On July 28, the Meshchansky District Court of Moscow considered petitions from the investigation to extend the detention of Belgorod businessmen Gennady Bobritsky and Vladimir Tebekin. The investigation accuses them of particularly large-scale fraud as part of an organized group (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code). Bobritsky, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prioskolie JSC, and the head of the Iceberg Charitable Foundation for Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle, Honored Coach of Russia Tebekin, were detained on June 2 by officers of the FSB department for the Belgorod Region. On the same day they were taken to Moscow and arrested.
The case against entrepreneurs was initiated by employees of the Investigation Department (SD) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on May 25, 2023. According to the investigation, in 2014, under the leadership of Bobritsky and Tebekin, two illegal transactions were made to alienate the property of CJSC Energomash in favor of Industry LLC . The investigators came to the conclusion that, in their opinion, the transactions of the administration of the Belgorod region caused damage for 661 million rubles: at that time it owned about half of the shares of the Energomash company.
Together with Tebekin and Bobritsky, three more local entrepreneurs were detained in the framework of the criminal case: Energomash General Director Gennady Tararaksin, Eduard Khokhlov and Vladimir Zakharov. They, in contrast to the alleged organizers of fraud, have chosen a preventive measure in the form of a ban on certain actions. This is due to the fact that they gave confessions to the investigation and cooperate with law enforcement officers.
In the Meshchansky Court, during the discussion of the measure of restraint, it became clear to Bobritsky and Tebekin that the entrepreneurs wanted to compensate for the damage in the criminal case and also cooperate with the investigation. They still plead not guilty to fraud.
The lawyers of the defendants suggested that the court soften their preventive measure for any measure not related to isolation from society, including in the form of house arrest and unprecedentedly large bails: 1.5 billion rubles. for Bobritsky and 2 million euros for Tebekin. Depositing a pledge in the amount of 1.5 billion rubles. Bobritsky is guaranteed by CJSC Krasnoyaruzhskaya Grain Company, the owner and ultimate beneficiary of which he is, noted his defense. Similar amounts of bail in high-profile criminal cases were offered only during the arrest of the brothers Ziyavudin and Magomed Magomedov (2.5 billion rubles each) and ex-Minister for Open Government Affairs Mikhail Abyzov (1 billion rubles).
Cases against members of Savchenko’s team
On July 21, 2023, the Investigative Committee of Russia detained the former vice-governor of the Belgorod Region, Konstantin Polezhaev. He was charged with taking a bribe on an especially large scale – 17 million rubles. (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code). Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov dismissed him on July 4, explaining this by poor organization of work to restore Shebekin and Novaya Tavolzhanka, which were shelled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to investigators, Polezhaev in 2022 and 2023. received two cars from the director of one of the construction companies in the region for “assistance in the acceptance of work” for the construction of wastewater treatment plants and for concluding contracts with this company in the housing and communal services sector. During the interrogation, the former vice-governor confessed and confessed to his deed in full. Former mayor of Belgorod Anton Ivanov (2021–2022) was detained by the FSB under a similar article – suspicion of bribery on an especially large scale. And on March 20, another official from Savchenko’s team was detained. It was the former mayor of Stary Oskol Alexander Sergienko (2018-2021), who was accused of three bribes totaling 15 million rubles. According to law enforcers, the official used this money to help entrepreneurs obtain permits for rent and construction.
But the head of the investigative group for especially important cases of the SD Ministry of Internal Affairs, Yevgeny Grigoriev, insisted before the court that businessmen could hide, put pressure on witnesses and impede the progress of the investigation. In support of his arguments, Grigoriev argued that Bobritsky had a residence permit in Cyprus, while Tebekin had a residence permit in Germany. Moreover, according to the investigator, they have impressive financial resources and can destroy evidence in the case. Khokhlova, a representative of the prosecutor’s office, supported the investigation’s petition in full. In her opinion, the continuation of the investigation is possible only if the accused are in a pre-trial detention center.
The businessmen’s defense side found the prosecution’s arguments completely unfounded. Bobritsky’s lawyer Alexei Koryabin said that his client is a real patriot and does not intend to hide. Koryabin insisted on the excessive severity of the preventive measure, since his client immediately declared his desire to pay off the alleged damage, and attached to the case file a petition signed by more than 10,000 employees of enterprises owned by Bobritsky. The second lawyer, Sergei Goduev, also said that in addition to the $400,000 seized during the search of the businessman’s house, a security arrest in the amount of 9 billion rubles was imposed on Bobritsky’s account, which exceeds the damage in the case by more than 15 times.
