News

A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Altai Territory Office of the Investigative Committee as sufficient to convict former head of the Barnaul Town Administration Igor Savintsev. He was found guilty of exceeding authority by the head of local government under Part 2 of Article 286 and attempted misappropriation and embezzlement on a very large scale under Part 3 of Article 30, part 4 of Article 160 of the RF Penal Code.

The court and investigators have revealed that between 2009 and 2015, Savintsev abused his authority and violated current legislation when via his subordinates he prepared and signed municipal legal acts, contracts and agreements on leasing to himself and his relatives 5 municipal plots of land for the construction of residential and non-residential buildings on them. To conceal his part, the deals were made via nominal right holders – legal entities controlled by the head of the administration and his close relatives, without bidding and through illegal use of preliminary endorsement. Savintsev then constructed buildings on two of the plots and made necessary documents, thus creating absolute grounds for exercising the exclusive right to privatize the municipal properties at clearly disproportionate repurchasing price (ten times lower than their market value).

Savintsev was unable to go through with misappropriation and embezzlement of five plots of land worth more than 60 million rubles because of the criminal investigation and arrest of the plots.

The official’s abuse of office caused the municipality a damage of more than 17 million rubles.

The investigative team did a lot of meticulous work to gather and document the evidence: they questioned more than 300 witnesses, conducted a lot of searches, including in the residence of the accused, his relatives and the administration; carried out some 50 seizures in registration authorities, in municipality’s committees; ordered and ran more than 20 complex forensic inquiries. After the investigation had been opened, the team revealed three more plots of land the accused had attempted to get hold of. In addition, the investigators arrested the plots of land and buildings located on them worth a total of over 110 million rubles and Savintsev’s property worth more than 350 thousand rubles.

Agents of the Altai Territory Office of the Federal Security Service assisted in gathering criminal intelligence for the case.

Considering the evidence, the court has found Igor Savintsev guilty and gave him a 4-year suspended sentence.