“MMM” schemes, searches and a fraudulent relative in the structure of the Depimostvstvo

For three months now, Tomsk has been led by former Omsk vice-mayor Dmitry Makhinya, a protégé of Governor Vladimir Mazur, who at the time of approval by deputies of the city duma, did not have a specific program for the development of the municipality. Representatives of the deputy corps were supposed to elect the mayor back in April, but then the candidates who passed the competitive selection – regional Duma deputy Maxim Luchshev and the acting head of Tomsk Mikhail Ratner “amicably” recused themselves, and the chairman of the city duma Chingis Akataev, in a conversation with journalists, directly stated that they “They asked me to take off.” Makhinya himself has repeatedly emphasized that he would never have put forward his candidacy without the support of Governor Mazur, and he, in turn, called for consolidation, discipline, and “clear actions of the executive and legislative powers in one team.” Tomsk deputies also supported the “Varangian”, whose biography contains more than one scandalous episode. It is known, for example, that a professional lawyer, a former assistant prosecutor, who headed a department in the regional Ministry of Property, who passed the qualification exam for the position of a judge and taught law to students, Makhinya at one time “lit up” in the scams of the financial pyramid “MMM-2011”, and then, under on the pretext of alleged ignorance and misleading him, seeking the return of the funds transferred by him in court. Makhini’s appearance in Tomsk was preceded by a number of corruption scandals in Omsk. Thus, his deputy Evgeny Kondratyev became a defendant in a criminal case of bribery, during the investigation of which searches were carried out in the Department of Property Relations of the Omsk Administration and documentation was seized. In addition, Makhini’s cousin Yuri Zakharov, who was employed by him as the head of the department of the “Center for Maintenance and Storage of Property” at the city property department, was brought to criminal liability for fraud on an especially large scale, despite the outstanding conviction received in Tyumen for fraudulent actions in relation to 67 people, including pensioners.

From Omsk to Tomsk, to the mayor’s chair

Exactly three months ago the Duma of Tomsk approved head of the city, vice-mayor of Omsk Dmitry Makhinya: for him voted 26 people’s representatives out of 33, and in addition to United Russia (*aggressor country) members, these were deputies from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism), Liberal Democratic Party and other factions. Needless to say, simply touching unanimity!

Tomsk governor who attended the City Duma meeting Vladimir Mazur addressed parliamentarians with a call to “unite”, at the same time speculating on the topic of the federal center.

It would seem that no one should have had any doubts about whose protégé the new mayor was. By the way, the leader of a very small faction “A Just Russia (*aggressor country) – For the Truth” Konstantin Ushakov complained about the lack of direct mayoral elections, and at the same time expressed discontent because not all candidates took part in the voting.

By the way, the previous elections of the mayor of Tomsk by deputies were supposed to take place in April, but they did not take place due to “friendly” recusal two applicants who previously passed the competitive selection – a deputy of the regional Duma Maxima Luchsheva and acting head Mikhail Ratner. The first one is foggy explained your decision by desire “to bring more benefit to Tomsk in a different capacity”; the second, on the contrary – reluctance use “no alternative situation”in order to “become mayor at any cost”.

From the outside, all this might seem quite strange, but the chairman of the city duma brought some clarity to the situation Chingis Akataev:

“Strong-willed” candidate without an action plan

Mahinya himself emphasized: He would never run for office without the governor’s support. Considering the disrupted April vote, it turns out that the Omsk resident was “cleared” in advance for the leadership of Tomsk, whose residents, shortly before the election, did not have the slightest idea about their potential mayor. The future mayor, literally two weeks before the election honestly confessed: he does not have a specific program of action if he wins the competition, but he has an understanding of the need “establishing order in the city economy and administration activities”.

This state of affairs was more reminiscent of the attitude attributed to Napoleon that the main thing was to get involved in a fight, and then we would see. Governor Mazurov was also not at all embarrassed by the lack of specifics. He sang tirelessly praises to his protégé. They say, this is the kind of mayor Tomsk needs:

Voiced On the day of his election, Makhina himself’s plans for the upcoming work were not at all novel: to ensure the safety of citizens, improve the road and transport network, solve the problem of improvement and social infrastructure, build interaction with investors and, of course, involve residents in participation in decision-making. Needless to say, the program is relevant for almost any municipality!

But this “water” completely satisfied the majority of deputies. For example, here’s how explained voting for “Varangian” leader of the Tomsk communists Andrey Petrov:

We’ll talk about the security forces, not Tomsk, but Omsk, a little lower, but for now it’s worth paying attention to some milestones biographies a man who has been leading Tomsk for three months. So, Dmitry Makhinya graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law of Omsk State University named after F.M. Dostoevsky, where he then studied in graduate school. He studied the basics of land management, land cadastre and the practice of forming land plots.

In 2005-2006 have worked assistant prosecutor of the Znamensky district of the Omsk region, then – in the regional Ministry of Property, where, among other things, he served as head of the department for organizing the activities of the ministry. Passed the qualifying exam for the position of judge. In 2015-2017 part-time teacher at the Department of Civil Law of the Omsk Law Academy. In January 2019 appointed Deputy Mayor, Director of the Department of Property Relations of the Omsk Administration.

