News

Sentenced State Duma Deputy, Mr.Vadim Belousov, and his accessory to the crime

Evidence collected by the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was found  sufficient to adjudicate a verdict to Mr. Vadim Belousov, member of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, and Ms. Margarita Butakova, former chief accountant of OAO Perviy Khlebokombinat, Chelyabinsk. They were found guilty of committing a crime prescribed in Part 6, Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (receiving a bribe on an especially large scale).

The investigation and the court identified that between 2010 and 2014, Mr.Vadim Belousov and Ms. Margarita Butakova, as part of an organized criminal group, including Mr.Mikhail Yurevich, former Governor of the Chelyabinskaya oblast and other persons from Moscow and Chelyabinsk, received a bribe from the representatives of the Road Construction Holding for providing general patronage in distribution of state orders for the maintenance, repair and construction of roads, for a total amount of more than 3 billion rubles.

Mr. Vadim Belousov was stripped of his parliamentary immunity and prosecuted in accordance with the procedure stipulated in the criminal procedure legislation, on the basis of the relevant consent of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

Mr. Yurevich, former governor of the Chelyabinsk region, and two other persons, who have fled from the investigation and court, have been put on the international wanted list.

Mr.Belousov was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison due to his failure to appear in court, and he was fined  500 million rubles. He is banned for 3 years from holding positions of a government representative  in the civil service and in local governments. He is also deprived of the state award - the II degree medal of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland. Due to some serious health issues Ms. Butakova was sentenced to a suspended sentence of 5 years and a fine of 500 million rubles. The movable and immovable property of the convicts was confiscated.