The Bank of Russia established facts of market manipulation in on-exchange trading for ordinary shares of PJSC INVEST-DEVELOPMENT (ISIN: RU000A0JV7V4, hereinafter, the Shares).

Transactions qualified as market manipulation were conducted on the brokerage accounts of Andrey V. Lebedev, Galina P. Lebedeva, Vladimir M. Kostin, and Klavdiya A. Sonina over the period from 6 February 2020 through 10 September 2020; and on the brokerage accounts of Mikhail A. Dmitriev, Aleksey M. Dmitriev, Vera A. Dmitrieva, and Olga O. Dmitrieva (hereinafter, jointly, the Persons) over the period from 22 September 2020 through 28 March 2022.

Members within each of the above groups are relatives. They conducted coordinated reciprocal transactions with the Shares in the main trading mode which implied the anonymity of counterparties. Their actions made the Shares' price go up so that the Persons might derive potential income from their future sale to other market participants.

At times, the reciprocal transactions of the Persons made up 100% of the total trading volume and actually formed the market for the Shares. It created an artificial demand amid the absence of bids from other market participants and led to material deviations in the parameters of the Shares' price and trading volumes.

According to the findings of the investigation, these transactions are qualified as market manipulation pursuant to Clause 2 of Part 1 of Article 5 of Federal Law No. 224-FZ, dated 27 July 2010, 'On Countering the Misuse of Insider Information and Market Manipulation and Amending Certain Laws of the Russian Federation' (hereinafter, Federal Law No. 224-FZ). These individuals thus breached the ban imposed by Part 2 of Article 6 of the Federal Law No. 224-FZ.

The Bank of Russia suspended transactions on the Persons' accounts and took measures to prevent similar violations in the future. Some of these Persons are subject to administrative proceedings.

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