Kremlin critic Navalny caused ‘no loss’ to Yves Rocher: company

French cosmetic company Yves Rocher has denied it suffered losses due to leading Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who is on trial in Moscow for allegedly defrauding the company of more than half a million dollars, the defence team said Thursday.

But the court refused to grant Navalny’s request for his acquittal.

Navalny, a charismatic anti-corruption campaigner who roused crowds at rallies against President Vladimir Putin, is accused with his brother Oleg of embezzling nearly 27 million rubles ($582,000, 464,000 euros) when Yves Rocher used their delivery service.

They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

The French company “submitted a complaint on which the investigation was based. But it said yesterday that almost none of its suspicions were proven,” said Olga Mikhailova, the lawyer representing the Navalny brothers.

“I confirm that there wasn’t any loss following from our working together,” Christian Melnik, the financial director of the Russian division Yves Rocher Vostok told the court on Wednesday, cited by The New Times magazine.

A spokesman for Yves Rocher Vostok told AFP on Thursday it had found no loss after carrying out internal checks into the Navalny brothers’ transport and delivery company, Glavpodpiska.

“We carried out an internal audit on the delivery service provided by this private parcel delivery company,” the spokesman said. “The findings of this audit demonstrated that the price of the Glavpodpiska deliveries to Yves Rocher Vostok were competititive.”

Nevertheless, Yves Rocher Vostok is awaiting the court’s findings to see if it could have avoided the delivery costs, the spokesman said.

Yves Rocher said it had spent 55 million rubles over four years on the services of the Navalny brothers’ company.

Navalny is being held under house arrest while the case goes on, banned from communicating by phone or Internet.

He was in 2013 sentenced to five years in jail in a separate embezzlement case but had his sentence converted to a suspended one.

The 38-year-old insists that the latest court case is down to Kremlin machinations.

In court, Navalny asked Melnik to confirm that Yves Rocher had no grievance against him or his brother or their company. After Melnik confirmed this, Navalny asked to be acquitted — but the court refused.

“It’s obvious that there cannot be an acquittal. No one can allow a situation where Navalny beats the system. Even if the victims have repeated 100 times that they have suffered no damages,” Navalny said in court.