The Major Cases Directorate of the Investigative Committee has severed in a separate lawsuit criminal proceedings initiated against 16 defendants who committed crimes as part of a criminal community acting in the Komi Republic. Depending on the role of each one, they were charged with crimes under Articles 2010, 159, Part 4, items “a” and “b” of Article 174.1, Part 6 of Article 290 of the RF Penal Code (organization and membership in a criminal community; fraud; money laundering; bribery).
Criminal proceedings against them have been finished and the accused and their lawyers have started reading the criminal records. 2 of the accused made plea bargains. They confessed to the crimes and testified against other accomplices.
According to investigators, the criminal group was set up in 2006 and was headed by Vyacheslav Gaizer, Vladimir Torlopov, Alexander Zarubin, Alexander Chernov and Valery Veselov.
Leaders and members of the group committed crimes to get hold of highly profitable enterprises in the region or to control them to make profit. For example, in 2010, they organized privatization of Zelenskaya Poultry Factory. Later on, as a result of a fraud the assets of the factory switched ownership to that of a legal entity controlled by the group. To legalize some 1 billion rubles of dividends the accomplices made a number of deals with that money. Additionally, the accused stole funds of OAO Investment Projects Support Foundation causing the Komi Republic a damage of 3.5 billion rubles.
The investigators took steps to compensate for the damage done and arrested 3.5 billion rubles worth of property.
Along with that the investigators revealed a number of occasions when members of the group had taken bribes. In 2013, they took two 25-percent shares worth 160 million rubles in the authorized capital of OOO Avtotsentr as a bribe. Later those shares were made on OOO Hotel Servis controlled by Chernov and thus were laundered.
In 2008, Gaizer assisted to Serditov be appointed CEO of OAO Syktyvkar Alcoholic Beverage Factory. For that he and his accomplice received as illegal rewards 37.5 million rubles from Serditov between 2009 and 2015.
The investigation took so long not because there was not enough evidence or because the investigators had not understood the circumstances surrounding the crimes, as the defense tried to present. On the contrary, the investigators had long ago realized and seen the general picture of the crimes. However, considering the size of the case, remoteness and gravity of the crimes, the long period over which they had been committed and their interregional nature, the number of defendants and necessity to conduct complex expert examinations, the time taken by the investigation is quite understandable.
In addition, at present keep on looking into other crimes committed by the accomplices and locating those hiding from law enforcement officers and are wanted. The investigation is ongoing.
Acting Head of Media Relations S.L. Petrenko
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