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Former mayor of Pereslavl-Zalessky sentenced

The evidence gathered by the Main Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia was found to be sufficient by the court to sentence Denis Koshurnikov, former mayor of Pereslavl-Zalessky. He was found guilty of committing an offence under Part 1 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of Russia (negligence).

Koshurnikov’s accomplices--founder and director of NTpharma LLC Rustam Ataullakhanov and Evgeny Sultanov--are studying the case files. Ataullakhanov is charged with embezzlement and legalization of criminally acquired funds (Part 4 of Article 160, Paragraph B of Part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia), while Sultanov is charged with embezzlement.

According to the investigators, starting from 2010, JSC ROSNANO had invested over 1 billion rubles in NTpharma LLC for the purpose of construction of a pharmaceutical facility producing vaccines and therapeutic biologically-active preparations in Pereslavsky District of Yaroslavl Region. The managers of the design company had undertaken to build and launch the said plant by September 2012 but they had repeatedly postponed this deadline. No work had been conducted for the implementation of the said project for many years, and the money received by NTpharma LLC from ROSNANO had been wasted, therefore, no plant had been built. To create the appearance of the project implementation, Ataullakhanov and Sultanov had purchased a land plot from Protect LLC owned by Koshurnikov in 2011. At the time of the deal, Koshurnikov had served as the Governor of Pereslavsky District. This land plot is located in the Pleshcheyevo Ozero National Park, and for this reason, it had not been unacceptable to issue the construction permit without the written consent of the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia. Nevertheless, Koshurnikov had issued such a permit. The construction based on the illegal permit had caused irreparable damage to the plants in the protected zone of the Pleshcheyevo Ozero National Park.

Koshurnikov and Sultanov pleaded guilty during the investigation.

Operative support for the probe was provided by Directorate P of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Corruption Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Directorate P of the Economic Security Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia.

Koshurnikov was sentenced to pay a fine.