⚖️ Shop&Show Teleshopping Executives Face Potential Criminal Charges
A group of Russian entrepreneurs has petitioned the Moscow branch of the Investigative Committee, demanding the initiation of a criminal case against Oleg Vorobyov, the alleged beneficial owner of the well-known teleshopping channel Shop&Show, and his wife, Natalya Bryleva.
Suppliers accuse the management of the project’s legal entities—Market-TV and ShikTV—of orchestrating a massive fraudulent scheme to misappropriate goods. Currently, both entities have been declared bankrupt, and the cumulative claims of over 90 creditors already exceed 3 billion rubles.
According to the victims’ statement, the teleshopping network operated via a classic textbook scheme: it acquired trial batches of goods from suppliers and partially paid for them to create the illusion of a reliable partnership. Once trust was established, the company sharply increased its order volumes and froze all subsequent payments. The materials submitted to the Investigative Committee detail nine such episodes, accounting for approximately 80 million rubles in direct damages. Until now, the disputes have played out exclusively in commercial (arbitration) courts; however, the claimants insist that management’s actions were intentional and fall under criminal statutory definitions of fraud.
The situation is further compounded by the exposure of the companies’ financial maneuvering. In 2023, ShikTV’s revenue abruptly surged nearly tenfold, reaching 1.2 billion rubles. Creditors allege that this artificial inflation of inventory and turnover was engineered solely to secure a 900-million-ruble credit line from Sberbank, after which the funds were siphoned off through affiliated structures. The bankruptcy trustee is currently moving to void these transactions within the insolvency proceedings.
In parallel, Oleg Vorobyov’s personal bankruptcy case is unfolding. The commercial court has already invalidated his prenuptial agreement—under which virtually all luxury assets had been transferred to his wife—ruling the agreement an attempt to conceal property from creditors.
The affected entrepreneurs express concern that the suspects might flee from justice, noting that the couple holds Canadian citizenship. At the trustee’s request, the court has already issued an official inquiry to Canadian authorities to locate any hidden offshore accounts and real estate registered to the debtors.
Source: Izvestia
