The Skopinsky District Court of the Ryazan Region granted the request of Denis Sugrobov, ex-head of the Main Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, for parole. The former police lieutenant general was sentenced to 12 years in 2017 on charges of organized crime and abuse of power. A number of subordinates of Denis Sugrobov also ended up in places of deprivation of liberty, most of whom have already been released on parole.
It took Judge Olga Gerasimova about twenty minutes to make a positive decision on the parole of the former head of the GUEBiPK Ministry of Internal Affairs, Denis Sugrobov. The meeting was held behind closed doors, while the convict himself was not present: the ex-general asked in writing to consider the petition in his absence due to employment in the colony (Denis Sugrobov has recently been keeping a timesheet of prisoners).
The representative of the administration of strict regime correctional colony No. 3 did not object to the early release of Denis Sugrobov, who had been held in the correctional colony since 2017, in court. According to an employee of the penitentiary institution, during this time (the ex-general was briefly transported to a colony in Mordovia), there were no complaints from the administration against the convict. Moreover, Denis Sugrobov, who actively participated in the public life of the IK, received 17 awards. The former general also passed the sports standards: in the EC they pay a lot of attention to physical education topics.
The representative of the prosecutor’s office, in turn, told the court that given such characteristics of the prisoner, the supervisory authority is also not opposed to satisfying the petition. As a result, the court decided to release Denis Sugrobov to freedom. If there is no protest from the prosecutor’s office (and judging by the course of the meeting, this will not happen), then the ex-head of the anti-corruption central office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will be released from the correctional colony in the coming days.
It should be noted that correctional colony No. 3, established in Skopin in 1994 on the basis of a medical and labor dispensary, since September 2000 is intended for the maintenance of former employees of the courts and law enforcement agencies. In August 2002, the regime in the institution was changed from general to strict.
Recall that Denis Sugrobov once made a dizzying career in the internal affairs bodies. Having started his service in the criminal investigation department of the Central Administrative District of Moscow, he received the rank of general at the age of 34, heading one of the key departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – GUEBiPK. Under the leadership of Denis Sugrobov, the employees of the central office uncovered many high-profile crimes, including embezzlement in Oboronservis, Rosagroleasing, and others.
Employees of the anti-corruption central office came under criminal prosecution in February 2014. The reason was the story of an attempt by businessmen to give a bribe in the amount of $10,000 for general patronage of FSB officer Igor Demin. He reported the proposal to his leadership, as a result, policemen were detained, who intended to take the Chekist red-handed when receiving money. They were suspected of provoking a bribe.
Investigators of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR opened a criminal case against the employees of the GUEBiPK of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On February 21, 2014, Denis Sugrobov was relieved of his post by presidential decree, and in May of the same year he was detained, and the Basmanny Court of Moscow authorized the arrest of the general. In total, 12 people were taken into custody in this case, including Boris Kolesnikov, deputy chief of the central department (during the investigation, he committed suicide by throwing himself off the balcony of the fire escape located on the sixth floor of the TFR building).
As a result, the ex-policemen, depending on the role of each, were charged with organizing a criminal community (OPS) and participating in it (part 3 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences (part 3 of article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ), falsification of evidence and results of operational-investigative activities (Article 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and provocation of a bribe or commercial bribery (Article 304 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to investigators, in 2011 Denis Sugrobov and his subordinates created an organized criminal group, whose members were engaged in falsifying evidence that served as the basis for criminal prosecution. The main motive for these actions, the investigation considered the desire of operatives to achieve high performance and career growth. At the same time, General Sugrobov, according to the investigation, carried out general management of the actions of his subordinates, but at the same time he did not personally participate in any of the crimes imputed to his employees. In total, the police were charged with 21 episodes of criminal activity, 30 people were recognized as victims of their actions. Among them were high-ranking officials and big businessmen. The criminal cases against them were discontinued after the arrest of the GUEBiPK employees.
The investigation lasted two years. Denis Sugrobov, like many other defendants in the case, did not admit his guilt, arguing that their criminal prosecution was the result of a provocation by the special services.
The trial in the case of the “police OPS” started on February 12, 2016 in the Moscow City Court. At the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, the hearings were held behind closed doors due to the presence of classified materials in the case.
On April 27, 2017, the court almost completely agreed with the position of the state prosecution, which demanded in the debate for Denis Sugrobov 22 years in prison, a year less for the former head of department “B” of the GUEBiPK Salavat Mullayarov and from 17 to 20 years for the rest of the ex-policemen . The prosecutor’s office offered to sentence the agent of operatives businessman Igor Skakunov to five years in prison. As a result, Denis Sugrobov received the term requested by the prosecutor, Salavat Mullayarov – 20 years in a strict regime colony, Ivan Kosourov – 19 years, Vitaly Cherednichenko and Yevgeny Shermanov – 18 years each, Sergey Borisovsky, Sergey Ponomarev and Andrey Nazarov – 17 years each. Businessman Skakunov was sentenced to four years. The court stripped all former police ranks and banned them from holding positions in law enforcement.
However, in December 2017, the Supreme Court, having considered the appeals of the defense against the verdict, found grounds for a significant – in fact, two times – reduction in the terms of punishment for all defendants. So, Denis Sugrobov was appointed 12 years old, Salavat Mullayarov, Ivan Kosourov and Yevgeny Shermanov – 10 years each, Sergey Borisovsky – 9 years old, Vitaly Cherednichenko and Andrey Nazarov – 9.5 years old, Sergey Ponomarev – 8 years old. Businessman Igor Skakunov was given 3.5 years.
With the exception of Denis Sugrobov, almost all those convicted in this criminal case have already been released on parole. The exceptions are Ivan Kosourov, who is serving a sentence in Komi, and Vitaly Cherednichenko, who is being held in a colony in the Khabarovsk Territory. The first term ends in February next year, the second – in September of this.