You're reading: American Fletcher confronts judge in his financial fraud trial

Accused multimillion-dollar fraudster Robert Fletcher confronted a judge over two motions that were filed during his criminal case in Kyiv’s Desniansky District Court on July 23.

Approaching four years in pre-trial detention, the 48-year-old American spoke
out of order when he addressed the judge after two of eight Ukrainian co-defendants in the
$12 million financial fraud case filed motions relating to their legal
representation and imprisonment.

 “I want to know
the rules of the court…I don’t understand them…Is this a public or private
court,” Fletcher asked Judge Iryna Dikhtiar, after a co-defendant filed a
motion to have his wife be his legal representative.

 Fletcher added:
“Is democracy represented in this courtroom?…I think that every human being
needs democratic representation in this courtroom.”

 Following a
recess, the judge denied the two motions.

 During the recess,
Fletcher addressed the two prosecutors in the courtroom while pointing at the
253-volume case against him in the courtroom.

 “All this bumaga (paper) are no facts, it’s all
blah, blah, blah,” he said.

 He also asked the
prosecutors why news reporters weren’t being let in the courtroom while
pointing to a Kyiv Post reporter who was made to stand in the doorway’s
threshold during the hearing. After the judicial recess, the judge shut the
courtroom door and made the Kyiv Post reporter stand in the hallway during the
remainder of the hearing.

 Later, Judge
Dikhtiar denied Fletcher’s motion to have the case against him thrown out on
grounds of insufficient evidence.

 Prosecutors allege
Fletcher founded and led a criminal organization in Ukraine, committed
large-scale fraud worth $12.7 million along with eight Ukrainian suspects, and
forged documents during 2006-2008.

 There are more
than 200 purported victims in the case.

 The U.S. citizen
faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted.

 Fletcher has been
in pre-trial confinement since November 2008, or three years and seven months.

Fletcher has run into trouble with the law on previous
occasions and he gained a reputation as a swindler in the United States. He
faced civil lawsuits
there.

After a civil case was launched against him, Fletcher was
ordered in August 2007 to pay more than $5 million in fines and penalties by
the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for violating anti-fraud and
registration provisions.

In Ukraine, he was caught with a fake Ukrainian passport on
Nov. 9, 2007, while attempting to cross into Russia by train. He spent 10 days
in jail and was released on bail for $6,400. He later paid a small fine.

In June 2008, the Dniprovsky precinct police station in Kyiv
determined Fletcher had in his possession an internal Ukrainian passport, which
he used to marry his wife, Olha Dubrovska of Luhansk. He used the same passport
to register his residence in Kyiv on Sept. 29, 2007.

When asked to explain possession of the spurious passport,
Fletcher told the Kyiv Post that he thought he was purchasing a passport for
$70,000 because he was investing money in Ukraine and creating jobs much like
the U.S. does by issuing residency permits to wealthy individuals who invest
significant amounts of money into the country.

Fletcher said he originally came to Ukraine to search for a
wife some time in 2006. Soon afterward, the self-proclaimed millionaire guru
started Global Systems Training, which promised to show aspiring entrepreneurs
how to become successful business owners. He allegedly charged up to $3,000 for
the training sessions on tours throughout Ukraine while selling translated
educational materials that he produced on the subject.

Fletcher and his tight-knit team also allegedly offered
trainees investment opportunities in purported existing businesses with yearly
returns of 20 to 300 percent.

Six of the Ukrainian co-defendants
were country trainers for Global Systems Training, one a bookkeeper and the
other a GST regional director.

As of May 23, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said there were
five U.S. citizens in pretrial detention, four of whom in Kyiv, and one serving
prison time in Ukraine.

Judge Dikhtiar
set the next trial date for July 30 at 12 p.m.

Kyiv Post staff writer Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].