Krasnogorsk City Court of the Moscow Region sentenced former deputy minister of culture Grigory Pirumov to nine years in prison in the case of embezzlement of budget funds, his lawyer Fedor Kupriyanov told RBC.
RBC sent a request to the court.
Pirumov served as First Deputy Minister of Culture in 2013–2015. The Ministry of Culture at that time headed Vladimir Medinsky.
Pirumov was charged under Art. 159 part 4 (fraud committed by an organized group of persons on an especially large scale); Art. 174.1 part 4 (laundering of funds acquired as a result of a crime with the same aggravating circumstances); Art. 210 part 3 (organization of a criminal community using one’s official position) of the Criminal Code. The case is related to embezzlement of funds allocated for the construction of a building for the Hermitage. In addition to Pirumov, owners and managers of commercial companies Nikita Kolesnikov, Oleg Grigor, Valery Rogov and Yulia Begeza pass through it. According to investigators, Pirumov created a criminal community to steal funds allocated for the reconstruction of the Hermitage together with the head of the property management department of the Ministry of Culture Boris Mazo. Last was in Austriabut last year was extradited to Russia and arrested. In February of this year, the Investigative Committee completed the investigation and handed over the case materials to Mazo for review.
Kommersant.ru, 02/10/2022, “Former official of the Ministry of Culture was given reading materials”: According to the representative of the investigative team, Boris Mazo cannot be at large during the period while he and his lawyers get acquainted with his 80-volume criminal case. If a different measure of restraint, not related to detention, is chosen, the accused, according to the investigation, may hide and continue to engage in criminal activities and put pressure on witnesses. As an argument, they cited the fact that Boris Mazo was already hiding abroad, where he asked for political asylum. […]
Recall, according to investigators, in 2015, former Deputy Minister of Culture Grigory Pirumov created a criminal group, which included several people, including Boris Mazo, as well as the head of the Rospan group of companies, Nikita Kolesnikov, who is engaged in the construction business. The purpose of the perpetrators, according to the investigation, was the theft of budgetary funds in the amount of more than 916 million rubles allocated for the construction of a complex of buildings and the Hermitage storage facility under a state contract concluded by the museum and MekhStroyTrans LLC, controlled by Nikita Kolesnikov. In 2015-2016, the investigation calculated, the criminal group managed to steal 800 million rubles. – Inset K.ru
Pirumov did not admit his guilt in the theft. The ex-deputy minister was detained in this case in May 2018, and in 2019 he was transferred to house arrest. In 2020, the ECtHR found it illegal to keep an official in custody. They concluded that the Moscow courts did not consider other preventive measures, suggesting that the suspect could interfere with the investigation, in the absence of evidence. As compensation, the ECtHR awarded Pirumov €1.7 thousand.
In 2017 Pirumova sentenced to one and a half years in prison on “cause of restorers” about the theft of more than 164 million rubles. He was released in the courtroom in connection with serving his term in custody and fined 300,000 rubles.