The Moscow City Court mitigated the punishment for Belgorod power engineers convicted of embezzling 241 million rubles. from IDGC of Center JSC.
The five defendants were recognized the right to rehabilitation on charges of participation in a criminal community, they were released from punishment for embezzlement due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The court also canceled the collection of damages from them in the framework of the criminal case in favor of the energy company. The defense interprets the court’s decision as a kind of justification.
On January 28, the Moscow City Court completed the third appeal hearing of the criminal case on embezzlement of 241 million rubles. from IDGC of Center (now Rosseti Center). The participants in the case told Kommersant that, according to his decision, five defendants were recognized as having the right to rehabilitation on charges of participating in an organized criminal community (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), they were exempted from punishment for embezzlement (part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and from the recovery of damages in favor of the victim. Now the issue of damages is to be decided by a civil court.
As previously reported by Kommersant, the Meshchansky City Court of Moscow in July 2019 in the case of especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) sentenced the former general director of the Belgorod division of IDGC, ex-deputy of the local regional Duma to imprisonment from six to nine years Viktor Filatov, his deputy Alexei Zelensky, as well as employees of the company OJSC Corporate Service Systems (CorSsis), created on the basis of a branch of the energy company, Stanislav Milkin, Pavel Tishchenko and Alexander Pivovarov. They were found guilty of embezzling about 240 million rubles from the Kurskenergo company. through the conclusion of economically unprofitable transactions.
On charges of participation in a criminal community, the defendants were acquitted, but did not receive the right to rehabilitation. The court also recovered from them 241 million rubles. damages in favor of IDGC and fined the convicts in the range of 600-900 thousand rubles.
In mid-2020, the Moscow City Court commuted the sentence, after which all the convicts were released. The court of appeal then canceled the recovery of damages from them, which the prosecution did not agree with, which achieved a new consideration of the case on appeal. At the end of 2020, the Moscow City Court changed its decision and recovered damages from the convicts. However, the defendants and their defense succeeded in canceling the decision in the cassation instance, after which the court had to return to the case for the third time.
Viktor Filatov’s lawyer Maxim Izhikov told Kommersant that the defense insisted on the full acquittal of the defendants or on the return of the case to the prosecutor’s office to eliminate numerous violations. “We assert that in the present case there is no corpus delicti and innocent people are in the dock. After receiving the motivational part of the appeal ruling, we will decide on the possibility of further appealing it, ”said the defender.
According to him, the Moscow City Court, in addition to recognizing the right to rehabilitation for the defendants in the case, released them from punishment for embezzlement due to the expiration of the statute of limitations: according to the verdict, the crime ended in 2010, so the statute of limitations for it expired in 2020.
All defendants in the criminal case are now considered not convicted. “Apparently, this is how they justify it now,” the defender mocked.