Former Judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court Elena Kondrat spend nine years in prison. The Moscow City Court found the infamous wife of the country’s ex-deputy prosecutor general Ivan Kondrat guilty of mediation in the transfer of a bribe. Kondrat was also fined 77.9 million rubles, which is three times less than the prosecutor asked. Also, she will not be able to hold positions in the courts for five years. Previously, the defendant in the case became famous for running away from the investigation right before arrest and was put on the wanted list.
Resolved the issue
The Moscow City Court on July 27 delivered a sentence to the former judge of the Moscow Arbitration Court Elena Kondrat. She was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony and a fine of 77.9 million rubles.
The prosecutor asked for 11.5 years in prison for the ex-judge and a fine of 253.4 million rubles. The state prosecution also demanded that Kondrat be banned from holding positions in the judicial system for a period of six years. But the sentence was softer.
Legal.Report, 27.07.2023, “ASGM judge sentenced in case of bribery in a Chanel box”: The court also decided to store, in the places determined during the preliminary investigation, material evidence in the form of the Law and Arbitration Practice for Lawyers magazine for 2019 with attached sheets and hundred dollar bills in a cardboard box with the inscription Chanel – until the issue of criminal prosecution is resolved responsibility of persons, the criminal case in respect of which is separated into a separate proceeding.
In addition, the court canceled the arrest of property belonging to Kondrat in the form of 1/3 of the common shared ownership in an apartment in Protopopovsky Lane (Central Administrative District of Moscow) with a total area of 118.2 sq. m. – Inset K.ru
According to investigators, in 2020, Elena Kondrat proposed to her colleague, the current arbitration judge Elena Makhalkina, to strike out several individuals who were brought to subsidiary liability from the bankruptcy case of the Transport Construction Supply Department. The conversation took place in a restaurant, Kondrat told a colleague that people who were ready to pay $ 50,000 for a “service” turned to her.
After that, Kondrat regularly called and met with Makhalkina so that she would make the “right” decision. However, Makhalkina turned to law enforcement agencies, and further communication of women took place under the control of the FSB officers – during the transfer of money, Kondrat was detained.
BFM.ru, 07/27/2023, “The Moscow City Court sentenced the ex-judge of the capital arbitration Kondrat to nine years in prison”: In court, Elena Kondrat presented this version. She said that in June 2020, Makhalkina asked her if it was possible to help her close friend Anna Goloshumova. At that moment, Kondrat was in the process of arbitrating the bankruptcy of Unipol LLC, whose bankruptcy trustee for a certain period of time was Goloshumova. In 2018, Kondrat issued a decision by which she recognized Goloshumova’s actions as a bankruptcy trustee as illegal, she was removed from her duties as a bankruptcy trustee.
After that, one of the creditors filed a lawsuit to recover more than 2 billion rubles from Goloshumova as damages. “Goloshumova, knowing that Makhalkina had worked for Kondrat for a long time as an assistant, and realizing that a certain relationship had developed between them, turned to Makhalkina for help,” lawyer Maxim Pashkov explained the client’s position. “Kondrat refused to help Makhalkina and Goloshumova, moreover, on June 17, 2020, she made a decision to recover from the latter more than 2 billion rubles in losses that Goloshumova caused creditors with her illegal actions.”
According to the defender, realizing that she should not expect help from Kondrat in this matter, Makhalkina began to look for those people who, for a bribe, would help her cancel Kondrat’s decision in higher courts. She did not contact a certain Ullubiy Medzhidov, through whom she offered Goloshumova to solve her problem. “However, Goloshumova filed a complaint with law enforcement agencies, who detained Makhalkina, as they say, red-handed,” says the defender. He noted that the materials against the federal judge were shelved by law enforcement officers for the obligation to cooperate with them. According to the defender, after that, Makhalkina began to negotiate with Medzhidov, in the same way as in the case of Kondrat, writing them down on the phone. She then took an “active part in his denunciation and detention.” — Inset K.ru
Like all judges, Elena Kondrat had immunity, so a criminal case on mediation in bribery was initiated against her after a personal appeal by the chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin to the High Qualifications Board of Judges.
