As it became known to Kommersant, the main investigative department of the TFR has completed the investigation of a criminal case against three representatives of one of the largest transshipment oil depots in the Samara region LLC Interbranch Association of TNP, including Denis Zubov, the son of Deputy Interior Minister of Russia Igor Zubov. According to the investigation, they tried to bribe an employee of the regional FSB, transferring 18 million rubles to him. for general patronage, but were detained and taken into custody. Now the defendants are completing their familiarization with the materials of the criminal case, which will then be submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office for approval.
The fact that the investigation of the case was completed became known from the decisions of the Basmanny District Court of Moscow, which once again extended the preventive measure for the accused. It follows from the decision that Vasily Ermakov, Executive Director of LLC Interbranch Association TNP, Igor Karpov, President of the mini-football club Dynamo-Samara, and Denis Zubov, Deputy General Director of Trade House Brent LLC, who is the son of the State Secretary-Deputy Minister Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Zubov, will be in a pre-trial detention center until February 11, 2023. At the same time, all three, depending on the roles assigned by the investigation, have already been charged in the final version with committing crimes.
So, Vasily Ermakov is charged with Part 5 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (giving a bribe on an especially large scale), and two of his accomplices – Part 4 of Art. 291.1 (mediation in giving a particularly large bribe).
Taking into account the sanctions provided for by these articles, the defendants can spend from 7 to 15 years behind bars. The court also has the right to impose a fine on everyone in the amount of seventy times the amount of the bribe, which will amount to at least 1.260 billion rubles, although for such cases there is a limit of 500 million rubles. The presence of a close relative with a criminal record is not an obstacle to work in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but it is also not welcome in the police department.
A criminal case on the fact of giving a bribe was initiated in February 2022 by the investigative department of the TFR for the Samara region, which was addressed by an employee of the regional FSB. According to the Chekist, back in November 2021, Vasily Yermakov, through intermediaries Igor Karpov and Denis Zubov, offered him to become the “roof” of one of the largest transshipment oil depots in the Samara region, LLC Interbranch Union TNP. For general patronage, a one-time payment of 18 million rubles was offered, and in the future, 5 million rubles each. monthly. The negotiations, which were conducted under the secret control of the Chekists, ended in February 2022. Denis Zubov was detained after he handed over a briefcase with money to an FSB officer, and then they took two other participants in the bribe. The Samara court arrested them, but then the first deputy head of the ICR, Eduard Kaburneev, transferred the criminal case to the committee’s central office for the objectivity of the investigation.
Lawyers for the defendants, who claimed that their arrest was the result of a provocation, tried to get them released from the pre-trial detention center under house arrest or a ban on certain actions, but they were refused. At the same time, the Basmanny and Moscow city courts agreed with the version of the investigation that, if released, the defendants could hide, create false evidence of their innocence, otherwise obstruct the criminal proceedings, and at the same time “continue to engage in criminal activity.”
The defendants themselves have already read the materials of their case, and the majority of their defense lawyers have familiarized themselves with it.
Only one lawyer, who joined the case in December, still needed time to read. Thus, it is obvious that in the very near future the materials of the investigation will be submitted to the Prosecutor General’s Office for approval of the prosecution. Representatives of the ICR and the defense refrained from commenting.