News

In Volgograd Region, probe finished against State Duma deputy Nikolai Parshin

The Volgograd Region Office of the Investigative Committee has finished the investigation against State Duma deputy Nikolai Parshin. He is charged with a crime under Part 4 of Article 159 of the RF Penal Code (fraud committed by a group of people in conspiracy on a very large scale).

According to investigators, in September 2008 the administration of Srednyaya Akhtuba District soled an abandoned building of a school and its premises located in the settlement of Rakhinka to a commercial company for 250,000 rubles. After a while, the head of the district administration Tikhonov, CEO of the company, which had bought the property Chekunkov, head of finance department of Volzhsky City administration Uvarov and deputy of the Volgograd Region Duma Parshin decided to steal budgetary funds by concluding a sales contract on that property, this way returning the ownership of it to the municipality, but that time at a price 100 times higher than it had been sold at, namely at 25 million rubles.

To do that, Tikhonov and Chekunkov prepared letters to the administration of the region claiming that Srednyaya Akhtuba District was in need of the property and the owner was willing to sell it. Nikolay Parshin actively supported the criminal idea through his powers of a Regional Duma deputy acting out of mercenary motives. He asked the governor to consider the possibility of allocating funds from the regional budget, and, together with Tikhonov, insisted on the necessity and importance of concluding the deal.

Before financing the deal, the regional administration put forth one condition – the building had to be reconstructed into a preschool facility. District head Tikhonov deceived officials of the regional administration assuring them that all the conditions would be met. As a result, in October 2012, 22.5 million rubles was allocated from the regional budget and another 2.5 million rubles was allocated from the municipal budget for the purchase of the said property under a long-term regional target-specific program of developing preschool education. The money was transferred to the company’s account, then cashed and distributed among the defendants. Nikolay Parshin “made” 11 million rubles off that deal, Tikhonov – 3 million 300 thousand rubles, and the rest of the money amounting to 10 million 700 thousand rubles was divided between Chekunkov and Uvarov.

The investigators have enough evidence, so the case has been sent to the Volograd Region prosecutor’s office for the indictment to be approved.

There are 29 case files. Over 100 people were questioned and a lot of forensic inquiries run, including the evaluation, construction, psychological and linguistic ones and others. The preliminary investigation took 19 months.

Criminal proceedings against Tikhonov, Chekunov and Uvarov have been severed to form separate lawsuits because they admitted their guilt and made cooperation deals. A court has found all of them guilty and sentenced Tikhonov to 2 years in a minimum-security correctional facility and a fine of 500,000 rubles. Chekunov got 2 years in a minimum-security correctional facility. Uvarov got a suspended sentence of 3 years and a fine of 100,000 rubles.

It should be noted that until present nothing has been done to reconstruct the village school or put it into operation despite the fact that under the contract it should have been done in 2014. Children still have to study in a ramshackle building of a former daycare center which lacks basic conditions for full-fledged studying process.