Ex-deputy minister Rakov and rector Shaninka pleaded guilty

The Metropolitan Police have completed an investigation into a high-profile criminal case of embezzlement of 50 million rubles, in which the former Deputy Minister of Education Marina Rakova and the rector of the Moscow Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences (Shaninka) Sergey Zuev are involved. As it became known to Business FM, the other day, seven defendants and their lawyers signed a protocol for the completion of familiarization with the case materials. After the prosecutor approves the indictment, the case will go to court. Most of the defendants are at large, and only one is under house arrest.

The fact that the defendants and their lawyers have completed familiarization with the materials of the criminal case was reported to Business FM by a source familiar with the investigation. “Zuev’s lawyer Ruslan Kozhura and the lawyers of other defendants signed the relevant protocol on January 13,” he said.

Ruslan Kozhura confirmed to Business FM that he had finished familiarizing himself with the case. He recalled that the seven defendants and their lawyers had been getting acquainted with 98 volumes since the end of August 2022. Now, according to the lawyer, the Moscow prosecutor’s office must approve the indictment, which usually takes from ten to 30 days. After that, the case will be sent to court. Most likely, it will be the Tver court of the capital, the lawyer suggested.

The criminal case was initiated by the main department of the Metropolitan Police on August 7, 2021. It deals with three episodes of fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the amount of 50 million rubles. The first is related to the theft of 21 million rubles of budget funds allocated as part of the implementation of the federal projects “Education” and “Teacher of the Future” in 2019-2020. The second concerns the theft of 20 million rubles through fictitious employment of 12 employees of the Ministry of Education at the Institute of Social Sciences (ION), which was a structural unit of the RANEPA. In the third episode, we are talking about the fictitious employment of Marina Rakova’s assistant Andrey Saak at the Federal Institute for the Development of Education at the same academy. The Ministry of Internal Affairs estimated the amount of theft in this episode at more than 9 million rubles. All of the above people, according to the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for Moscow, received a salary, but did not go to work.

Initially, most of the defendants were arrested. In total, nine people were involved in the case, including the former Deputy Minister of Education of the Russian Federation Marina Rakova, the rector of Shaninka Sergey Zuev and the rector of the RANEPA under the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Mau. Rakova has been in custody since the fall of 2021. On June 30, 2022, Vladimir Mau also became a defendant in the criminal case. He pleaded not guilty and called the charges absurd. Mau was under house arrest until August 2, 2022, but then the investigation released him on bail. On October 14, 2022, it became known that the case against Mau was dismissed “due to his non-involvement in the crime”, and he himself was fully rehabilitated. Vladimir Mau did not exercise his right to compensation for unlawful persecution. Zuev, on the other hand, spent eight months in custody, after which, in August 2022, the court, at the request of the investigation, transferred him to house arrest.

And on November 3, 2022, the Moscow City Court released other defendants from custody: Marina Rakova, former heads of the Foundation for New Forms of Development of Education Maxim Inkin and Yevgeny Zak, executive director of Shaninka Kristina Kryuchkova, one of the leaders of the Foundation for New Forms of Development of Education and Rakova’s roommate Artur Stetsenko. They served the maximum one-year term in custody during the investigation. They, as well as Sergei Zuev, were mitigated by a ban on certain actions, which does not involve wearing an electronic bracelet and allows you to leave the apartment from 6 am to 10 pm. One of the last detainees, RANEPA Vice-Rector Ivan Fedotov, remained under house arrest.

Another figurant, director of the research laboratory for the development of the tax system at the RANEPA, Natalya Kornienko, was arrested in absentia, she was put on the wanted list.

During the investigation, Sergei Zuev pleaded guilty to the two episodes imputed to him. By August 2022, he had reimbursed the damage for 21 million rubles. By this time, Zuev himself had transferred 15.5 million rubles to the victims, another 5.5 million rubles – other defendants. Zuev’s lawyer declined to comment on what punishment could be imposed on his client, taking into account the admission of guilt and compensation for damages. Ruslan Kozhura also did not answer the radio station’s question about what punishment the defense would ask for the defendant. Rakova’s lawyer Vyacheslav Zhukovsky was unavailable for comment.

As a result, other defendants also gave confessions in the case. All of them face up to ten years in prison with or without a heavy fine.