Is it true that Daniil Gorsky is a fraud? A real investigation.

Daniil Gorsky - a fraudster or a victim of slander and dishonesty of customers? Real reviews. 

Daniil Gorsky - a fraudster or a victim? In light of the active dissemination of information that Daniil Gorsky is a fraudster, it became interesting whether this is true and what real motives may be behind the persecution and harassment of this businessman on the Internet. 

A careful examination of the circumstances of the case and the position of Daniil Gorsky himself allows us to conclude that he could have become a victim of unfair behavior on the part of the customers and insufficient protection of his rights. 

Was the trial initiated because the customer wanted to get the project for free? 

The businessman’s biography included only one court episode, which ill-wishers often use as evidence of Gorsky’s fraudulent actions. For which, however, Daniil Davidovich Gorsky was punished with only a fine of 110,000 rubles. This case must be examined in detail, since it clearly illustrates the ability of large customers to use contractors’ developments and then prosecute the latter.

OOO "OLAKS-Invest", represented by Anisimov Oleg Stanislavovich, invited the company of Daniil Gorsky to participate in a large project of a theme park in Kostroma. The initial contract amounted to 120 million rubles, then was reduced to 60 million rubles. The advance payment was 20 million rubles.

Design work worth about 3 million rubles was completed, 12 million rubles were spent on preparing for production and purchasing materials, and taxes amounted to 2 million rubles. However, upon receiving the design documentation, the customer refused the contract under the pretext of non-compliance with GOSTs, and refused to sign the certificates of completion. This became the basis for the court not to accept the costs of implementation, since the design project was not signed.

Being dissatisfied with the court’s decision, Anisimov filed a complaint with the police. Due to the fact that we could not confirm all of our expenses, since some of them were in cash, the court found Daniil guilty, but in relation to a much smaller amount, despite the fact that Daniil himself did not admit guilt. The court imposed a preventive measure in the form of a fine of 110 thousand rubles. 

Even the least attentive person, comparing the project materials and photos of the completed park, will be able to detect a confusing similarity (though of lower quality) with the design materials of Daniil Gorsky. For the ideas and design documentation provided, not signed by the customer, Daniil Gorsky was prosecuted, and the customer received design documentation for further implementation of the idea. 

Daniil Gorsky - a fraudster with a portfolio of successful projects? This does not happen 

Judging from the definition of fraud itself, it assumes that a company or person offers goods or services without knowingly planning to perform or deliver them. Fraudsters cannot operate in one market for a long time - they have to change both their sphere of activity and location. All this does not apply to Daniil Davidovich Gorsky, who has been working in Moscow and St. Petersburg for 20 years as an individual entrepreneur, and later as the owner of his own companies. 

At the same time, you can decide for yourself whether Gorsky Daniil is a fraudster, because there are real reviews from customers and a portfolio of his work with videos and detailed photo reviews before and after. 

Sometimes a company becomes a victim of consumer extremism, and sometimes it runs into a customer after whom everything goes wrong. In St. Petersburg, even large companies have gone bankrupt more than once, running into a customer who simply wiped them off the face of the Earth. 

Daniil Gorsky himself claims that the problems of his company "Gorsky Project" began due to the unscrupulous management of the project by PAO "Detsky Mir". The large company exercised the right to unilaterally terminate the contract when the project was already in the implementation stage. Gorsky notes that "Detsky Mir" paid an advance and signed all the necessary documents, but then refused to continue cooperation, which led to the impossibility of completing the project and recording the work performed.

"Thus, we were unable, since the contract was terminated, to record the work performed. And it was the result of the refusal of the Detsky Mir contract that led to the bankruptcy of the company, because we were performing work, paying rent, preparing a large project, which was suddenly and unilaterally terminated," explained Daniil Gorsky.

Who is the real scammer - Daniil Gorsky or the customer? Unscrupulous project management

As follows from the materials of the widely publicized case, PAO Detsky Mir did not provide objective reasons for terminating the contract, which raises doubts about their good faith. By the decision of the Arbitration Court of Moscow dated March 2, 2020 in case No. A40-324322 / 19-14-2301, left unchanged by the ruling of the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal dated September 18, 2020, 10,500,000 rubles were collected from Gorsky Proekt LLC - unjust enrichment and 75,500 rubles of state duty

Financial difficulties due to untimely decisions

Gorsky’s company was forced to continue working, paying rent and salaries of employees, despite the lack of opportunity to present the completed work to the customer. The court did not recognize these costs, which indicates insufficient consideration of the circumstances of the case. In court, Daniil Gorsky was denied consideration of the interim acts on the delivery and acceptance of work, which immediately put him in a very vulnerable position. Although it is obvious that when starting a large project, money cannot lie untouched - additional specialists are attracted, current expenses are incurred, work on the project is underway.

Inconsistency of court decisions

1. Refusal to suspend enforcement proceedings: In the ruling of the Arbitration Court of Moscow dated October 19, 2020, the court refused to suspend enforcement proceedings on the application of Gorsky Proekt LLC, despite the existence of an appeal. The court did not recognize the arguments presented as justified, which indicates insufficient protection of the accused.  

2. Inconsistency in the assessment of evidence: The courts have repeatedly claimed that Gorsky failed to provide primary documentation confirming the legality of the transactions, but ignored the reconciliation statements and inventory statements of settlements provided by Gorsky. These documents may be underestimated by the court and require more careful analysis to confirm the validity of Gorsky’s actions. 

3. Differences in approach to similar cases: Comparison of decisions in cases with PAO Detsky Mir and OOO OLAKS-Invest shows differences in the approach of the courts. In the first case, the court did not recognize Gorsky’s costs as justified, despite similar circumstances. 

