In the Volgograd region, another verdict was passed in a criminal case on fraud in the execution of contracts for the elimination of unauthorized dumps in the Sredneakhtubinsky district.
The Krasnooktyabrsky District Court of Volgograd found Vitaly Sazonov, former chairman of the Committee for Natural Resources of the Volgograd Region, guilty of abuse of office. The court acknowledged that he had signed documents on the implementation of work on the elimination of landfills, although they were not made. Earlier, the director of the contractor company and the head of the state institution that ordered the work were already convicted.
The Krasnooktyabrsky District Court of Volgograd sentenced Vitaly Sazonov, the former chairman of the Committee for Natural Resources of the Volgograd Region, to three years in a penal colony. He was accused of exceeding official powers (part 2 of article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) when signing the act of work performed to eliminate landfills in the Sredneakhtubinsky district of the Volgograd region in 2018. Also, Mr. Sazonov is prohibited from holding positions in the civil service for two years.
The contract for the elimination of 18 unauthorized dumps between the Volgograd State Institution “Directorate of Water Management Construction” and LLC “Greenlight” was signed as part of the implementation of the regional project “Clean Country” in August 2018. The work was to be carried out in the Sredneakhtubinsky district of the Volgograd region. The amount of the contract for the elimination of landfills amounted to 455 million rubles.
After some time, the director of Greenlight LLC, Alexander Firsov, realized that he would not be able to fulfill the contract and suggested that the director of the DVS GKU, Mikhail Sitnikov, create the appearance of successful fulfillment of the contract, bury the unremoved waste in the same landfills and cover them with soil. Mr. Firsov allegedly promised to fully fulfill the contract later. The head of the GKU agreed to such conditions.
According to the court decision, Mikhail Sitnikov and the director of Greenlight, Alexander Firsov, misled Vitaly Sazonov, head of the Committee for Natural Resources, Forestry and Ecology of the Volgograd Region, regarding the full performance of the contract. Vitaly Sazonov, “wishing to receive a positive assessment of his professional qualities, as well as other official privileges” for the timely implementation of the project and the effective development of budgetary funds, agreed to the proposal. In December 2018, Mr. Sazonov instructed the director of the GKU VO “DVS” to accept from LLC “Greenlight” the work provided for by the state contract, including the actually unfulfilled.
As a result, the GKU VO “DVS” made an unreasonable payment to LLC “Greenlight” for the actually unfulfilled work in the amount of 121.4 million rubles.
Vitaly Sazonov fully pleaded guilty, whether he will appeal the verdict is still unknown.
The investigators believe that the organizer of the scheme is the entrepreneur and technical director of Greenlight LLC Mikhail Kalonkin, who is familiar with all the defendants in the case. He is accused of complicity in fraud (part 3 of article 33, part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). After the initiation of the case, he fled from the investigation, was put on the international wanted list, and then arrested for two months from the moment of actual detention. Mr. Kalonkin was detained at the beginning of July this year. The criminal case against him is still being investigated, he is in custody.
Alexander Firsov was arrested immediately after the initiation of a criminal case. He pleaded guilty, entered into a pre-trial agreement, and on January 11 of this year was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. Also, the amount of damage in the amount of 102.19 million rubles was recovered from him in favor of the Committee of Natural Resources, Forestry and Ecology of the Volgograd Region.
Mikhail Sitnikov, director of the regional GKU “Directorate of Water Construction”, was arrested in early February last year. He also pleaded guilty and entered into a pre-trial agreement; in November last year, he was sentenced to a year and a half in a colony-settlement.