Deputy speaker of the Voronezh Duma was mistaken for a patron

The Department of the ICR for the Voronezh Region opened a criminal case on fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to ten years in prison) against the 48-year-old deputy chairman of the Voronezh City Duma and director of the regional center for state cadastral valuation Alexei Pinigin.

Yesterday, searches were carried out at his home and at his workplace, and today a preventive measure may be chosen for him. Mr. Pinigin pleaded guilty. According to Kommersant-Chernozemye, he could receive 9.2 million rubles. from the local KM-stroy LLC. The management of this company appears in a criminal case on fraud during the construction of a school in the Gribanovsky district of the region. Voronezh businessman Yevgeny Katyushkin controls KM-Stroy, and his criminal case on illegal VAT refunds was recently brought to court.

Yesterday morning, several sources of Kommersant-Chernozemye in the representative authorities of Voronezh reported that Vice Speaker Alexei Pinigin arrived at work accompanied by eight law enforcement officers, and their white minibus was in the parking lot of the City Duma during operational activities. On the evening of February 15, the situation was commented on by the regional department of the TFR.

According to investigators, in 2018, the suspect received 9.2 million rubles from the director of a commercial company engaged in the construction of a social facility in the Gribanovsky district. for the promise to assist in the timely acceptance and payment of the work performed. According to the TFR, in reality, he did not have the authority to influence such decisions. The deputy disposed of the funds received by fraud at his own discretion.

The name of the organization and the name of the director in the TFR were not disclosed. Sources of Kommersant-Chernozemye, surrounded by the suspect and the authorities, suggested that he was talking about the head of the local LLC KM-Stroy, Andrey Matveev. In August last year, it became known that the Voronezh Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suspected Mr. Matveev in fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, during the construction of a school in the Gribanovsky district, his company used materials that did not meet the stated fire safety requirements, which caused damage to the budget amounting to 21.3 million rubles.

According to Kartoteka.ru, 51% in KM-Stroy LLC is owned by Evgeny Katyushkin, head of the Motor Land Voronezh dealer group. He, in turn, is accused by the ICR of tax evasion in the amount of more than 300 million rubles. Criminal case Mr. Katyushkin was taken to court at the end of January.

The criminal case against the vice-speaker was based on the materials of the regional department of the FSB. After being detained during interrogation, Mr. Pinigin pleaded guilty, the ICR specified. Investigators are gathering evidence to complete the investigation.

According to the official biography of Alexei Pinigin, he began his career in the second half of the 90s after serving in the helicopter squadron of the internal troops of the Russian Federation, having gone from a manager for the sale of warehouse equipment to the director of an enterprise. In 2003, Alexey Pinigin became the director of the Voronezh Production and Trade Company Gifts of the Sun LLC, and in 2005, he became the development director of the Voronezh Development Company LLC.

Subsequently, he had a chance to hold senior positions in CJSC Profi-S and PSK Group, and in 2013, Mr. Pinigin became the director of commercial real estate development in the largest construction company in the region, DSK. According to Kartoteka.rufrom November 2012 he was president of the Regional Cooperation and Development Fund, from July 2017 he headed the local Portal LLC, from August 2018 he became the director of Torgstroy LLC.

In February 2020, he was appointed head of the regional center for cadastral valuation. Aleksey Pinigin was first elected to the City Duma of Voronezh in 2010, and has been a member of United Russia since 2007. At the moment, his membership in the party is suspended.

After the appearance in the media of information about operational activities involving Mr. Pinigin, some publications suggested that another deputy of the City Duma, Nikolai Korzhov, could appear in the case. He has friendly relations with Alexei Pinigin. However, Mr. Korzhov himself told Kommersant-Chernozemye that he learned about what happened from the press. He spent the whole day in the office and hopes that the situation with his colleague “will be clarified by law enforcement officers following the results of the investigation.”

In the last two convocations, Mr. Pinigin has been the vice-speaker of the city duma. Now the court is considering a case of fraud (part 3 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, up to six years in prison) against Alexander Provotorov, First Deputy Chairman of the Duma. According to investigators, in 2020 for 1 million rubles. he promised to patronize his colleague and comrade-in-arms Alexander Zhukov in the elections, but he did not have the authority and opportunity to do so.

Mr. Provotorov repented and returned the amount received. In early March, the Central District Court will debate his case.

Alexey Pinigin was considered one of the contenders for the post, which Alexander Provotorov decided to leave at the end of January. Together with him, Kommersant-Chernozemye sources in the city authorities named the head of the United Russia faction Roman Zhogov, former mayor Sergei Koliukh and oppositionist Artem Rymar as possible candidates for the post of first vice-speaker. It was not possible to promptly confirm this information: the chairman of the City Duma, Vladimir Khodyrev, did not answer calls from Kommersant-Chernozemye yesterday.

At the end of last year, Sergey Baryshnikov, the predecessor of Mr. Pinigin as director of the cadastral valuation center, who left his post in 2018, fell under a criminal case (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the TFR, in November 2020, in the absence of any legal grounds, using false documents, Mr. Baryshnikov assisted in registering the property rights of a local resident to a land plot of 202 sq. m on Leningradskaya street. As clarified in the TFR, the cadastral value of the asset exceeded 2 million rubles, it belonged to lands, state ownership of which is not delimited.

For the “help” provided, the suspect allegedly received 300 thousand rubles from the citizen. After being arrested, he pleaded guilty.