For five years less than the state prosecution requested, the former prosecutor of the Ramensky urban district of the Moscow region, as well as the investigator for especially important cases of the TFR, Konstantin Tombulov, who was found guilty of bribery, racketeering and fraud, received. Nevertheless, he will have to serve 15 years, pay a multi-million dollar fine, and also pay other damages from corruption. Twelve accomplices of Konstantin Tombulov, including his friend, who actively cooperated with the investigation, were sentenced to terms ranging from 4.5 to 10 years. Most of them are going to appeal the court decision.
The judge of the Chekhov City Court, Irina Pantele, who during the course of the trial was appointed to the post of chairman of the Domodedovo City Court, but so far has not taken it, did not take much time to announce the verdict. In connection with the changes adopted in the legislation, she did not read her decision in full, focusing on its operative part.
Having shortened, according to the participants’ calculations, the final part of the proceedings from an announcement within three or four days to an hour, Ms. Pantela left the reasons for her decision unclear to the parties.
In general, the essence of the accusation has not changed, however, the terms she named differed significantly from those requested by the representative of the Prosecutor General’s Office. So, during the debate, which took place back in mid-December last year, the prosecutor requested 20 years in a strict regime colony for Konstantin Tombulov. A very significant period was formed from charges under several serious articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. For a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that the defendant be sentenced to 12 years and fined him 362 million rubles. For another, less large bribe (part 4 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the former law enforcement officer was threatened with a “ten”. His participation in especially large-scale embezzlement and fraud (part 4 of article 160 and part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was proposed by the prosecutor to be assessed in terms of eight years, but to stop criminal prosecution in terms of fraud due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. Mr. Tombulov could have received another 12 years on charges of organizing extortion on an especially large scale (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
In addition, it was proposed to deprive Konstantin Tombulov of the special ranks of senior counselor of justice, which he received while working in the prosecutor’s office, and colonel of justice – for his service in the TFR.
From October 2000 to April 2015 Konstantin Tombulov was an investigator of the Lyubertsy city prosecutor’s office, deputy prosecutor of this city and headed the Ramensky prosecutor’s office. From March to May 2017, he worked as an investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR in the Moscow Region, from May 2017 to November 2018, he worked as deputy head of the investigation department for Lyubertsy.
As a result, the judge appointed Konstantin Tombulov 15 years of hard labor and a fine of 273 million rubles. His criminal prosecution for fraud was terminated due to a non-rehabilitating circumstance, but at the same time she decided to satisfy the claim for 15 million rubles, which the Prosecutor General’s Office filed against him only for this crime.
In addition, the ex-prosecutor and investigator, who was stripped of his rank and title, will have to pay all the costs associated with corruption offenses on land seized from him and other members of the criminal group.
At the same time, Irina Pantela, for some reason, made a decision to maintain provisional measures for land plots and other assets (249 objects, estimated at almost 750 million rubles), confiscated at the beginning of last year by the Simonovsky District Court of Moscow at the suit of the Prosecutor General’s Office.
One of Konstantin Tombulov’s lawyers, Yevgeny Kronov, called the court decision in his client’s case “savagery”, noting that the former law enforcement officer is not charged with murder and treason, but in fact with malfeasance. “The verdict will be appealed without fail,” he stressed, noting that for this the defense has yet to carefully study the court decision, which it will receive only in a few days.
Obviously, complaints will follow from other convicts, for whom the state prosecution requested from 6 to 12 years, and the court appointed them from 4.5 to 10 years. It should be noted that among the convicts was a friend of Konstantin Tombulov, Anatoly Chernykh, for whom, according to the investigation, the former law enforcement officer registered real estate. After a conflict between them over a fitness center (qualified as extortion), Anatoly Chernykh, retaining the status of the accused, became a witness for the prosecution.
He was threatened with a ten-year term for participating in corruption at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office – the judge, having appointed the defendant five years for each of the two bribery episodes, and by partial addition of a six-year sentence, ordered Anatoly Chernykh to be taken into custody in the courtroom.
The ICR reported that Konstantin Tombulov began to conduct illegal activities while still holding the position of the Ramensky prosecutor. The investigation found that he, together with accomplices, developed a criminal plan aimed at illegal enrichment, and implemented it from 2009 to 2017.
The members of the organized crime group, forging documents, illegally obtained ownership of land in the Moscow region, and then sold them. It was this fraudulent episode in the case of Konstantin Tombulov that was terminated “because of the limitation.”
In addition, the TFR noted that the accomplices received real estate objects worth more than 60 million rubles as a bribe. Also, Tombulov, together with accomplices in 2017-2018, extorted a share in a fitness club with a market value of more than 28 million rubles. In addition, he organized the theft of the seized footwear products entrusted to his subordinate employee for a total of 50 million rubles. Representatives of the ICR added that two members of the organized criminal group were convicted earlier, four are now on trial, and another person is on the wanted list.
