The scandal surrounding the music label Moon Records is gaining momentum. The company's co-founder Andriy Pasichnyk has been put on the wanted list on suspicion of fraud with copyrights for songs by the late Kuzma Skryabin. The Prosecutor General's Office accuses him of organizing a scheme to deliberately understate the number of streams of the artist's songs on streaming platforms in order to avoid paying Kuzma's widow, Svitlana Babiychuk, dues.
After the tragic death of Kuzma Skryabin, all copyrights to his work passed to his wife. Babiychuk created a company to manage these rights. In 2015, she signed an agreement with Moon Records, according to which she was to receive 70% of the revenue from listening to the artist's songs, while the label remained 30%. However, instead of the promised payments, the widow received large-scale problems.
The investigation found that the management of Moon Records deliberately concealed the true volume of listening to Scriabin's songs. Moreover, the company used a controlled foreign company to launder income from the artist's work. As a result of such fraud, Svitlana Babiychuk was defrauded of at least 1.5 million hryvnias.
Earlier, the label's director, Tatyana Korchemasa, was charged. According to the prosecutor's office, she forged documents confirming the allegedly low income from Scriabin's work and directly participated in schemes to hide funds. Now the indictment against Korchemasa has been transferred to the court, where she faces up to 12 years in prison for large-scale fraud and forgery of documents.
Andriy Pasichnyk himself denies any involvement in the crimes and continues to evade law enforcement. However, according to prosecutors, they have enough evidence to point to his key role in the fraud.
This case is not only a matter of restoring justice for the family of the late Kuzma Skryabin, but also an important signal for the music industry. Copyright fraud remains a serious problem that requires attention not only from law enforcement, but also from society. Now the fate of justice is in the hands of the court, which must establish the degree of responsibility of the management of Moon Records.
