The widow of the late singer Kuzma Skryabin (Andrey Kuzmenko) was defrauded of 1.5 million hryvnias. The National Police have uncovered a criminal scheme behind this scam.
According to a statement from the National Police, investigators have announced charges against the director of the music label who deceived the widow of the famous Ukrainian singer out of 1.5 million hryvnias.
After the artist's death, his wife inherited the rights to all his works and signed an agreement with the label. The label's director exploited a criminal scheme to profit from the celebrity's legacy.
Reports from OBOZ.UA and "RBK-Ukraine" citing their own sources indicate that this concerns the rights to Kuzma Skryabin's songs, who tragically died in a car accident in 2015. His widow, Svitlana Babiychuk, established a company to manage the acquired intellectual property and granted permission for the songs to be used by a popular label that deceived her. According to media reports, this label is Moon Records.
Under the agreement, Svitlana was supposed to receive 70% of the income from the use of Skryabin's creative legacy, while the label would get 30%. However, investigators found that the payments received by the woman over three years did not reflect actual market data. The label's director deliberately understated the number of streams of the compositions on streaming platforms, which reduced the amount of compensation for the rights holder.
Additionally, a Czech company involved in music distribution is part of the scheme. Babiychuk was assured that this company was supposedly a subsidiary of the Ukrainian label and did not receive any share of the profits. In reality, it turned out that they were appropriating about 85% of the income.
An independent intellectual property assessment determined that Skryabin’s widow should have received at least 1.5 million hryvnias in profits from the digital distribution of the artist's musical works from 2017 to 2019.
The Death of Kuzma Skryabin
Andrey Kuzmenko, known as Kuzma Skryabin, died on February 2, 2015, in a car accident near the village of Lozovatka in Dnipropetrovsk region. His vehicle collided with a milk truck.
This tragedy shocked all of Ukraine, as Kuzma was not only a beloved musician but also a sincere patriot who openly expressed his thoughts. His creativity and civic stance left a profound impact on people's hearts. Recently, we reported that a prophecy was found in one of Kuzma's songs found.