In 2022, Kondrat was stripped of her judicial powers, and in March she resigned. At the same time, the investigation applied to the Supreme Court for permission to arrest. The investigator insisted that the ex-judge could put pressure on witnesses and hide from the investigation, as had already happened once on the eve of her arrest.
In early April 2022, almost before the decision to arrest, Kondrat ordered a premium taxi to her house in the Dmitrovsky district of the Moscow region and moved towards Chechnya, a law enforcement source told Izvestia. At the same time, the investigators did not warn about the trip.
“A signal came from Chechnya to Moscow that Elena Kondrat, who is under investigation, is trying to change her surname to Svetlana Khondrat,” the source of the publication specified. – In the future, she was going to leave Russia.
Kondrat was immediately put on the wanted list, and upon arrival in the capital was sent to a pre-trial detention center. At the meeting on the choice of a preventive measure, she tried to convince the judge that she was going to Grozny to rest in a sanatorium. But of the things with her, she only had a small bag with documents and clothes.
son for mother
Kondrat’s son, Nikolai, is also in the pre-trial detention center. His case of contract killing and several preparations for them is partly connected with the case of his mother. The man is accused, in particular, of planning the murder of Elena Makhalkina in October 2020, who, in his opinion, framed her mother. According to the IC, he attached a GPS tracker to the woman’s car and wanted to shoot her with a crossbow near the house.
According to investigators, Nikolai Kondrat wanted to kill two more businessmen. In addition, he is suspected of organizing the murder of his driver, whom he suspected of collaborating with the FSB. The defendant pleaded not guilty.
Elena Kondrat insists that her criminal prosecution is connected with “refusal to comply with the illegal requirements of the leadership of the capital’s arbitration.” The UK announced “active opposition from the figurant and her defenders.”
“During the investigation of the criminal case, Kondrat evaded conducting investigative actions, did not appear before the investigator,” the Investigative Committee reported.
The defendant came to the announcement of the verdict in a long green dress, talking with a lawyer, she smiled. The mother of Elena Kondrat left the courthouse in a depressed state.
“My daughter had a case in which she returned 26 billion rubles to Russia,” she told Izvestia. In her opinion, this was objectionable to the higher leadership of Elena.
Elena Kondrat’s lawyer Maxim Pashkov told Izvestia that he would appeal the verdict. He noted that Judge Makhalkina worked as an assistant to his client for ten years, and hinted at personal scores between the women. Makhalkina took part in “a combination of planting her teacher,” he believes.
The audio recording of the conversation between the two judges, from the point of view of the lawyer, completely contradicts the testimony of Makhalkina in the case. The defender called the accusations against Elena’s son about the desire to kill the judge with a crossbow “fabulously absurd” and made it clear that his case is being investigated as unfairly as the mother’s case.
Mild sentence
The case of Elena Kondrat went to court at the end of May this year and was considered in just two months. This is unusually fast for such a complex and controversial case, Igor Bushmanov, an honorary lawyer of the Moscow Region Administration, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, told Izvestia.
– But the sentence can be considered mild – with no admission of guilt and the absence of extenuating circumstances, they usually give more. According to part 4 of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation threatened her with seven to 12 years, the lawyer said.
Judges have the opportunity to influence the outcome of a criminal or arbitration case, lawyer Aleksey Gavrishev noted. He also noted that there are many approaches to interpreting the law and all of them can be legal. Therefore, each judge can have his own motivated and reasoned opinion, for which you cannot be held accountable, the lawyer said.
He added that according to the Constitution, everyone is equal in the face of justice, and judges do not have special privileges to get out on parole. Therefore, Elena Kondrat will be able to go free like everyone else – after two-thirds of the time served.