The Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced former employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (Minpromtorg) Soslan Geriev and Andrey Bandurov to seven years in a strict regime colony. Both were found guilty of taking a bribe in the amount of 600 thousand rubles. for issuing a license from Technological Systems and Technologies for the production, development and disposal of weapons, ammunition and military equipment. This was a retrial of the criminal case: earlier, the court reclassified the crime imputed to the defendants from a bribe to a milder fraud, but this decision was overturned by the court of appeal.
The Presnensky Court considered the case of former employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for nine months. Note that this was a retrial of the corruption case. In April 2022, the same district court sentenced Soslan Geriev and Andrey Bandurov to three years in a penal colony each. Such a lenient punishment became possible after the court unexpectedly reclassified the charge at the final stage of the process, removing from it “taking a large bribe” (part 5 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and replacing it with a much milder “attempted fraud” ( article 30 and article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
However, the Moscow prosecutor’s office, whose representative supported the prosecution, did not agree with the first court decision and filed an appeal. He was soon satisfied by the appellate instance of the Moscow City Court, which sent the criminal case back for a new trial.
This time, the district court fully agreed both with the qualification of the defendants’ actions and with the evidence of their guilt presented by the state prosecution.
As a result, Soslan Geriev and Andrey Bandurov were found guilty of taking a bribe and each were sentenced to seven years in a strict regime colony. Also, both are deprived of the right to hold positions in the civil service for a period of three years after their release.
As Kommersant previously reported, Andrei Bandurov, a leading specialist in the State Defense Order and Nuclear and Radiation Safety Department of the Shipbuilding Industry and Marine Equipment Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and Soslan Geriev, a department consultant, were detained by the FSB on March 27, 2021. The operation was carried out by the department “P” (supervises the industry) of the department’s economic security service. The first after the transfer of 600 thousand rubles to him. Chekists detained Mr. Geriev. The money was handed over to an official in the BMW showroom, which was parked near the entrance to the ministry building in Moscow City.
After waiting for the consultant to count the banknotes marked with a special solution, the operatives blocked the car and took the official. Then Andrei Bandurov was detained at his workplace.
After the search was completed in the office, the employees of the ministry acting at that time were taken to the department of the TFR for the Central Administrative District of Moscow. A few hours later, the defendants were charged, and on the same day both were arrested by the Khamovniki Court of the capital.
As follows from the materials of the case, since 2018, the general director of St. Petersburg CJSC Technological Systems and Technologies (TST) Sergey Rogov has been trying to obtain a license from the Ministry of Industry and Trade for his company for the production, development and disposal of ammunition and military equipment. However, the relevant officials of the ministry, to whom he addressed, under various pretexts, refused to consider the application of the company, including referring to the absence of some accompanying materials in it.
However, in the spring of 2021, according to the case file, Messrs. Bandurov and Geriev made it clear to the businessman that for 600 thousand rubles. they are ready to ensure that the enterprise obtains the necessary license. The general director, considering the offer made to him as extortion of a bribe, turned to the FSB. After that, all negotiations between the businessman and officials were already under the control of operatives. And when in March 2021 the TST company received a license and Sergey Rogov told Mr. Bandurov that he was ready to transfer the previously agreed amount to him, the Chekists carried out an operation to detain the defendants.
It should be noted that the defendants pleaded not guilty. The appeal of the defense against the court decision is to be considered by the appellate instance of the Moscow City Court.
