As it became known to Kommersant, the prosecutor’s office requested 15 years in prison for the former deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service for Finance, Oleg Korshunov, accused of embezzlement during the construction of a pre-trial detention center in Simferopol. He had previously been convicted twice on fraud charges in Moscow. At the same time, for the third time, the ex-official ended up in the dock after doctors diagnosed him with a serious illness that cannot be kept in a colony and pre-trial detention center, from where he spoke in the debate on the videoconferencing. Lawyers believe that the right of Oleg Korshunov and other defendants to defense was violated during the proceedings.
The judge of the Central District Court of Simferopol, Alexander Voronoi, who has been slowly considering the criminal case since the spring of last year, as noted by the participants in the proceedings, has recently accelerated sharply. This happened after the decree of President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Voronoi was appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court of Crimea, whose position he will take from mid-April. Obviously, in order to be in time for this date, the presiding judge, curtailing the presentation of evidence by the defense, announced the beginning of the debate of the parties.
The defense of the defendants and the defendants themselves protested, but the prosecution called for the completion of the process. During the debate, the prosecutor said that the guilt of the former deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service for financial and logistics issues Oleg Korshunov, the ex-head of SU-23 Valery Kaklyugin and businessman Andrey Uglanov in the fraud incriminated by them on a large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code), as well as laundering (Article 174 of the Criminal Code – only the latter is accused) has been fully proven.
According to investigators, back in 2015, Oleg Korshunov, then deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, entered into a criminal conspiracy with Valery Kaklyugin and Andrei Uglanov aimed at embezzling budget funds allocated for the construction of a pre-trial detention center for 366 places. The departmental SU-23 was supposed to be built in Simferopol by 2016 within the framework of the federal target program “Development of the Russian Penitentiary System”.
However, Oleg Korshunov, according to the prosecution, lobbied for the inclusion of the Unistroy company among the co-executors of the project. She did not complete the prison, but about 94 million rubles allocated for the project were stolen.
Maya Gagua, General Director of Unistroy, who admitted her guilt, was sentenced to four and a half years probation by the same Central District Court in a special order.
For Oleg Korshunov, given his two previous convictions, the state prosecutor requested 15 years of general regime. Recall that earlier, by the verdicts of the Zamoskvoretsky and Gagarinsky district courts, he was sentenced to nine and seven years, respectively, for fraud of 150 million rubles. when purchasing sugar and fuels and lubricants, as well as 263 million rubles. in the production of footwear for the needs of the Federal Penitentiary Service. By the decision of the Central District Court of Kaliningrad, where the former rear guard was sent to serve his sentence, by partial addition of terms, a total of 12 years in prison, a fine of 900 thousand rubles were determined, and it was also forbidden for three years after serving the sentence to hold leadership positions in civil service.
For other defendants, Kaklyugin and Uglanov, the prosecution requested seven and eight years.
A large amount was collected from Oleg Korshunov and two of his accomplices in the case of embezzlement
All of them, in response, demanded a verdict of not guilty, noting, in particular, that not only did they not steal money from the prison system, but it owed Unistroy more than 20 million rubles. for the work done. The corresponding decision of the arbitration, which recovered the debt in favor of the builders of the prison, became one of the proofs of their innocence. And the Federal Penitentiary Service, executing this decision, transferred the required amount to the contractor.
Oleg Korshunov spoke in the debate from the medical unit of the old Simferopol isolation ward via video link. As his lawyer Sergei Starovoitov noted to Kommersant, this is the first time he has encountered such a practice in court.
The defense suggested postponing the debate to allow the parties to prepare for it, and for the main defendant to recover in order to speak in the courtroom, but the judge considered that the video session would solve all problems.
The defender recalled that Oleg Korshunov was diagnosed with a disease included in the government list, with which he should have been free for a long time, but several courts refused to change the preventive measure. As a result, the defense, appealing against these decisions, reached the Supreme Court.
“If the verdict, which the judge is due on April 5, is guilty, it will also be appealed, including in connection with the violation of the defendants’ right to a full-fledged defense,” Starovoitov’s lawyer said.