Russian Changes Gender to Dodge Debts

Police in southern Russia are searching for a man who was previously a woman and is believed to have changed gender to avoid paying thousands of rubles in debts and unpaid fines, local bailiffs said Monday. The bailiff service of the southern Astrakhan region said the 38-year-old, identified only as Natalya, had changed her sex and assumed the name of Andrian after accumulating debts of about 130,000 rubles ($3,800), including an unpaid court fine of 70,000 rubles for assaulting a police officer. As a man, the suspect has accumulated six new debts in the form of unpaid taxes, said the bailiff service, which is responsible for making sure that Russian citizens pay their bills. A spokesperson for the service told the Agence-France Presse news agency that changing gender and identification papers “would not cancel the debts Andrian acquired as a woman.” “If a debtor thinks he can escape that way, he’s very much mistaken,” the AFP quoted the official as saying. The suspect’s last name has not been disclosed.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140128/186965715/Russian-Changes-Gender-to-Dodge-Debts.html