The Volgograd Region investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee continue investigating a criminal case against head of Srednyaya Akhtuba District administration Sergey Tikhonov, deputy of Volzhsky City Duma Sergey Chekunkov, head of finance department of Volzhsk City administration Andrey Uvarov. They are charged with a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the RF Penal Code (fraud committed by a group of people in a preliminary conspiracy on an especially large scale).
According to investigators, in September 2008, administration of Srednyaya Akhtuba District sold an abandoned building of a school and its premises to a commercial organization for 250 thousand rubles. A year later, the head of district administration, who knew the CEO of the company, which had bought the property, decided to steal budgetary funds by concluding a sales contract on the property, this way returning them in the ownership of the municipality, but this time at price 100 times higher – 25 million rubles. For that the district head and the CEO of the company prepared letters to the administration of the region claiming that Srednyaya Akhtuba District was in need of the property and the owner was willing to sell it. To finance the transaction the regional administration put forth one condition – the building had to be reconstructed into a preschool facility. Deceiving officials of the regional administration the district head assured them that all the conditions would be met. As a result under a long-term regional target-specific program of developing preschool education 22.5 million rubles was allocated from the regional budget to buy the said property in October 2012, and another 2.5 million rubles was allocated from the municipal budget. The money was transferred to the company’s account, later cashed and distributed among the suspects. It should be noted, that under the financing agreement signed between administration of the region and Srednyaya Akhtuba District the property had to be purchased, reconstructed and put in operation before 2014. As of today no work has been done. The children still have to study in a ramshackle building of former kindergarten without elementary conditions for studying.
By now investigators have got the information that State Duma Deputy Nikolai Parshin, who then was a deputy of Volgograd City Duma, was involved in the fraudulent scheme. Moreover, he was a mastermind of the scheme and later lobbied his interests and those of his accomplices in Volgograd Region administration. For example, as a leader of Communist faction in the Volgograd Region, he filed a motion with the governor insistently asking to review in the shortest possible time the issues of allocating funds to buy the abandoned school premises. Later on, using his authority and liaisons in the regional government, Parshin together with Tikhonov verbally misled the officials about necessity and high importance of the transaction.
Due to the fact that Parshin’s actions have in them signs of a crime under part 4 of article 159 of the RF Penal Code (fraud committed by a group of people in a previous concert on a verylarge scale), the Russia’s Investigative Committee is going to initiate receiving consent of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation to start a criminal procedure against Parshin.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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