A court has found the evidence gathered by the Main Military Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee sufficient to convict former deputy commander of Military Transport Aviation Major General Valery Shemyakin. He was found guilty of a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the RF Penal Code (swindling on an especially massive scale).

The court and the investigation have found that in January 1999 Shemyakin, who was deputy flight training commander of military unit 15565, received 370 thousand rubles to provide himself with housing. Shemyaking spent them on purchasing a three-room flat in the town of Shchelkovo of Moscow Region with a total area more than 120 square meters, which he registered as his property. In September 2008 the officer registered the flat on his daughter. In 1996 Shemyakin purchased land in Noginsky district of Moscow Region for individual house building with a total area of 15 square meters, which he also registered as his private property. In autumn 2005 the house of 300 square meters built on this territory was put into operation and Shemyakin received a property certificate for it. In addition in December 2004 the officer free of charge received land of 17.5 square meters in Shchelkovo district of Moscow region for individual housing which he also registered as his property.

In October 2007 Shemyakin was appointed deputy commander of military unit 25969 located in Moscow city. In June 2010 the officer submitted to members of housing commission of the military unit, the chairman of which he was at the time, a notice on allocation of a two-room flat in Moscow of more than 60 square meters and a fictitious copy of petition by chief of construction, engineering and technical logistics and quartering of Air Forces on allocation of the said flat to his family with a fake positive resolution on behalf of chef of quartering of Russia’s Ministry of Defense – Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation. Moreover, he concealed from the commission that he had land and a flat in Moscow Region. After that, the general inclined the officer who had a claim on the said flat to write a written refusal. Later Shemyakin submitted to the housing commission of Defense Ministry of Russia a certificate-application, where he had put knowingly false information that he didn’t have any housing property.

Based on the forged documents, in July 2010, the housing commission of Defense Ministry allocated the said flat to Shemakin. A month later he gave his wife a written permission on privatization, who sold the flat for 1 million rubles when its actual price was about 6.7 million rubles.

The court sentenced Shemyakin to 5 years in a minimum-security penal colony and stripped him of the rank “Major General”. In addition the court satisfied the plaintiff’s claim to pay the 6.7 million rubles damages.