[romanhn]

Then the singer went on to use her influence and celebrity lawyers to keep the apartment and not return the buyer's money, screwing the buyer in the process. Literally her defenses were "the buyer should've known this deal was suspect due to below the market price" and that the buyer should have asked for a health report from a psychiatrist (wtf). Not a nice old lady after all. I haven't been following the case closely, but it seems like the decision has been overturned.

Similar to Streisand Effect, there's now in Russia the term Dolina Effect [0] after this singer, referring to these "grandma schemes" where criminals direct the elderly to sell their property and then renege, relying on courts siding with them to keep the property and the money. Whatever the real story is, it's all so messed up.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolina_effect

[Mikhail_Edoshin]

That "use of influence" is pure imagination. But you are right, there is another even darker half of the story: not only she has lost a large sum of money, she is now hated and bullied by a raging mob of "honest buyers".

(Most such sales happen at a large discount; half price is not uncommon. In many cases the buyer can clearly see something is off. Yet the price is so sweet the buyer cannot resist and risks getting sued afterwards. Of course, maybe this particular case is an exception.)

[romanhn]

I must have imagined that she was represented by Mikhail Barshchevsky, one of the highest-ranked government lawyers. Just to be clear, your stance is that the buyer should be the bagholder when the seller gets swindled?