Former vice speaker of the Voronezh City Duma, 50 years old Alexey Pinigin found guilty of fraud, he was sentenced to two years in a general regime colony and a fine of 300 thousand for defrauding the head of a contractor company for the construction of a school in the Gribanovsky district by 9.2 million rubles. The ex-deputy prepared for the real sentence by collecting a bag with the belongings and book of a former prisoner of a Nazi concentration camp, and stated that he would not appeal the verdict.
On September 27, the Leninsky District Court of Voronezh completed its consideration of the high-profile criminal case of Alexey Pinigin. Judge Marina Siukhina found him guilty of fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced the former vice-speaker of the Voronezh City Duma to two years in a general regime colony with a fine of 300 thousand rubles.
According to Kommersant, Pinigin was found guilty of stealing 9.2 million rubles in 2018 from Andrei Matveev, head of KM-Stroy LLC (51% owned by the head of the Motor Land dealer group, Evgeniy Katyushkin). In exchange for money, being a deputy, he offered to provide assistance in the smooth acceptance of work performed under a municipal contract in the Gribanovsky district by transferring bribes to regional government officials. Pinigin, who did not have the opportunity to fulfill his promise, disposed of the reward at his own discretion.
“Notebook Voronezh”, 09/27/2023, “A sentence was passed on ex-city Duma deputy Alexei Pinigin in Voronezh”: The then deputy allegedly said that the money would be used for bribes.
“The misled director of the company, fearing negative consequences for himself, in the period from August to September 2018, transferred to the convicted person in cash and by transfer to the accounts of organizations controlled by him the required amount of money, which the defendant disposed of at his own discretion,” noted the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Voronezh region. As the department established, in the end Pinigin received 2 million rubles in cash, and the remaining 5.7 million rubles went to the accounts of companies affiliated with him. — Insert K.ru
The regional investigative department opened a criminal case against Pinigin at the beginning of 2022. The investigation was completed a year later. But while it was going on, Pinigin resigned as a deputy and left the cadastral valuation center, subduing the regional department of property and land relations, which he headed by decision of the governor Alexandra Guseva from the beginning of 2020. After his arrest, he admitted guilt, and United Russia suspended his membership in the party. Recently, Pinigin worked as an expert on registration of land legal relations in one company.
Alexey Pinigin’s last word in the Leninsky District Court turned out to be short.
To quote: “I understand certain motives that prompted me to take the actions discussed. But none of them, of course, can justify the consequences to which they led. I sincerely regret what happened and fully admit the accusation. Please take into account that before the crime and for five years after I had no misconduct or illegal actions. Given my state of health, I believe that I do not pose a threat to society. I have something to think about.”
Apparently, Alexey Pinigin was expecting a real deadline, since he arrived at the Leninsky District Court building with a large bag. There were things there and a book by Austrian psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, a German concentration camp survivor, “Man’s Search for Meaning.”
The prosecutor’s office asked the court to sentence Pinigin to four years in a general regime colony.
Judge Marina Siukhina was in the deliberation room for two hours. Alexey Pinigin returned to the announcement of the verdict without his lawyer Vera Belkina. He had glasses and a passport with him. After the verdict was announced, he was immediately taken into custody.
However, before leaving the courtroom, Pinigin admitted that he did not intend to appeal the verdict. He will be placed in the first pre-trial detention center in the center of Voronezh, located next to the second colony. According to the text of the sentence, the former vice-speaker of the Voronezh City Duma will be credited with a little less than five months under house arrest and the month he spent under a ban on certain actions. Thus, Pinigin will be able to apply for the replacement of the unserved part of his sentence with forced labor in six months. Until the execution of the fine, the court retained the seizure of the car, trailer and garage belonging to Pinigin.
“The amount and the punishment, of course, are incomparable,” he noted, commenting on the verdict against Alexey Pinigin, Telegram channel “Globe of the Voronezh Region”. — In other corruption cases, the terms can be much more impressive. Just ask the former vice-mayor of Voronezh Alexey Antilikatorov. But Pinigin’s sentence fits well into the general parliamentary context. The former first vice-speaker of the Voronezh City Duma received (and has already served) the same two years Alexander Provotorov, ex-deputy Sergei Kudryavtsev will have to serve twice as long. All of them are united by one article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – “Fraud”. And belonging to the Voronezh parliament.
Apparently, Themis considers deputies to be not as brutally corrupt as officials, so for similar violations it gives them a much shorter sentence. And here, by the way, lies an opportunity for Pinigin’s other colleague in the Voronezh City Duma, albeit active and not convicted, Romana Zhogova. They are trying to sell him some change, but if the judicial machine turns out to be consistent, then the punishment may be suspended. Or it may not happen at all – if the criminal case falls apart during the trial.
The problem is that the state machine often lacks consistency in principle. And the court is only one of its units. Although perhaps the most important.” […]
