Former slalom skier Novikov managed to go around the TFR on a bend

The Investigative Committee of Russia has completed an investigation into the criminal case of a well-known St. Petersburg businessman, owner of Rosengineering company Dmitry Novikov and CEO of North-West Engineering (SZI) Maxim Gorelov. Previously, they were accused of fraudulently embezzling 857.5 million rubles allocated for the overhaul and modernization of Ladoga Vodovod, however, in the final version, Mr. Gorelov was accused of embezzling this amount, and Mr. Novikov, who concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement and repaid the damage, – in aiding this crime. Meanwhile, the Moscow City Court ordered both defendants to be banned from certain actions instead of house arrest, which the investigation insisted on.

According to Kommersant’s sources, the ICR has completed the investigation of the case against Dmitry Novikov and Maxim Gorelov, and they, together with their lawyers, are now getting acquainted with the materials collected by the investigation.

Recall that initially, in October 2021, both defendants were charged with fraudulent embezzlement of funds that were supposed to be used to repair and modernize the Ladoga Vodovod (Part 4, Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The Basmanny District Court of Moscow arrested them. The case is based on a concession agreement concluded in 2016 between the SZI and the administration of the Vsevolozhsky district of the Leningrad region. The concessionaire, according to the agreement, received the management of the municipal water supply system “Ladoga Vodovod” for 15 years. At the same time, he took upon himself the obligation to carry out major repairs and reconstruction of networks. However, as follows from the case file, the agreement was not fulfilled, even despite the increase in June 2017 of tariffs for drinking and industrial water for local residents, which brought the company almost 900 million rubles. The concessionaire allocated only 38.4 million rubles for the modernization and repair of networks and infrastructure.

Meanwhile, by the end of the investigation, the ICR changed the qualification of the crimes imputed to the defendants.

Now Mr. Gorelov is accused of especially large embezzlement (part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and Mr. Novikov is accused of aiding this crime with instructions and advice (part 5 of article 33 and part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The victim in the case has also changed: instead of the administration of the Vsevolozhsk district, he was recognized as the company “North-West Engineering”, the actual owner of which, according to the investigation, is Dmitry Novikov. The amount of damage in the case remained the same – 857.5 million rubles. While the investigation was ongoing, the defendants extinguished it. In addition, according to Kommersant, at the final stage of investigative actions, Mr. Novikov entered into a pre-trial agreement on cooperation.

It is worth noting that at the end of last year, Dmitry Novikov, a former member of the USSR slalom team, was transferred from a pre-trial detention center to house arrest. Moreover, the mitigation of the measure of restraint, according to Kommersant, was associated not only with the expiration of the maximum one-year term of detention prescribed by law, but also with a sharp deterioration in the health of the accused. While in isolation, Dmitry Novikov suffered a heart attack, after which he recovered for a long time.

Recently, the ICR again applied to the Moscow City Court with a request to extend the businessman’s house arrest for another two months. At the court session, the investigator, substantiating his claim, referred, among other things, to the particular complexity of the investigation and the associated need for a large number of investigative actions and operational-search measures. The representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office supported the petition of the TFR.

In turn, the defense of Mr. Novikov, recalling that the investigative actions had already been completed, asked the city court to reject the petition and assign a ban on certain actions to his client. And the representative of the injured party did consider that Dmitry Novikov should not choose any measure of restraint.

As a result, the Moscow City Court rejected the petition of the investigation.

At the same time, the court drew attention to the red tape committed by the employees of the ICR during the acquaintance of the accused with the case materials: the case materials are presented to the defendant extremely rarely, and time “calculated in minutes” is given to familiarize themselves with them.

At the same time, Mr. Novikov himself does not interfere with familiarization, the court stressed.

As a result, Dmitry Novikov was assigned a ban on certain actions. He is prohibited from leaving his own house, located in the village of Toksovo near St. Petersburg, from 23:00 to 06:00, as well as communicating with any participants in the investigation, with the exception of lawyers and the investigator.

The court chose a similar measure of restraint for the general director of the North-West Engineering company, Maxim Gorelov.

Lawyers for the defendants did not comment on the results of the investigation.