A ready-made disaster: the case of mass botulism infection has reached court

On December 9, the Lublin District Court of Moscow held its first hearing on the case of mass infection with botulism — in June 2024, two people died and another 350 were injured after buying a salad with beans from the Kitchen in the District and Scooter services. There are four defendants in the dock — the head of Savon-K LLC, Vladimir Shin, whose company supplied beans for salads, a handyman, Karim Normatov, who violated the technology in its preparation, as well as representatives of the Kitchen in the District, Anton Lozin and Elena Mashkova. It was planned that the indictment would be read out during the meeting, but the court limited itself to extending the measure of restraint for the accused. How the first hearing on this case went and what punishment the defendants face is in the Izvestia article.

How was the first meeting?

On December 9, the first hearing on the case of mass botulism infection of 352 people, as a result of which two victims died, took place in the Lublin District Court of Moscow. They all ordered Lobio bean salad from the Kitchen in the Neighborhood ready-to-eat delivery service. Initially, it was assumed that the indictment would be read out during the hearing, but the judge limited himself to extending the measure of restraint for the accused.

Anton Lozin, CEO of Lokalkitchen LLC (which owns the Kitchen in the District service), Elena Mashkova, head of the quality department, Vladimir Shin, head of the Savon-K bean manufacturing company, and Karim Normatov, a handyman, were in the dock. The first three defendants were given extended house arrest, while Normatov remained in custody.

As the investigation found, a handyman of the Savon-K company violated the technology of bean preparation, which led to the formation of a toxic substance in it — botulinum toxin. In addition, the production itself did not meet the requirements of sanitary and epidemiological legislation. Thus, Rospotrebnadzor found that there was no centralized water supply at the enterprise, and imported water, which was used in the manufacture of products, was stored outdoors.

"The sanitary and technical condition of the workshop premises and equipment is unsatisfactory, production control of raw materials and products was not carried out, employees did not have personal medical books," the supervisory authority reported.

They also noted that the bean preparation process at the enterprise was organized in violation of all requirements: "The enterprise independently established the shelf life of a non-sterile product in vacuum packaging for up to two months at temperatures from +2 to +25 °C, which eventually led to a massive accumulation of botulinum toxin in the finished product."

The Lokalkitchen company purchased contaminated dishes and, deciding to save money, neglected to conduct microbiological studies, the Prosecutor General's Office reported. She made a Lobio salad from beans and sold it through the Kitchen in the Neighborhood and Scooter services.

After an inspection by Rospotrebnadzor, the activities of the "Kitchen in the area" were suspended, production was discontinued.

The defendants in the case were accused of manufacturing and selling food products that did not meet safety requirements, resulting in the death of two people by negligence. Vladimir Shin was also charged with illegal registration of foreign citizens. According to the Prosecutor General's Office, he registered 31 employees at his mother's address.

How they were poisoned with botulinum toxin

The emergency happened in June 2024. Two people died, 298 were hospitalized in serious condition, and 52 more people escaped serious consequences thanks to timely medical care. Doctors from several regions — Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan - fought for the lives of those who ate the dangerous salad.

— My wife's mouth began to go numb, speech began to disappear, it became difficult for her to breathe, — said the husband of one of the victims, Artur Goryachev.

Even minimal doses of botulinum toxin cause severe poisoning. Among the first symptoms are vomiting, the appearance of a "net" in front of the eyes, difficulty breathing and muscle weakness, said Vladimir Neronov, an infectious disease specialist at JSC "Medicine".

— The toxin may appear in the product if the harvesting rules are not followed. At the same time, poisoning occurs as a result of exposure to the toxin, and not the infection itself, so there is no infection of a person from the patient," the specialist noted.

The first claims of victims of botulism for compensation for moral damage "in connection with harm to life and health" were filed in 2024 in the Dorogomilovsky district Court of Moscow, according to the data file of the capital's courts. In them, the victims demanded compensation of up to 2 million rubles per person from the "Scooter" and "Kitchen in the area" services. The total amount of claims exceeded 70 million rubles, while Lokalkitchen has already paid part of the damage, the Prosecutor General's Office said.

So, three victims have already entered into amicable agreements with Samokat and Kitchen in the area, Kirill Saprygin, head of the Destra Legal legal team, told Izvestia. The victims' claims were fully satisfied at the pre—trial stage - the money has already been paid to them.

— The amount of compensation and damages requested usually depends on the severity of the damage caused. For example, in one of the cases, the damage was estimated at almost 1.5 million rubles," he said.

In some cases, as a result of negotiations, lawyers managed to increase the amount of compensation. So, one of the victims was initially offered only 150 thousand rubles, but in the end the amount was doubled.

According to Kirill Saprygin, to date, there is only one case in production, which has not been agreed upon.

"The victim was offered an amount disproportionate to the damage caused," the lawyer explained. — We filed a lawsuit, but were refused: the court did not take into account the circumstances of the case. This victim has a special form of the disease, which was aggravated by poisoning. We recently filed an appeal.

On September 23, 2025, the court dismissed the claim for compensation for moral damage to Muscovite Nelly Matveeva. According to her, she contracted botulism after eating products purchased through a Scooter. At that time, representatives of Smart Retail LLC (the owner of the Scooter service) throughout the entire process expressed their willingness to conclude an amicable agreement, but the woman was not satisfied with the proposed amount of compensation.

Samokat is a delivery service that is not responsible for violating sanitary and hygienic standards during the preparation of food supplied by the restaurant, explained Oleg Kim, lawyer and partner at Legal Advisor Law Office.

— However, it will not be possible to completely avoid responsibility, since lawsuits have been filed against the Scooter to recover moral damage from the victims, — the lawyer believes.

What kind of punishment are the defendants facing?

As part of the consideration of the criminal case, the victims can also file civil lawsuits against the defendants, lawyer, co-founder of AB "Sled" Alexandra Kharina told Izvestia.

"Decisions on civil lawsuits will be made simultaneously with the sentencing," she said.

The court will determine the final amount of compensation for the victims after reviewing the criminal case, as not everyone agreed with the amounts offered to them in the pre-trial procedure. The amount of payments will depend on the severity of the consequences, the lawyers explained.

The article, which incriminates four defendants, provides for a penalty of up to ten years in prison, said lawyer Oleg Kim.

Vladimir Shin, the bean supplier, is in the most vulnerable position, according to Albert Khaleyan, a criminal lawyer and partner at the Vector Prime Moscow Bar Association.

"He is not only the head of a manufacturer of unsafe products, but also the organizer of the process where all technological and sanitary standards were violated," the expert told Izvestia.

Anton Lozin and Elena Mashkova, as managers, decided to save on the necessary checks, which led to the ingestion of dangerous food, the lawyer believes.

"Their punishment will depend on how the court evaluates this negligence," Albert Haleyan said. — The handyman Normatov will most likely be considered as a direct executor who acted on the instructions of the management and without proper training.

The expert stressed that this may be a mitigating circumstance, but it does not remove responsibility for gross violations during production.

Despite the fact that the activities of catering establishments are regulated quite strictly in Russia, the implementation of these norms is not always satisfactory — the sphere is "quite corrupt and many supervisory authorities turn a blind eye to violations," Oleg Kim believes.