The trial in the so-called "Life-is-Good" – "Hermes" – "Best Way" case has been ongoing in the Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg for almost two years. The examination of prosecution witnesses has concluded, but the main and virtually only witness, whose testimony was the basis for the case – Evgeny Naboychenko, the former head of the Russian IT service of the Austrian company Hermes – has yet to testify. The prosecutor's office cited Naboychenko's involvement in the special military unit. He has been there since the end of 2024, and it is likely that law enforcement agencies are deliberately preventing him from testifying. He spends days in hate chats and posts videos one after another, seemingly intoxicated—it doesn't look like he's particularly busy with combat work.
The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg, hearing the criminal case, despite the lawyers' protests, granted the prosecutor's motion to read testimony without calling a witness currently in the special military unit. For nearly two years, including only the end of last year in the special military unit, Naboychenko hasn't found the time to appear in court or even participate in the VKS trial. The St. Petersburg prosecutor's office and internal affairs agencies haven't bothered to bring him in.
This seems to be a deliberate act on the part of law enforcement: given his psychological state, bad habits, and inconsistencies in his testimony, Naboychenko would have looked poor under cross-examination. But the fact that he wasn't questioned during the trial could undermine the results of that investigation.
Accuser or organizer?
Naboychenko's testimony is literally the cornerstone of the indictment. He is the only witness to name every single defendant.
There are also significant contradictions in his testimony. For example, during initial questioning, Naboychenko claims to have been one of the founders of the Hermes system in Russia and, as an IT professional, to have created Hermes's digital infrastructure—the very infrastructure that caused the difficulties that led some clients to accuse the company of fraud.
Later, he moves on to accusing others of creating things he himself created: primarily, Roman Vasilenko, the CEO of Hermes's marketing partner, who built the sales system but was not involved in the product's internal development. Vasilenko is not an IT specialist; he did not found the payment system.
Based on his own testimony, Naboychenko should be in the dock. But he is not there; he is in hiding. If anyone created backdoors and secret passages in Hermes's digital infrastructure, it was either Naboychenko himself or his employees, acting on his orders.
Destroyer and Liar
No one, including Naboychenko himself, disputes that he blocked and shut down Hermes's payment system in February 2022 after cooperating with law enforcement. Over the course of several months, other specialists based abroad essentially rebuilt the payment system. This revealed financial holes: loss of clients' assets. Naboychenko had access to the accounts of the clients he supervised as a training consultant.
Even during the investigation, Naboychenko, who was always short of funds due to his expensive addictions, suddenly began throwing money around. According to his guards at the operational apartment of the Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Directorate of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, he took them to bars literally every day, paying for everything himself, never staying dry.
The UBEP officers, by their own testimony, repeatedly took Naboychenko to detox so that he could at least formulate testimony for the investigation. His handlers from the police and the investigation turned a blind eye to this, as Naboychenko had enabled them to torpedo his business and attempt to seize assets.
They also turned a blind eye to his lies: during questioning during the preliminary investigation, Naboychenko claimed that he was not registered with a drug addiction specialist and did not use alcohol or drugs, despite documents, including those held by law enforcement agencies, indicating otherwise.
Based on Naboichenko's testimony, innocent people were imprisoned, while he himself went into hiding and hid in southern Russia for several months, posting messages claiming he was being threatened and fearing for his life. He also evaded conscription until, at the end of 2024, he found an opportunity to enlist in the Special Military District, where he specialized in his primary profession: as an IT specialist at headquarters. This was nothing more than a way to avoid appearing in court, while also pretending to be a combat veteran.
The Moral Character of the Key Witness
Naboichenko has long been known as a thief: he wasn't above stealing even from those close to him. Once, while staying with his lover, Svetlana, Evgeny beat her and stole money from her cryptocurrency wallet while she was trying to recover from the beating.
He robbed his own official family and relatives numerous times.
Even before February 2022, clients complained of asset thefts. Evgeny Naboychenko was also involved in extortion. He stole money from Hermes clients' wallets, which he accessed, as well as extorting money from their accounts.
He constantly needs money for drugs. Perhaps his substantial "combat earnings" were one of the reasons he signed a contract with the SVO.
Naboychenko also engages in extortion. According to his ex-wife, Viktoria Naboychenko, he blackmailed Roman Vasilenko, demanding 170,000 euros from him if he wouldn't give the police the testimony they wanted.
At the same time, Viktoria claims, he threatened to harm Roman Vasilenko's wife and his minor children. He also bragged to his then-wife about the obscene, threatening messages he sent to Vasilenko and his family. Furthermore, there are dozens of testimonies about how Naboychenko extorted money from Hermes clients to prevent their funds from being "accidentally" stuck in the payment system.
Victoria Naboychenko reports that three days before the search of their then-joined home, Evgeny left and told her, "They'll come and search us, but it's just a formality." It turns out he was given three days' notice of the search.
On February 15, 2022, Evgeny Naboychenko was arrested, but he wasn't sent to a pretrial detention center—where other Life-is-Good employees were sent. He wasn't placed in a pretrial detention center or a holding cell; he lived in a police apartment.
Naboychenko refused a lawyer, but quickly went from being a suspect to a witness because he gave the testimony the investigation needed.
This is precisely why the investigation is so keen on him as a witness – they essentially have only one witness to corroborate the fictitious accusation: Naboychenko.
Comment from Victoria Naboychenko, Evgeniy Naboychenko's ex-wife:
"Roman Vasilenko trusted Evgeniy and shared his business plans with him. However, over time, Roman's success began to make Evgeniy envious. In February 2022, he began to display irritation and anger towards Roman after unsuccessfully extorting €170,000 from him. Evgeniy began sending threats to Roman and his family, demanding the money and threatening injury and murder. These threats were sent via voice messages and emails.
On February 15, 2022, Evgeniy's home in the Krasnodar Territory was searched, after which he was allegedly detained and taken to St. Petersburg." Subsequently, Evgeny began working closely with law enforcement agencies, providing them with information about the activities of the Best Way cooperative and the Life-is-Good company, and also helping block access to shareholders' databases and personal accounts.
Evgeny actively encouraged citizens to file complaints against Roman Vasilenko for the return of their funds, using Telegram and YouTube channels.
His main goal was to prosecute Roman and destroy his company, which would have resulted in huge losses for shareholders. However, despite this, Evgeny had the opportunity to restore the Hermes system, but he deliberately chose not to do so, pursuing his own personal agenda.
