A court has recognized the evidence gathered by the investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee for the Volgograd Region sufficient to convict former head of Srednyaya Akhtuba District administration Sergey Tikhonov. He was found guilty 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 very large scale).
The court and investigators have found that in September 2008, administration of Srednyaya Akhtuba District sold an abandoned school and the plot of land under the school building located in the village of Rakhinka, Srednyaya Akhtuba District to a commercial organization for 250 thousand rubles. After a while, the head of district administration, CEO of the company, which had bought the property, Chekunkov, head of finance department of Volzhsky City administration Andrey Uvarov and deputy of the Volgograd Region Duma Parshin decided to steal budgetary funds by concluding a sales contract on that property, this way returning the ownership of it to the municipality, but that time at price 100 times higher than it had been sold at, namely at 25 million rubles.
For this purpose, Tikhonov and Chekunkov 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. Nikolay Parshin actively supported the criminal idea through his powers of a Regional Duma deputy acting out of mercenary motives. He applied to the governor asking him to consider over the possibility of allocating funds from the regional budget, and, together with Tikhonov, insisted on the necessity and importance of concluding the deal.
Before financing the deal, the regional administration put forth one condition – the building had to be reconstructed into a preschool facility. District head Tikhonov deceived officials of the regional administration assuring them that all the conditions would be met. As a result, in October 2012, 22.5 million rubles was allocated from the regional budget and another 2.5 million rubles was allocated from the municipal budget for the purchase of the said property under a long-term regional target-specific program of developing preschool education. The money was transferred to the company’s account, then cashed and distributed among the defendants. Nikolay Parshin “made” 11 million rubles off that deal, Tikhonov – 3 million 300 thousand rubles, and the rest of the money amounting to 10 million 700 thousand rubles was divided between Chekunkov and Uvarov.
In view of the fact that Tikhonov and Chekunkov pleaded guilty and signed pre-trial cooperation agreements, criminal cases against them have been separated and, with the approved indictment, referred to the court for consideration on the merits.
Tikhonov has received a 2-year suspended sentence and a fine of 500 thousand rubles.
The investigation against another defendant in this case, namely head of finance department of Volzhsky City administration Andrey Uvarov, who had been actively involved in the sale of the school, is nearly completed. He is currently at hospital. Upon dismissal, he will be familiarized with the case file and face trial.
As for Nikolay Parshin, at the request of the Investigative Committee, the State Duma deprived him of his deputy immunity on July 4, 2014. The relevant documents have already come into the Russia’s Investigative Committee. The investigators are planning to press charges against the deputy soon.
Head of Media Relations V.I. Markin
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