Despite the fact that the investigation assessed the state of health of Bobritsky as satisfactory, the businessman shared in court that he had diseases such as glaucoma with a tendency to loss of vision and benign adenoma. The lawyers also pointed out that Bobritsky has two dependent children and an 84-year-old mother.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, the businessman has been actively involved in charity work and helped the Belgorod Region, according to lawyers, his company transferred more than 100 million rubles for the needs of the military operation in 2023. For this, he was awarded many awards, including a letter of thanks from the border department of the FSB and a medal from the Minister of Defense “For Strengthening the Commonwealth”.
In turn, many representatives of the military elite signed personal guarantees for Tebekin – Colonel General Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Alexander Lapin, Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces, Commander of the 106th Guards Airborne Division, Major General Vladimir Seliverstov and more several dozen high-ranking military men (their names were listed in court).
Judge Oksana Goryunova attached to the case file as a characteristic of Tebekin’s personality his awards. For example, the head of the Iceberg charitable foundation was awarded a medal from the Minister of Defense for his participation in supporting the military operation (he transferred more than 140 million rubles). Tebekin has an order for merit in the annexation of Crimea, an order for merit in anti-terrorist activities from the Alpha special forces unit, and gratitude from Vitaly Mutko from those times when he was the Minister of Sports.
“I did not commit any crimes and learned about what was happening at the time of detention. Before that, I was abroad for treatment and returned to my homeland with one goal – to help. The situation is very difficult. I have no right to let down such people who vouched for me,” Tebekin said in court. His lawyer Yuri Shevyakov explained that the client returned to Russia literally three days before his arrest to help evacuate people from the region at the time of heavy shelling from Ukraine.
The arguments of the investigation about the intention to hide and interfere with the course of the investigation are absolutely far-fetched, the defender said: “Why hide from a crime whose statute of limitations expires in a year? You and I know that such an economic case will be investigated for at least a year and then another trial on the merits.”
Shevyakov insisted that the act charged to Tebekin was purely economic and related to the sphere of entrepreneurial activity. To this prosecutor Khokhlova replied that the crime imputed to businessmen had nothing to do with entrepreneurship. The actions they committed, according to her, are socially dangerous and aimed at causing harm in an illegal way, the supervisory authority believes.
Despite this, Tebekin asked the court to place him under house arrest to live with his daughter, born in 2008, in a country house of 2600 sq. m in the Istra region. The businessman referred to the fact that his residence permit in Germany had already expired.
In addition, the defenders of Tebekin noted that his Iceberg Foundation financially supports hundreds of families of heroes who died in battle on an ongoing basis, and with its support, recruits are being trained. “I insist that this person has brought and will bring more benefits than, according to the investigation, caused damage,” Shevyakov concluded his speech.
Bobritsky’s lawyer Goduev also agreed with his colleague that the alleged crime relates exclusively to business, and in connection with the amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure adopted this summer that make it impossible to detain under business articles, their clients should be released from custody. “According to the version of the SD of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the method of committing [преступления] – this is a chain of civil law transactions, ”explained lawyer Koryabin.
In addition, the defenders pointed out that Bobritsky runs a socially oriented business. Before his arrest, he tried to find jobs for about 800 employees of the Shebekino plant who lost their jobs, but now this is impossible in the conditions of the pre-trial detention center, because his personal presence at the workplace is necessary.
Judge Goryunova, after listening to the arguments of the lawyers and the defendants, nevertheless agreed with the investigation and extended the arrest of the Belgorod businessmen until October 25, 2023. For the same period, the investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs extended the period of the preliminary investigation into the case. From the materials read out in court, it follows that, according to the plan, the investigators still have to conduct a number of forensic examinations, seize documents from the tax office, and also interrogate former employees of Energomash.
A Vedomosti source familiar with the investigation says that the detentions of Tebekin and Bobritsky are connected with the need for the investigation to obtain evidence against the ex-governor of the Belgorod Region Yevgeny Savchenko (now a member of the Federation Council). Savchenko did not answer the call from Vedomosti.
A Vedomosti source close to the region also connects the persecution of Tebekin and Bobrytsky with the “cleansing of the old elite” from Savchenko’s time, the reason for which could be the “close and lasting” connections of both defendants with “people because of the ribbon.” “Bobritsky under Savchenko was the largest and closest businessman to him. Tebekin, first of all, was responsible for the behavior of the shadow world of the region, ”the source of Vedomosti notes.
In a certain environment of entrepreneurs, the former vice-president of the Boxing Federation of the Russian Federation Tebekin was better known by the nickname Sailor and was considered the unofficial “owner of Shebekin”, the largest regional center of the Belgorod region closest to the Kharkov region. Geographical economic ties predetermined ties with “colleagues” from the neighboring region, says the source of Vedomosti, but recently this has become unacceptable. This coincided with the interests of the new team of regional managers, who are not happy with the possible resistance from big business, according to a Vedomosti source.