losses on society... You are inflicting losses on society with your unprofessionalism and abominable attitude, because of which everyone hates you so much and because of which our country is in such a miserable state!
We filed a formal legal protest to the State Revenue Service against the decision to enforce the collection of the tax debt and penalties. And here came the answer. Seventeen pages of meaningless text filled with figures everyone already knows and endless excerpts from the law. All for the sake of rejection. The brightest example of bureaucracy and unwillingness to cooperate.
Funny fact: the document is signed by Indra Kārkliņa, the acting director. But where is the director himself? The director was fired on September 15 because several employees of the State Revenue Service were arrested for extorting a bribe. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon in our country for people who are supposed to be responsible for enforcing the law to violate it themselves. I think my case will also be the reason to fire the employees who occupy their place unjustly and harm society and our country. In the meantime, we turn to the next instance - the courts.
I appealed the decision of the Latvian Tax Service on the forced collection of taxes in court. And today, I received the court's decision. It is no different from the decision of the tax authorities. The Court notes that the criminal proceedings were not an obstacle to collecting tax debts. The Court agrees that tax payments cannot be made from criminally derived funds, but at this stage, it is unknown whether the applicant's funds were criminally derived. The court's decision cannot be appealed.
It's hard to convey how I feel. It's like being sucked into a vortex and sliding your fingernails across a perfectly flat surface, trying to get a grip on anything. And at the bottom, an eternally hungry, vile creature with the mind of an amoeba, who only knows how to chew and shit, is waiting for you. In the time I've been trying to fight the system, I've learned how much people hate this country. I do my best not to be infected by this hatred.
On December 9, 2023, the 22 months allowed by law to seize my money expired. On December 8, I received a letter with a court decision to extend it for another three months. Elena Sokolova (the third investigator in my case) filed the request for an extension. She asked to prolong the arrest of the money because this case is "particularly complicated and requires a lot of time for its investigation.” Of course, the judge immediately approved this request.
I had not the slightest doubt that this is how events would develop. This case is so complicated that there was no trace of an investigation for the first two years, and the central figure and source of information in the case (me) was questioned on his initiative. I collected all the documents and information for the investigation. But now the deadline is approaching, and they are trying to imitate some activity that looks ridiculous and unprofessional. For example, they summoned one of my acquaintances for questioning, which is absurd. What will they do when they call everyone they can to ask questions and everyone says the same thing? How do they bring the case to court when there is no case?
Suddenly, I received an opinion from our Ombudsman. We appealed to him about the situation because the tax office was trying to collect taxes, seized money from me, and imposed penalties for non-payment, which is absurd to its extreme degree. This paper says that the situation has been thoroughly investigated and is an example of human rights violation due to the incompleteness of the law. It also recommends that the State Revenue Service reconsider its decision on my case within a month and the Ministry of Finance amend the law before the year's end to avoid repeating such cases.
Unfortunately, the Ombudsman's conclusions in our country are of a recommendatory nature and hardly anyone will follow them, but at least I have a strong opinion on this situation. If no one follows these recommendations, Latvia will be at a huge disadvantage when I defend my rights in the European Court.
Three months have passed, and Elena Sokolova asked the court for additional time to investigate this extremely complicated case. But it was not enough, and she asked for three more. And the court, as always, met her needs. Now, the arrest has been extended until June 9.
I can hardly imagine the strain that Elena Sokolova is experiencing due to the complexity of this case. I wish her health and moral strength from the bottom of my heart. It'll be over soon, Elena. You'll only be able to renew this case once. Then you'll have to close it. I recommend you plan a vacation for this time. You will need a break to come to your senses and rethink your purpose in this world, and perhaps a change of profession. You were going to do good for your country, but you're only harming it. It's a road to nowhere.
I have received another offer to "close my issue.” All I have to do is transfer some money after it is closed.
Well, that's the fucking move when all legal deadlines come to an end. I'm afraid they didn't get my complete response to their inquiry. So I'll write about it here: I wasn't going to pay you from the start, and that's never going to change, but you fuckers are going to pay me in full. If you think you're the only one who investigate, I want to assure you that work is also being done on the back end. And it's very effective. Your system is rotten, and your employees are very chatty.
Dear Google user, Google has received a legal process issued by the Homeland Security Investigations compelling the release of information related to your Google account. The agency reference number or case number on the legal process is HSI-NL-2024-042707-001 .
I received a letter from Google that a request has been made for all possible information related to my account. Latvian police initiated their international connections. I'm sure they sent similar requests to all the services I used. Well, good luck digging through my dirty laundry. You only have a little time left to make sure that all the money you spent on this case - you just stole from the government due to your stupidity.
Nothing happened today.
I endlessly await the next turn in this crazy bureaucratic system.