The Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court sentenced actress Natalya Drozhzhina to four years of probation in the case of fraud with the inheritance of actor Alexei Batalov, who died six years ago. The press service of the Moscow prosecutor’s office said that Drozhzhina’s husband, lawyer Mikhail Tsivin, was sentenced to five years in prison.
“They were found guilty of fraudulently embezzling the property of the family of actor Alexei Batalov. The convicts stole from the widow of the actor and the youngest daughter the ownership of shares in apartments and non-residential premises, with 20 million rubles in the accounts, ”the convicts said.
74-year-old Drozhzhina and Tsivin pleaded not guilty. The court also sentenced notary Dmitry Bubliy to five years in prison, depriving him of the right to engage in activities related to the commission of notarial transactions for two years. He partially admitted his guilt. Tsivin and Bubliy will serve their sentences in a penal colony.
Actor Alexei Batalov died in June 2017 at the age of 88. Three years after his death, in September 2020, a scandal broke out about his inheritance: the widow of the artist, Gitana Leontenko, said that Drozhzhina and Tsivin, who had infiltrated the family’s trust, deprived them of their share in a four-room apartment. , the late actor’s workshop, another apartment and a large amount of money.
A criminal case was opened under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – fraud on a particularly large scale, committed by a group of individuals with prior agreement. The investigation revealed that Batalov, Drozhzhina and Tsivin really helped his family in the first years after his death. Lifetime alimony agreements are signed, allowing spouses to dispose of the deceased’s inheritance. But in 2020, Leontenko discovered that some of the money had disappeared from the accounts, and real estate, including an apartment in the center of Moscow, no longer belonged to him and his daughter.
“Of course, there was a general power of attorney to carry out all the business to which they transferred the property. As Yeralash’s artistic director, Boris Grachevsky, told socialbites.ca at the time, Drozhzhina and Tsivin participated in property wars on the side of the Batalovs, so it shocked us all.
Later it became known that six months after his death, Batalov’s widow signed documents transferring the right to dispose of the property to Drozhzhina and Tsivin. He later told the investigation that he had signed the contracts under duress. Law enforcement also learned that notary Dmitry Bubliy certified the signatures of the victims without their physical presence.
A friend of the Batalov family, Yuri Sherling, called Drozhzhina and Tsivin the “funeralists” who professionally deceived them, after the scandal broke out and the investigation began on NTV.
“There’s a whole galaxy of scammers copying the old people’s properties. They didn’t just do it with the Batalovs. I am sure that Drozhzhina has a significant number of apartments received in this way. The truly wealthy people immersed themselves in confidence like an actor. “Maybe that’s his best role,” he said.
Tsivin and Drozhzhina said that they have been friends with the Batalov family for a very long time. But in the same program on NTV, the goddaughter of the late artist Varvara denied these words: according to her, the couple appeared in the family about a year before Batalov broke his hip, in which he died five months later in January 2017. Varvara said that the deceased actor did not perceive Drozhzhina and Tsivin, so they began to “encourage” his wife. The woman said that while she was trying to resolve the inheritance situation, her spouses threatened her over the phone.
In April 2022, the Moscow Zamoskvoretsky Court fulfilled the prosecutor’s claim in the interests of the actor’s daughter and voided life support contracts with dependents. And he fulfilled all the claims of Leontenko in July last year. In his favor, 1.9 million rubles, $ 123 thousand, € 25 thousand were charged from Drozhzhina, 35 thousand rubles, $ 96 thousand and € 52 thousand from Tsivin. About €30,000 was collected from the spouses in favor of Batalov’s daughter Maria with cerebral palsy.
Drozhzhina and Tsivin denied their involvement in any fraudulent activity. In an interview with AiF, Tsivin said that his friendly and professional relations with Batalov lasted 17 years, and before his death, the actor asked him not to “break up with Mashka.” The power of attorney for the disposal of property, according to him, arose in connection with the need to deal with the design of a monument to Batalov, a memorial plaque. And after some time, the widow of the artist wanted to draw up a contract of maintenance for Maria Batalova for part of her estate.
With a large amount of dollars disappearing from Leontenko’s accounts, Tsivin explained that the widow “who had seen enough news on TV” decided to get rid of the currency by investing in real estate.
“I offered them two rooms in an apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. And for 13 million 500 thousand rubles, we bought two of these rooms on behalf of Maria Batalova, in order to later buy another room and buy a whole apartment. Tsivin said that the entire purchase was made through a notary public.
Actress Natalya Drozhzhina is from the Odessa region. After graduating from the Shchukin Theater School, she began acting in films and television. She has mostly minor roles, including movies like “Seventeen Moments of Spring”, “Intergirl”. Later she found herself in pedagogy-she taught at the University of Culture at the Academy of Management of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.
Mikhail Tsivin is a fairly well-known Moscow lawyer. He was friends with his father, Joseph Kobzon. In June 2009, the lawyer founded the National Chamber of Experts, and in 2010 – CJSC Transvideocom. Both institutions are now liquidated.
In 2021, the media wrote that Drozhzhina was forced to marry Tsivin by Boris Buryatse, a popular Soviet singer and favorite of Leonid Brezhnev’s daughter Galina. In 1981, he was imprisoned for robbing the famous circus trainer Irina Bugrimova: allegedly stealing diamond jewelry from her apartment. According to Buryatse’s nephew, his uncle and Drozhzhina may be linked to fraud cases. The actress was seen in the house of Buryatse and came to her when she was sitting in the colony. There, according to some reports, the singer and actress entered into a fictitious marriage to speed up the period.
Niece Buryatse told Drozhzhina that it was the singer who suggested that a good lawyer is needed for successful fraud with apartments and heirs of single artists. Therefore, in 1983 (according to other information – in 1985) Drozhzhina married Tsivin.