The Chelyabinsk Regional Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia has finished the investigation into 14 local citizens accused, depending on their involvement, of committing offences under Part 3 of Article 30, Paragraphs A and B of Part 4 of Article 158 (attempted theft and theft), Part 1 of Article 174.1 (legalization of monetary funds acquired as the result of a committed offence), and Paragraph B of Part 2 of Article 215.3 (unauthorized connection to oil pipelines) of the Criminal Code of Russia.
The investigation established that, during 2016-2017, the accused individuals had stolen over 8,000 tonnes of oil worth over 128 million rubles through illegal tie-in connections to the mail oil pipelines «Ufa-Petropavlovsk», «Ufa-Omsk», and «Nizhnevartovsk-Kurgan-Kuibyshev». Under an investigative motion, the court ruled to arrest real estate property of the accused: apartments and plots of land, cars and money located on bank accounts.
An investigator from the Investigative Committee performed a significant amount of work; over 10 forensic examinations were arranged and carried out: fingerprinting, chemical, biological, etc. Over 50 witnesses were interrogated. The scope of the performed investigative activities led to a conclusion that the accused were guilty of committing the non-obvious offence.
Operational support for the probe was provided by officers of the Chelyabinsk Regional Directorate of the Federal Security Service of Russia and the Chelyabinsk Regional Main Directorate of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of Russia.
As a result, sufficient evidence has been gathered and the criminal case has been referred to the court to be tried on the merits.
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