The High Qualifications Board of Judges (HQJC) of Russia refused to cancel, due to newly discovered circumstances, the decision to give consent to initiate a criminal case against ex-judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court Elena Kondrat. According to investigators, she persuaded her colleague to accept a bribe of $50,000 for making the “necessary” decision in the case. In her complaint, the defendant argued that her case was missing a key document – the decision of the Russian Supreme Court, which authorized the FSB to conduct an operational experiment, as a result of which she was detained. However, the judges did not accept this argument.
In her statement (available to Business FM), former judge Elena Kondrat, who is in the women’s pre-trial detention center No. 6 in Kapotnya, asked to reconsider the decision of the HQCJ dated July 12, 2021. On that day, the presentation of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin, was granted and they agreed to initiate proceedings against Kondrat. The latter called her case “custom-made” and pointed out that the judges showed “formalism” when making a decision.
According to investigators, in September 2020, the judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court, Elena Kondrat, turned to her former secretary, who later also became an arbitration judge, Elena Makhalkina. She told her colleague that she was contacted by some people who were ready to pay 50 thousand US dollars if Makhalkina made a decision not to bring to subsidiary liability a number of individuals and legal entities involved in a civil case under her proceedings. Subsequently, during telephone conversations and personal meetings, Kondrat urged her colleague to make the above decision in the arbitration case for a monetary reward, and she herself decided to act as an intermediary in the transfer of funds. “However, she turned to law enforcement agencies, in connection with which the transaction took place under the control of operational services,” the Investigative Committee of Russia claims.
red-handed
Despite the fact that on October 18, 2020, Kondrat was caught red-handed when transferring 50 thousand dollars to Makhalkina, she had to be released, since judges belong to the category of persons with a special legal status. The Supreme Court of Russia approved the arrest of Kondrat only on April 18, 2022. She was charged with Part 4 of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“mediation in bribery”).
The defendant was not taken into custody that day, again due to the fact that judges are special subjects. According to the law on the status of judges, Elena Kondrat could be sent to a pre-trial detention center only if the High Qualifications Board of Judges of Russia gives consent to this at the request of the chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia, who has a decision on arrest in his hands. This is what was done.
By the time of the arrest appeal, which took place on April 22, 2022, Elena Kondrat had fled. This happened after the night before she was handed an obligation to appear in a cottage village in the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region. A week later, on April 28, she was found in one of the Russian regions and imprisoned in a pre-trial detention center.
Addressing the HQCC, Elena Kondrat indicated that the decision of the Supreme Court of July 2, 2020, which allowed the very operational experiment in which she was detained, is not in the case file. And the HQCC agreed to initiate a criminal case against her without this document, which is contrary to the law.
Secret cooperation with the FSB?
But on the basis of the rulings of the Supreme Court of July 2, 2020, according to Kondrat, Judge Elena Makhalkina herself was detained while receiving a bribe from the bankruptcy trustee Anna Goloshumova. After that, according to the defendant, the judge concluded a cooperation agreement with the operational services for a period of ten years.
Lawyer Maxim Pashkov, who defends Elena Kondrat, draws attention to the fact that Elena Makhalkina wrote a statement to his client on October 13, 2020 in the FSB, three months after the Supreme Court of Russia allegedly agreed on July 2 to conduct operational search activities with Kondrat ( ORM). He added that the briber in the case has not been identified. “The case mentions a legal entity and its officials, in favor of which Makhalkina was supposed to make a decision, but none of these persons was held accountable,” the defender said.
Money for an apartment
Kondrat herself regarded the actions of her colleague as a “provocation”. She stressed that during the “ORM provocation” on October 18, 2020, Makhalkina reported that she had received 50 thousand dollars in debt from her to buy an apartment, which she bought a few months later. Makhalkina changed her testimony only six months later, saying that the money was a bribe.
She claims that, while continuing to work as a judge, Makhalkina (she is involved in the Kondrat case as the main witness for the prosecution) participates as a “provocateur” in relation to various persons and a “staff” witness.
According to Maxim Pashkov, despite the fact that the investigation in the Kondrat case has already been completed, the defense has not been able to get the unfortunate decision of the Supreme Court, which authorized the ORM with his client. “There is no such definition in the Supreme Court, no one has seen it, even the investigator. He sent a request to the Supreme Court and to the Federal Security Service for Moscow and the region, which conducted the ORM. From the Supreme Court, he received an answer that this judicial act was not in court, but from the FSB that it was impossible to provide it, since it was classified, ”the lawyer said.
After listening to the arguments of Kondrat and her representatives (the ex-judge herself participated in the hearing via video link from the pre-trial detention center), the HQCC refused to review its decision due to newly discovered circumstances. Makhalknaya’s lawyers Maksim Pashkov and Aleksey Kovalev intend to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court.
“Kondrat herself stated at a meeting of the Higher Commissioner of the Supreme Court that her criminal case is the revenge of the chairman of the Moscow Arbitration Court Nikolai Novikov for refusing to make a definite decision on the case she was considering,” Maxim Pashkov voiced the position of his client.
Elena Kondrat faces seven to 12 years in prison with a fine of up to seventy times the amount of the bribe. Currently, her case has been transferred to the Moscow City Court, which should soon decide on the jurisdiction of her case.