2018 was a busy year for Yamal law enforcement agencies, with arrests of corrupt officials and their own employees. Bribes and shootings were not unheard of.
The crime situation in Yamal has not escaped the trends of 2018—crime is on the rise among younger people in the region. The number of juvenile crimes under Article 166 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Unlawful seizure of a car or other vehicle without the intent to steal”) has increased by 2.6 times. This was reported on December 24 at a meeting of the Commission on Minors' Affairs and the Protection of Their Rights by the Executive Secretary of the Juvenile Affairs and Protection Committee for the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. In the first nine months of 2018, juveniles committed 99 crimes, eight more than in 2017. Law enforcement officials report that juveniles are most often caught for theft, carjacking, and drug trafficking.
Corpse in a pre-trial detention center
A police officer from the Tolka police station was sentenced to five years in a general regime penal colony for the death of a man in a pretrial detention cell. On the evening of December 30, 2017, before the holiday, he detained a drunk man following a complaint from his partner. The woman complained that her boyfriend was being rowdy and raising his hand against her. The officer placed the detainee in an unheated cell and left him there until morning. At the time, the temperature was below -40 degrees Celsius (-40 degrees Fahrenheit). In the morning, the officer discovered the detainee's frozen body in the cell. In a panic, he decided to dispose of the body and drove it outside the village. However, since the ground was frozen, he only buried it in the snow.
When questioned by the woman who had lost her husband, the local police officer said he had sent the man home, but he apparently took offense and wandered off. The detainee's body was discovered only on January 25, 2018. It turned out the officer had previously placed detainees in an unheated cell, but his arbitrary actions had never resulted in death.
Was there a bribe?
In addition to combating major corruption, prosecutors are systematically working to eradicate petty bribery among traffic police officers, who are often offered money to “solve their problems.” However, there are also cases where violators encounter honest traffic police officers, but the perpetrators manage to escape punishment during the criminal investigation. A strange case was uncovered during a prosecutorial investigation in Yamal.
Early in the morning of January 28, 2018, a traffic police crew stopped a drunk driver behind the wheel of a 2013 Lexus IS 250. The offender offered the traffic police officer 100,000 rubles. The officer reported the bribery to his superiors. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case against the driver for solicitation of corruption.
After two months, the investigation was closed due to the lack of evidence of a crime in the offender's actions. The investigator stated that the drunk driver's offer of a bribe was intended to deceive the police officer. He claimed the suspect lacked the financial means to transfer such a sum. The autonomous okrug prosecutor's office found the investigator's actions to be illegal, and the driver's case was remanded for retrial.
In December 2018, gunshots rang out in Yamal, almost like in the “wild 90s.” On December 1, two local residents shot three men during an argument in Nadym. One was killed, and two others were taken to hospitals with injuries. The perpetrators of the shooting have been detained.
On December 8, at a hospital in Noyabrsk, the duty station of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city received a report of aggressive behavior by two intoxicated patients with previous convictions at a local hospital. A district police officer arrived at the scene to investigate. The offenders attempted to take the officer's gun. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, the officer was forced to shoot one of the troublemakers. He allegedly used his service pistol lawfully.
Theft of 40 million rubles
The crime scene in Yamal has been bolstered by dramatic corruption revelations against officials. Sergei S., former head of the energy supervision department for the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug's North Ural branch of Rostekhnadzor, is accused of accepting a bribe totaling 450,000 rubles from a construction company.
A former chief financial specialist at the department's finance office in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug has been sentenced to six years in prison for embezzling 9 million rubles from the account of the Judicial Department's Office in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The official “prepared and submitted to the Federal Treasury Office for the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug requests to transfer funds from the Judicial Department's account in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug to pay for fictitious services to the accounts of his sister, wife, mother-in-law, and acquaintance.”
The director of a large municipal utility company that fulfills municipal contracts is suspected of serious abuse of power. A criminal case has been opened based on the prosecutor's investigation. According to investigators, the lease agreement for several municipal premises by JSC Salekharddorstroy expired in January 2018. However, the company continued to use the municipal premises, thus falling behind on rent by 9 million rubles. An inspection of one of the cottages, which was supposed to be rented out as offices, revealed it to be perfectly habitable and had been converted into a cozy large house, where the director of JSC Salekharddorstroy resides.
But the most high-profile corruption case was the arrest of the former head of the Yamal government's Housing Construction Fund. The former director of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Housing Construction Fund is accused of embezzling 400 million rubles from the budget in 2014-2015 during construction and installation work on several social facilities.
During these years, the Fund received over 40 billion rubles. Three criminal cases have been brought against the defendant under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Russian Criminal Code (“Misappropriation and Embezzlement”), combined into one proceeding, and he is also accused of abuse of office. Furthermore, after being charged, the former head of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug Housing Fund faked a heart attack and was duly hospitalized. However, he escaped from the hospital and was caught at the border with Kazakhstan. A large sum of money was found on him.
