A suspended sentence and a fine of 4.8 million rubles. for each, the trial of the solvers Yevgeny Dobrovolsky and Ivan Alekhin ended. Both were found guilty by the court of mediation in commercial bribery of Ilya Kostunov, Deputy General Director of the Russian Foundation for the Development of Information Technologies. For 600 thousand rubles. the defendants in the case sought to consider out of turn applications for grants for LLC Business Platform of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, as well as LLC Globus Technology, which develops communication platforms for business.
The Tver District Court of the capital considered the case of two solvers for six months, and during this time only seven meetings were held. And most of them were postponed due to the failure of the witnesses summoned to appear in court.
In the end, the district court found Ivan Alekhin and Yevgeny Dobrovolsky guilty of mediation in commercial bribery for knowingly illegal actions (part 2 of article 204.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Ivan Alekhin received a three-year suspended sentence, Yevgeny Dobrovolsky – five years suspended. Both, in addition, were assigned a three-year probationary period, as well as a fine of 4.8 million rubles each. to each. In establishing the amount of the fine, the court considered that it should be equal to eight times the amount offered by the convicts as a bribe.
As Kommersant previously reported, Yevgeny Dobrovolsky and Ivan Alekhin were detained by FSB operatives on the afternoon of July 28, 2022 at the Spaten House restaurant on 2nd Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. The detention was preceded by a statement from Ilya Kostunov, deputy head of the Russian Foundation for the Development of Information Technologies (RFRIT), who said that there had been an attempt at commercial bribery against him.
As it turned out during the investigation, at the end of June last year, the solvers began to look for an opportunity to ensure that applications for budget grants for two companies, LLC Business Platform RSPP and LLC Globus Technology, are considered without waiting in line.
Judging by the website of the first company, it is developing a messenger that “provides communication with specialists and businessmen” who are members of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, members of the RSPP, as well as obtaining information, contact or advice. The second company develops communication platforms for business.
To carry out the task, as follows from the case file, the defendants decided with the help of money. To do this, Ivan Alekhin introduced his friend to Ilya Kostunov, whose job responsibilities include organizing and supervising the competitive selection for the provision of budget grants, as well as signing agreements if the applications are approved. During the conversation, which took place on June 23, Evgeny Dobrovolsky explained to the Deputy Head of the RRRIT that he was required to violate the competitive selection procedure, while making it clear that this service would be paid. The amount of remuneration was also named – 600 thousand rubles.
Established in 2017, RFRIT was created to support the development of Russian software and the development of an innovative infrastructure in the field of information and communication technologies. However, then the profile of its activity changed, and now the main direction is support, including financial support, for Russian IT developers, projects for the implementation of domestic products, services and platform solutions.
After listening to the interlocutors, the deputy head of the fund, however, decided to contact the FSB, after which all further negotiations and personal meetings between the parties, which lasted more than a month, were already under the control of operatives.
And after all three agreed on the time and place of the transfer of money, the operation entered the final phase. After the entire agreed amount of cash compensation was handed over to Ilya Kostunov during the lunch break, Ivan Alekhin and Yevgeny Dobrovolsky were detained. Later, by a court decision, both were sent under house arrest.
It is worth noting that, according to Kommersant’s sources, the fixers were initially charged with a more serious charge of commercial bribery committed by a group of persons by prior agreement (part 3 of article 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), but then for some reason it was relaxed.