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Bribery mediators to benefit of Sakhalin entrepreneur brought to justice

The evidence gathered by the Main Directorate on Major Crimes Investigation of the Investigative Committee of Russia was found to be sufficient by the court to decide upon an indictment for former officers of one of the security forces Sergey Lezhebokov and Vladimir Zarechnev, as well as for entrepreneurs Valery Mikheev, Yury Nekrash, Sergey Orlov, Vladimir Gostev, Sergey Morozov, and Vladimir Sulimenko. The were found guilty of offences under Article 163, Part 3, Paragraph 2; Article 30, Part 3; Article 291.1, Parts 4 and 5; and Article 159, Part 4 of the Criminal Code of Russia (extortion, mediation in bribery, swindling).

According to the investigation, in 2013, Gostev, Mikheev, Morozov, Nekrash, Orlov, and Sulimenko had mediated in bribery to the benefit of entrepreneur Nikolay Kran. They had been aiming to find an official who would have accepted bribes and provided general patronage to the entrepreneur. In doing so, Lezhebokov had committed swindling and embezzled the money he had received from his accomplices misleading them into thinking that he could have found a bribe-taker. In particular, Lezhebokov had received $750,000 as a bribe from the mediators. Zarechnev had been extorting a sum of money of $1,000,000 and fraudulently obtained money that had belonged to other people under the pretext of using it to mediate an agreement on bribe-giving and bribe-taking between the bribe-giver and bribe-taker. The investigation revealed the involvement in the corruption offences of Alexander Khoroshavin, then the Governor of Sakhalin Region.

The court sentenced all the convicts to real prison sentences: Gostev to 7.5 years of imprisonment; Orlov to 7 years of imprisonment; Morozov to 3 years of imprisonment; Lezhebokov to 4 years of imprisonment; Zarechnev to 8 years of imprisonment. The time Mikheev, Sulimenko, and Nekrash had spent in custody was credited in the terms of their sentences.

 

Official spokesperson for the Investigative Committee of Russia S. Petrenko