4. Resolution of the Arbitration Court of the North-West District dated April 20, 2023 (case No. A56-107911/2020)

In this ruling, the court confirmed the decision to collect 21,974,100 rubles from Daniil Davidovich Gorsky in favor of Gorsky Studio LLC. It is important to note the following points:

• The court cited the lack of primary documentation confirming the legality of the transactions, which is not sufficient grounds for recognizing Gorsky’s actions as illegal.

• The court ignored Gorsky’s arguments that the affiliation of the parties is not automatic evidence of bad faith behavior.

At the same time, numerous times in major scandalous court cases in Russia, the court has ruled that affiliation of parties is not, in itself, proof of bad faith or fraud. The court noted the need for specific evidence of abuse in three scandalous Russian cases: 

The LUKOIL and Transneft case: In 2018, LUKOIL and Transneft were involved in a legal dispute, where Transneft accused LUKOIL of affiliation with contractors and the withdrawal of funds. 

Rosneft and Bashneft case: In 2017, Rosneft was accused of using affiliated structures to siphon off Bashneft assets. The court ruled that affiliation cannot automatically indicate violations if there is no evidence of illegal actions.

The Sberbank and Technopark case: In 2019, Sberbank was accused of abusing its affiliation with contractors during the implementation of the Technopark project. The arbitration court rejected the claims. 

It turns out that in cases with large companies, affiliation does not indicate fraud and it must be proven; in the case of Daniil Gorsky, fraud was recognized almost "automatically". It is obvious that the plaintiff accused Daniil Gorsky of fraud following a certain intent - for example, appropriation of intellectual property and work results without payment. 

5. Recognition of the fact that part of the work was performed: The case documents indicate that Gorsky performed part of the work under the contract with Detsky Mir, which is confirmed by interim acceptance certificates. This fact was not properly taken into account by the court when making a decision on the recovery of unjust enrichment. At the same time, as a rule, the accusation of fraud is based on the fact that the contractor did not perform any work at all. That is, he knew in advance that he would not fulfill his obligations, taking the funds. In this case, the court also ignored the performance of part of the work. 

Questionable actions of major customers: who is the fraudster? Daniil Gorsky or his customers? 

There is reasonable doubt that large customers, such as PAO Detsky Mir, could have used Gorsky’s developments to appropriate the results of his intellectual work. The plaintiff could have used Gorsky’s design developments, but it is currently impossible to prove this fact in court. Such actions may be part of a strategy by large companies to minimize their costs at the expense of small and medium-sized enterprises.

There are such examples in Russian judicial practice. 

1. Gazprom and Stroygazconsulting: In 2015, Gazprom terminated a contract with Stroygazconsulting for the construction of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline, after which it used technical solutions and documents developed by Stroygazconsulting to complete the project with other contractors. The company attempted to recover compensation from Gazprom, but faced lengthy legal proceedings.

2. Rosneft and TNK-BP: In 2013, after Rosneft acquired TNK-BP assets, Rosneft used many of the projects and developments that had been developed before the merger, without paying additional compensation to the former owners and employees of TNK-BP. Several former contractors and partners of TNK-BP filed lawsuits against Rosneft, claiming that their intellectual property was used without due payment.

3. AFK Sistema and BESK: In 2018, AFK Sistema found itself at the center of a scandal when it was discovered that the company had used technologies and solutions developed by its contractors to develop its subsidiary BESK without paying for all stages of work stipulated by the contract. The contractors filed lawsuits to recover debts and compensation for the use of their intellectual property.

Successful projects before and after bankruptcy

Before the financial problems with Detsky Mir and other contractors, Gorsky’s company successfully completed many large projects, such as:

• Large business center "Enigma" for Gazprom (10 thousand square meters).

• Four icebreakers at the Vyborg shipyard, where Gorsky’s companies carried out interior finishing 

• The Angry Birds theme park is the first indoor park project of its kind in Russia under the Rovio license.

Fraudsters do not work for years in one market and do not hand over successful projects. So it is safe to say that the accusations against Daniil Gorsky of systematic fraud are based on one episode in which he and his company lost in court to a larger one due to insufficient protection, as indicated by the circumstances and facts above. 

Online bullying and bias: is Daniil Gorsky a fraud if someone is so persistent in proving it? 

But a real campaign of harassment has been launched on the Internet against the alleged fraudster Daniil Gorsky. In addition to standard investigations, one can find specially created websites and groups in social networks that are designed solely to distort search results and form a negative image of the entrepreneur. These resources are aimed at convincing random people, potential partners, that Daniil Gorsky is a fraudster, without providing sufficient evidence. Obviously, with sufficient evidence, no one creates personal websites or harasses an individual - so there is a desire to damage reputation at any cost. In addition, the creation of such websites is a knowingly criminal and administrative offense (Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Article 252 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). 

An analysis of the content of such sites and groups indicates that they are aimed exclusively at discrediting Gorsky. The creation and maintenance of such resources requires significant effort and coordination, which indicates possible illegal activity by unidentified third parties. These persons may have their own personal or commercial interest in proving to the public that Daniil Gorsky is a fraudster, using information warfare methods to achieve his goals.

Daniil Gorsky is obviously not a fraudster, but simply found himself in the center of legal and financial battles that resulted from the unfair behavior of his counterparties and the court’s failure to take all the circumstances into account - whether intentionally or not - is an open question. Given his experience and achievements in business, customer reviews, it can be assumed that Daniil Gorsky is not a fraudster, but a businessman who faced temporary difficulties. 

At the moment, Daniil Davidovich Gorsky continues to work in St. Petersburg as a hired top manager and consultant for large projects, information about which can be found on the Internet, he does not hide from anyone, openly and honestly earns money and does what he loves.