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The court recognized the evidence gathered by the investigating authorities of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Vladimir region sufficient to convict the former head of the town of Alexandrov Gennady Simin. He was found guilty of an offense under Part 3 of Article 33, Part 3 of Article 30, Part 4 of Article 159 of the RF Criminal Code (organization of attempted fraud on a large scale).

Investigators and the court found that in 2006-2010, using first the status of a local council deputy, and then the mayor status, having a connection with the local criminals, Simin was committing a wrongful act contrary to social and public interests.

In early 2009, entrepreneurs included two purchased plots of land with a total area of 33.5 hectares into the asset of the consumer cooperative with the aim of building a summer cottage settlement in the Alexandrovsky District and initiated the process of their removal from the list of lands for agricultural purposes through local authorities. In December 2010, having information on the implementation of the commercial project, entrepreneurs’ acquaintances Ustinov and Bogachenko agreed with Simin to mislead the concerned persons about his influence on decision-making by the authorities of the Alexandrovsky District. Knowing from his personal deputy experience about the practice of positive decisions on such matters, Simin decided to take advantage of this fact to deceive the entrepreneurs. He planned and organized a fraudulent scheme and requested his accomplices to get 204 thousand U.S. dollars (6 thousand per hectare) from the victims, ostensibly for passing them to local council deputies for their assistance. Pursuant the developed scheme, in the course of numerous meetings with the entrepreneurs, Ustinov and Bogachenko were convincing them that they will not achieve the desired result without Simin. They continued to insist on it even after December 28, 2010, when the Council of People's Deputies of the Alexandrovsky District made a decision on the inclusion of the plots in the scheme of land zoning for a suburban non-profit association of citizens, and demanded to pay for the assistance. December 29, 2010, law enforcement officials detained the intermediaries when they were receiving the money in one of the restaurants in the city of Pokrov, and later the fraud organized was also arrested.

The court sentenced Simin to 4 years of imprisonment in a general regime penal colony.

It should be noted that the investigating authorities of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Vladimir Region also charged Simin with arbitrariness involving the use of violence, which he committed together with the local crime boss Vladimir Korolev (Part 2 of Article 330 of the RF Criminal Code). This episode was also revealed by investigators.

Investigators established that in May 2006, holding the position of a local council deputy, Simin provided a loan in the amount of 600 thousand rubles to a citizen, who could not return the debt by the due date by objective reasons. Insisting on debt repayment, threatening the victim and his family with death, he forcibly took away the man’s personal documents, 180 thousand rubles and forced the victim to go outside the town of Alexandrov. In June -August 2007, Simin requested the leader of the local organized crime group Korolev to help with claim the debt from the victim’s ex-wife and his son. Implementing the agreement, threatening the victims, they unlawfully demanded a gratuitous transfer of ownership of non-residential premises to Simin in payment of the debt, which they estimated as 1.7 million rubles. Knowing about the extensive ties of the defendants with criminals, perceiving threats as real ones, the ex-wife and the son of the borrower were forced to effect the illegal transaction and transfer the ownership of the coffee shop premises worth of 2.3 million rubles to Simin without payment for the agreement.

January 14, 2014, the court made a decision on the termination of criminal prosecution under the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution; that is on the grounds not rehabilitating these individuals.

Meanwhile, Korolev who was convicted in another criminal case (extortion of personal property from local businessmen committed by an organized criminal group) in 2012 and sentenced to 7.5 years in prison, continues to serve a sentence in a general regime penal colony.

Under special proceedings, the court had already sentenced the former deputy of the Council of People's Deputies of the Slednevskoye rural settlement Vladimir Ustinov and the local entrepreneur Alexander Bogachenko.

Head of Media Relations V. Markin