The Moscow City Court upheld the guilty verdict against Ukrainian businessman Pavlo Klimts, who had earlier received a nine-year sentence in a strict regime colony by a district court for attempting to bribe Russian judges and security officials to lift the arrest of the Bakhchisaray Crimean wine and cognac factory he owned.
The defense of the ex-deputy of the Verkhovna Rada insisted on the innocence of his principal, arguing that he himself became a victim of fraudsters who presented themselves as lawyers, and he wanted to resolve all contentious issues exclusively by legal methods within the legal framework. Now the defense intends to present the same arguments to the court of cassation, although the 54-year-old multimillionaire himself will most likely go to prison in the near future.
According to Kommersant, the consideration of complaints from Pavel Klimts, convicted last summer by the Presnensky District Court of the capital, and the manager of one of his business structures, Yulia Samoilova, and an entrepreneur with a passport of Ukraine, Andrey Grokholsky, who were with him in the case, began right on schedule . It is worth noting that the defendants themselves in the high-profile case were not taken from the pre-trial detention center to the meeting where their fate was decided, but they participated in it by means of a conference call.
It is interesting that, according to Kommersant’s sources in power structures, the multimillionaire has traveled quite a long way through the capital’s detention centers in the three years since his arrest in April 2019.
Initially, he was placed in SIZO-2, colloquially referred to as “Butyrka”, from where he was later transferred to the special unit of “Matrosskaya Tishina”, which is considered elite. And not only by the rank of prisoners, but also by the conditions of detention, for which he received the unofficial name “Kremlin Central”. However, he watched the consideration of his appeal on TV already from the “people’s” SIZO-3, known as “Presnya”, or “Presnenskaya perepyazka”, where he was transferred last fall shortly after the conviction.
The meeting itself took a little over four hours. The lawyers of all those convicted insisted on the injustice and groundlessness of the verdict, asking for it to be cancelled. Recall that Pavel Klimets himself, as Kommersant reported, received, by decision of the Presnensky Court, for attempted bribery on an especially large scale (Article 30 and part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) nine years in a strict regime colony, found guilty of attempted mediation in bribery (part 3 of article 30 and part 4 of article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) Yulia Samoilova – eight years of the general regime, and Andrey Grokholsky – five years of the general regime for especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code RF).
As a result, the Moscow City Court on Tuesday approved these terms, making only a small “discount” of three months for Mrs. Samoilova.
One of the lawyers of Pavel Klimts, Talgat Suindykov, briefly told Kommersant that he did not agree with the decision of the appellate instance. “My colleagues and lawyers of other convicts and I intend to continue the fight and will file a cassation complaint in the near future,” the defender said. It is worth noting that in this case it is more likely that we are talking about Pavel Klimts and Yulia Samoilova, who received the longest sentences, while Mr. Groholsky may already try to apply for parole in the very near future, taking into account the time served in the pre-trial detention center, which is counted in his case. like a day and a half.
Meanwhile, the remaining two convicts, since the verdict has entered into force, can prepare for transfer to a new place of residence in one of the colonies of the Federal Penitentiary Service. However, according to some reports, such a prospect does not scare Mr. Klimets himself. And he even took the move from the elite pre-trial detention center to the “ordinary” one quite calmly, even if not with joy, because after a long break he got the opportunity to communicate more, albeit with the “special contingent”.
Recall that, as Kommersant was told, Pavel Klimets was detained in the capital by operatives of the “K” department of the FSB SEB and the UEBiPK of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow in April 2019. The TFR Department for the Central District of Moscow opened a criminal case and formally charged him and other defendants. At the same time, according to investigators, an attempt to give a bribe was made by Pavel Klimets back in 2017.
It is worth noting that a native of Donetsk once made a dizzying career, starting it from the position of a simple electrician at underground mine sinkers. Later, in the sphere of interests of a well-known Ukrainian multimillionaire businessman and deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, there was, among other things, the alcohol business, including the Bakhchisaray Crimean wine and cognac factory, which was part of his Olimp group. After the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the Federal Tax Service had claims to pay taxes to the treasury, which became the basis for initiating a criminal case. “In order to resolve a difficult judicial and investigative situation that aggravated the plant’s activities,” as stated in the TFR, Mr. Klimets decided, through his representative, Yulia Samoilova, to give bribes to “law enforcement officials of the Republic of Crimea.” At that moment, the well-known “fixer” Gor Chudopalov contacted him, who after the scandal broke out added a sonorous prefix to his surname – Normant. According to the ICR, Mr. Chudopalov “was misled by Grokholsky that he could solve the problems of Klimets by bribing law enforcement officials of the Republic of Crimea.”
The total amount of bribes was 20 million rubles, but only $80,000 of them were received, which ended up in the hands of Andrey Grokholsky, who was later recognized as an ordinary fraudster.
Pavel Klimets insisted on his innocence, claiming that he did not give any bribes, but handed over the money against receipt to Gor Chudopalov, since the latter presented himself as the head of a law office that promised to resolve the legal conflicts that arose at Bakhchisarai legally. By the way, Mr. Chudopalov himself, as it turned out, was previously one of the defendants in the scandalous process of the sale by fraudsters for large sums of the posts of deputy presidential envoy in the Southern Federal District and the post of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan.
In exchange for a confession, he was given a symbolic punishment and released in the courtroom, while the rest of the defendants received long prison terms. In the case of the Ukrainian millionaire, he, like Andrei Groholsky, confessed to everything. And for this, unlike him, he received the status of a witness.
The defense of Pavel Klimets believed that the investigation and the court of first instance ignored these circumstances, as well as the fact that Messrs. Chudopalov and Grokholsky allegedly imposed services on the Ukrainian millionaire themselves. In addition, they pointed to many inconsistencies in the criminal case, including the mistaken destruction by intelligence officers of audio recordings of negotiations about future bribes.