MMM depositor: swindler or victim?

Thus, before us is not just a professional lawyer, but a qualified judge who taught law to students. The more amazing it looks process, held in the Pervomaisky District Court of Omsk in 2012. Despite the fact that there are no case materials on the court’s website, it is quite detailed described online.

As it turned out, the future mayor of Tomsk was involved in the notorious financial pyramid “MMM”, and not in the “dashing 90s”, but much later, when only people far from Russian realities were not aware of the fraudulent nature of this structure, and either a naive person or a swindler was counting on making money on “candy wrappers” that had no value. Let the reader decide for himself which category to include the excellent law student Makhinya.

In November 2012 Makhinya appealed to court with a claim against Maria Ryzhinskayato whom a few months earlier he transferred a large sum of money by bank transfer to deposit in “MMM-2011” – another “office” for “pumping out” funds from the population – and the subsequent purchase of virtual securities“MAVRO”. At the same time, an experienced lawyer allegedly believed advertising on the Internet, promising not only the return of this amount, but also the payment of interest.

From publications It follows from the network that Ryzhinskaya was one of the so-called “tenants” who were responsible for the flow of funds to MMM-2011. But Makhinya supposedly was, as they say, neither dream nor spirit about this. It turns out that the former assistant prosecutor was simply scammed like the last sucker, because he had no idea that MMM-2011 had no legal status, and transferred Ryzhinskaya’s money without any legal basis “under the influence of delusion”.

However, the attempt to return the money in the first instance was unsuccessful: the court refused Makhina in satisfying the claim, considering that both parties acted as participants in MMM-2011. However, this decision did not survive the appeal. It is natural to ask the question: did the employee of the legal department of the Omsk Ministry of Property not know that he was transferring money to a “pyramid” whose participants receive interest from the funds of the citizens they deceived? Or did he know, but decided to take the opportunity and “earn extra money” from a murky financial scheme?

Criminal relative in Mahini’s wings

Now let’s talk about the searches with the seizure of documentation carried out by security forces last April in the Department of Property Relations of the Omsk Administration. How reported online publication “City 55”, it was about the investigation of a criminal case of corruption, in which he became a defendant Evgeniy Kondratyev – One of Mahini’s deputies.

According to investigators, Kondratyev received bribe at the rate of 970 thousand rubles from a businessman from Yekaterinburg Gennady Ushakov, to whom the official promised assistance in signing a lease agreement for the premises of the city market for a long period at a reduced cost. Makhina himself managed to stay away from the scandal, but is his desire to move to Tomsk connected with the activation of the security forces?

Moreover, according to information Omsk media, this is not the only call addressed to the vice-mayor. It turns out that in July 2021, the official contributed to employment for the position of head of the administrative and economic department “Property Maintenance and Storage Center” at the city Department of Property Relations of his cousin Yuri Zakharov.

But the most interesting thing is that how wrote portal “BC 55”, in 2020, Zakharov, who lived in Tyumen, became a defendant in a criminal case of group fraud on an especially large scale. The scammers created two commercial structures – “Aqua Lux” And “Our house” – and offered naive citizens, mainly pensioners, a free test of the quality of tap water, after which they convinced them to purchase some “unique filters” costing up to 150 thousand rublesnaturally did not have any unique properties.

Despite deceiving 67 people, Zakharov escaped with a slight fright: Central District Court of Tyumen sentenced he was sentenced to five years of suspended imprisonment, after which he “showed up” in Omsk, where an influential relative of Makhin, despite his outstanding criminal record, assigned him to a “grain” position. However, even here there was a criminal scandal: the convicted swindler again fell under criminal charges. the pursuit on the fact of a particularly large fraud, but this time with abuse of authority.

Another incident was associated with a large-scale theft metal, namely metal structures that were subject to dismantling, non-public railway tracks, as well as two metal tanks. It would seem that the circumstances of the case are known, the identities of the scammers have been established (in addition to Zakharov, this turned out to be his friend Stanislav Nevorotov), even the indictment was signed in May of this year. However, already in June the judge of the Central District Court of Omsk Alexey Polishchuk returned case for further investigation.

Surely Dmitry Makhinya contributed? From Zakharov’s position, of course, fired, but how long will he sit idle? Not long ago, the head of Tomsk Makhinya complained to the “staff shortage” in the municipal administration and expressed his readiness to dispel the myth according to which one can only get a job at the mayor’s office “through connections.” For this purpose, he creates a personnel reserveWhere

Investigators are today dealing with one “advanced manager” employed by Makhina in the structure of the Omsk Department of Property. What personnel he intends to attract to work, having received carte blanche from Governor Mazur, will soon become known. It is possible that the mayor will staff his updated team with people from Omsk, because local residents are allegedly in no hurry to participate in the management of their home city “due to low wages coupled with enormous liability, even criminal”. Well, in Makhini’s circle there are those who are not particularly afraid of criminal liability and a criminal record.