The evidence gathered by the Sverdlovsk Regional Office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was found sufficient by the court to sentence Denis Kokorin, the founder of the Nizhny Tagil Plant of Heat-Insulating Appliances CJSC. He was found guilty of committing offenses under Part 1 of Article 145.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia (partial non-payment for over three months of wages committed by a head of an enterprise out of mercenary or other personal interest); Part 2 of Article 145.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia (non-payment for over two months of wages); Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia (swindling on especially large scale committed by a person through his official position); and Part 1 of Article 199.2 of the Criminal Code of Russia (evasion of taxes or insurance premiums to be paid to the state extrabudgetary funds by organizations).

The investigation and the court established that since December 2015 to January 2017, the enterprise’s arrears in wages of approximately 280 employees had amounted to 7.5 million rubles. Also, the said founder of the Nizhny Tagil Plant of Heat-Insulating Appliances CJSC is charged with the fact that since October 2016 to January 2017, he committed to concealing funds, from which taxes or fees should be collected. The amount of the hidden funds, according to the investigation, was about 5 million rubles, which is a large scale. In addition, when investigating of the financial and economic activities of the plant, officers of the Investigative Committee of Russia disclosed the fact of fraud related to swindling of the enterprise’s assets amounting to over 22 million rubles. According to the probe’s materials, the large-scale swindling was committed between June 2013 and May 2015 by abuse of the trust of the second owner, who instructed the former to properly manage the company’s financial and economic activities, and also by deception of employees of the plant.

During the investigation, the law enforcement agencies took the necessary injunctions in order to further restore the rights of citizens affected by these crimes, as well as to protect the interests of the state. As a result of the measures taken, the defendant settled wage arrears to the workers. In addition, several real estate objects and funds belonging to Kokorin were arrested for security purposes for subsequent compensation of damage caused by the tax crime.

The court ruled to sentence the defendant to two years of imprisonment in a general regime correctional colony, and to a fine of 500,000 rubles.