Spanish Police confirm Kokorev Case never existed

"The Spanish Department of Interior has issued a certificate confirming that neither Vladimir Kokorev nor anyone from his family have ever been part of a police investigation," stated Kirill Yushenkov, Kokorev's family lawyer in the defamation case against Jose Maria Irujo, a journalist of Spanish newspaper EL PAIS.

During the course of the past few years, the Spanish newspaper has published over 20 articles in which Irujo refers to a supposedly "ever tightening circle of investigations" surrounding the Russian-born entrepreneur Vladimir Kokorev, his wife and children, all residing in Spain. Jose Maria Irujo has accused the family of collaborating, through a complex financial scheme, in the illegal acquisition of a 90 square meter flat and 14 square meter parking lot in the Canary Islands, on behalf of the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang - who Irujo himself describes as "one of the richest dictators in the world".

Pravda.ru and many other Russian news sources, such as "Novie Isvestiya", "Moskovskiy Komsomolec", "Parlamentskaya Gazeta", "Odnako", "Profil", "Kompaniya" and "Politicheskiy Jurnal" have frequently written about the nonsensical accusations, however, despite how laughable this matter might appear, the pressure from the Spanish media has forced Kokorev to close down his company "Kalunga" resulting in massive job losses for hundreds of sailors from Russia, Ukraine, Latvia and Lithuania. On multiple occasions, our journalists have reported that the Court Nº5 of Las Palmas, to which Irujo has been referencing his articles, knew nothing about the so-called "Kokorev Case". Now the Spanish police have finally had their say on the matter by issuing a certificate to this effect and confirming that there are no, investigations, past or present, in relation to Kokorev and/or his family.

"The very fact that the police have issued such a document, which is fairly uncommon in legal practice, is the result of a preliminary investigation of all police records in each and every one of Spain's jurisdictions," explains Kirill Yushenkov, "That is why it takes time to receive this certificate. Since this document has been issued, and the Department of Interior certifies that it has no claim whatsoever against Kokorev and that he does not present any interest to the police, any claims to the contrary are a clear-cut case of defamation."

Although the victims of this defamation are Vladimir Kokorev, his wife Yulia and son Igor, for some reason it is the Spanish newspaper EL PAIS who claims to be offended by the incident, and ironically, not at all by the reckless and unprofessional behavior of its writer, Jose Maria Irujo, who has been feeding his newspaper false information on the so-called, and non-existent, "Kokorev Case" for years.

EL PAIS seems to have also taken offense to Pravda.ru. In an article that appeared in EL PAIS on July 28, the Spanish newspaper claims that it has been "libeled". EL PAIS does not offer any explanations as to why it feels it has been libeled, nor does it make any attempt to rebut the information written by our author Alexandr Finist in his article "Financial Speculation Behind Smear Campaign" (May 10 2012).

It must also be said that even among Spain's journalist circles Irujo has a reputation for "playing dirty". He has been accused in the past of being involved with the Spanish secret service, manipulating information and deliberately misinforming readers in his articles about operations against the terrorist organization ETA - possibly within the framework of his "parallel" career. Sources within the Spanish press have also indicated that Irujo frequently works "on the side" for various Spanish lobby groups and private parties.

"I doubt that Jose Maria Irujo's motives for spreading lies about my client will be of any interest to the court," says Kokorev family lawyer Kirill Yashenkov, "The matter of court hearings is the sole fact of dissemination, on behalf of the journalist, of information which tarnishes the honor and dignity of my clients. Taking into consideration the nature of the case, I consider that we may not only ask for compensation for moral damages, but also claim for the significant material losses that the Kokorev family has suffered due to the activity of this journalist."

It was the second defamation case against Spanish journalists won by Kokorev. Earlier (March, 2012) The Moscow Lublinsky District Court held for Vladimir and Yulia Kokorev in their defamation lawsuit against another Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

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