At last, we got to the questioning of one of the key witnesses in this case — Christian Melnik, the Finance and Administrative Director of Yves Rocher Vostok.
He is the one who determines what is beneficial for the company and what is not, where there are losses and where there are none.
He was the one who conducted the company’s internal audit to determine whether there had in fact been any losses, and who wrote that famous letter to the Investigative Committee, which the investigators tried to conceal:
You can read the full text of the document here.
Up to that point, Yves Rocher had done everything it could to avoid stating its position on the case, vaguely saying, “Everything will become clear in court.”
Well, now it has.
This is what he testified in court: (here is an audio recording of the part of the questioning that I conducted)
All information about possible losses/theft came from the investigators after searches, seizures, and interrogations.
I fully confirm the memorandum: there were neither losses nor lost profits.
We do not agree with the Investigative Committee’s calculations.
Would you enter into such a contract now (that was the judge’s question)? — Yes, we would.
Yves Rocher Vostok LLC has no claims against either Alexei Navalny, Oleg Navalny, or Glavpodpiska LLC.
My question — “How would you comment on the fact that I have been under house arrest for eight months on charges of ‘stealing’ 20 million rubles from Yves Rocher?” — was disallowed by Judge Korobchenko as irrelevant to the case.