by Björn Schöpe
August 15, 2013 – In 2008 Dmitry Agarkov received an advertisement of the notorious Tinkov Credit Systems bank. Although the advertisement promised 12.5 percent annual interest rates the contract said 45 percent in the fine print! Agarkov thought this would be fraud and decided to suggest his own conditions to the bank leaving to them what to do. Hence he changed the fine print in the digital version of the contract into zero percent annual interest rates, unlimited credit and huge fines in case the bank violates any condition of the contract. And then the incredible thing happened: Agarkov received his credit card because obviously nobody in the bank had read the fine print.
The creative change of the contract came to light only in 2010 when the bank claimed 45,000 roubels (ca. US$1.360) over missed payments. Agarkov refused to pay and went to court – and the court actually followed his opinion! His next step was a counter offensive suing the bank for violation of the contract (according to his modified fine print) over 24 million roubles (ca. US$795,000).
And here the story may enter into a political sphere. Oleg Tinkov, the bank’s owner, furiously stated via Twitter that Agarkov would never receive these 24 million roubles but four years of prison instead. This declaration seemed Agarkov to be a bit too precise fearing agreements between Tinkov and some influent person in order to make sure Agarkov would go to prison. Hence he escaped immediately from the Russian Federation as he stated.
You can read a detailed article at the Moscow Times …
… and at rt.