In Karelia, participants of criminal community found guilty of committing grave and especially grave offences


The evidence gathered by the Karelia Republican Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was found by the court to be sufficient to convict four local residents.

Depending on the level of their involvement, they were found guilty of offences under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 210 (establishment of and participation in a criminal community), Paragraphs A and B of Part 2 of Article 172 (illegal banking activities), Part 2 of Article 187 (manufacturing for sale and sale of forged payment orders), Paragraph A of Part 4 of Article 174.1 (legalization (laundering) of funds acquired by other individuals in an illegal way), Paragraphs A and B of Part 2 of Article 171 (illegal enterprise), Part 3 of Article 180 (illegal use of a trademark), Paragraphs A and B of Part 4 of Article 171.1 (production, purchase, storage, transportation, or sale of goods and products without marking and (or) printing information as provided for by the Russian law), Part 2 of Article 167 (willful destruction or damage of property), Paragraphs A and B of Part 3 of Article 163 (extortion), and Part 3 of Article 222 (illegal acquisition, transfer, storage, transportation of firearms, ammunition, explosives, committed by an organized group) of the Criminal Code of Russia.

The investigation and the court established that the resident of the Republic of Karelia had created an organized criminal community in a form of a structured organized group for committing crimes and that he had involved his acquaintances and distributed roles among them. The criminal activities had been carried out in the area of illegal banking, involving illegal turnover of payments on the bank accounts of fictitious commercial organizations controlled by the group members, as well as of individual entrepreneurs, whose accounts cash had been withdrawn from and exploited by the criminal community members. In the course of this activity, the defendants had manufactured and sold forged payment orders on behalf of legal entities, in which knowingly false information had been stated concerning the basis of money transfer to accounts of various companies. In total, from 2011 to 2014, over 879 million rubles had been brought for illegal banking activities, while over 364 million rubles had been cashed and collected to the "stash" of the organized group, with over 7.2 million rubles of the criminal proceeds of the group members.

From 2012 to 2014, the defendants with other individuals, whose cases are presented separately, had conducted business in the area of illegal traffic of unmarked alcohol in the Republic of Karelia, which is subject to mandatory marking with excise tax marks and special federal marks, with illegal use of a trademark, which had caused substantial damage to the owners of trademarks and had gained a large income. They had repeatedly purchased alcohol and alcohol-containing products from unidentified persons in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Moscow and Moscow Region, Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Region, including forged, unmarked, with false trademarks, and had been selling it to retail outlets in the Republic of Karelia and Murmansk Region.

The total profit of the organized group members from selling unmarked alcohol and alcohol-containing products without legal entity registration and obtaining a mandatory license to sell ethyl alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol-containing products, had exceeded 30 million rubles. That resulted in large scale material damage to the owners of trademarks to a total of over 3.4 million rubles.

In addition, from 2013 to 2014, the defendants had been carrying out financial operations with monetary funds acquired in the result of the crimes, to give a veneer of legality to the possession, use, and disposal of the specified funds to the total of over 279 thousand rubles.

Besides, from 2013 to 2014, the criminal community members had organized and carried out fire-setting of four cars in Petrozavodsk and Kostomuksha in order to intimidate the persons which had taken countering measures against their criminal activity in the area of illegal alcohol traffic, which had resulted in large scale material damage to the owners of the vehicles.

Also, the criminal community members had committed extortion against the heads of management companies responsible for the maintenance of apartment buildings in Petrozavodsk, in order to force them to terminate economic activities in the area of Public Utilities take over their share of the apartment buildings maintenance market. For these purposes, they had carried out fire-setting of five cars belonging to the representatives of the competing companies and had sent text messages containing physical threats.

For the criminal community needs, the defendants had acquired, transported, transferred, and stored military-grade firearms, ammunition, and explosive substances.

In the course of the investigation, the investigators collected evidence for the case, carried out a complex of forensic medical examinations that proved the involvement of the defendants in committing the alleged crimes.

The court sentenced the organizer of the criminal community to 15 years of imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony and a fine of 1.5 million rubles, the members of the community to 10 years and 8 years of imprisonment in a strict regime penal colony, the individual that had contributed to the operating of the criminal community to 2 years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.

22 April 2019 12:47

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