News

The Chuvash Republican Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has finished the investigation into four heads of farm households, and one former and two acting directors of agricultural enterprises located in Komsomolsky, Urmarsky, Kozlovsky, Yantikovsky, and Yadrinsky Districts. Each of them is charged with crimes under Article 159 (swindling including that at a large scale) of the Criminal Code of Russia, and five persons additionally are charged under Article 174.1 (legalization (laundering) of funds acquired by a person in an illegal way) of the Criminal Code of Russia. Their accomplice, a 37-year-old resident of Cheboksary, is also investigated and charged with seven swindling episodes, including large scale swindling (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of Russia).

The investigators believe that, in 2014, in a preliminary conspiracy with their 37-year-old accomplice, the heads of household farms and agricultural enterprises had forged documents on the purchase of the ameliorative equipment while overstating its price. Subsequently, the criminals had submitted those documents to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Chuvash Republic with an application for subsidies from the budget for partial compensation for the costs of the purchase of the said equipment within the framework of the development programs for land melioration and state support of the agricultural complex. Those requests had been satisfied. Following that, they had received the money in the amount ranging from 128,000 to more than two million rubles, with a total amount of over nine million rubles. Thus, the money had been stolen and the damage for the said amount had been caused to the Federal and Republican budgets.

After the illegal acquisition of the said funds, the five heads of farm households had spent them (more than 3.6 million rubles) for repayment of loans, thereby legalizing them.

To establish all circumstances of the criminal case, the investigative actions were conducted in five entities of the Russian Federation, around 40 witnesses were questioned, seven forensic merchandise examinations were performed, as were a number of searches and seizures, in the course of which the information the investigators were interested in was found and seized. At the request of the investigator, the court seized the property of the accused in the total amount of over 14 million rubles, including 11 cars, 10 tractors, and four intangible assets. The facts of illegal activities of the accused were discovered due to the cooperation between the investigators of the Chuvash Republican Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia and employees of the Chuvash Republican Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Enforcement of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Russia.

The investigator gathered enough evidence; therefore, the criminal case indictment was approved, and in the nearest time it will be sent to Leninsky District Court of Cheboksary to be tried on the merits.

Based on the results of the investigation, the investigator submitted a recommendation to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Chuvash Republic to eliminate the circumstances facilitating the commission of the crime which drew attention to the need to improve the efficiency of control of the quality and contents of the documents submitted for obtaining various budget subsidies. Now, the respective organizational and directive documents are developed and implemented by the said agency.

It should be noted that, in July 2017, the 37-year-old criminal had been convicted for two crimes committed in 2012-2014 based on the same scheme, which had caused the damage to the budget for the total amount of over 22.5 million rubles. Currently, he services 3-year imprisonment with a fine in the amount of 1 million rubles, in accordance with the court verdict.