The former head of the Chertanovo football academy was forced to leave the field by the court

The court found that in 2019-2020 he arranged registration to get more funding for the school. His actions were seen as fraud totaling 36.2 million rubles. He admitted guilt but disagreed with the fraud accusation, claiming it wasn't for personal gain.

The Zamoskvoretsky Court in Moscow sentenced Nikolai Larin, the academy's former director, to three years in prison in a penal colony. He was found guilty of embezzling more than 36.2 million rubles through fraud. After the sentence, he was taken into custody in the courtroom.

A number of people, including Larin's family, former students who became famous athletes, and their parents, came to support him at the last hearing. Only some of them could enter the small hall, so the rest had to wait in the corridor. The judge read the lengthy verdict while seated, which took three hours.

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Initially, the verdict was set to be announced on Monday, September 26, but Judge Larisa Semenova postponed it to the following morning. However, the procedure was delayed for another day.

Before the verdict, the defendant admitted that he packed his things on Sunday, fearing a prison sentence. He shared his feelings with a radio station, expressing uncertainty about being mentally prepared. He believed he could still contribute to society.

Nikolai Larin, who led the Chertanovo football academy from 2008 to 2021, was charged with two counts of large-scale fraud totaling 12 million 184 thousand rubles and 24 million 27 thousand rubles. The charges were related to the allocation of budget funds in 2019-2020 for professional athletes, some of whom were no longer studying at the school but were still receiving funding. The academy received 36 million 211 thousand rubles illegally. Larin admitted to the fraud but claimed he didn't personally gain from it. He stated that he did it to provide decent support for the pupils and coaches of the club. He was under house arrest during the investigation and trial.

Business FM Nikolai Larin explained why he had to confess his guilt.

At the end of 2020, during a meeting with officials from the Moscow Sports Committee on Zoom, I directly brought up the issue that the school was facing problems due to lack of funding, and I had to handle the registration. Essentially, I was the first to identify the problem. Subsequently, the prosecutor's office became interested and conducted an inspection. It would have been unwise for me to deny it, so I confessed immediately. At the time, I did not realize that my confession could be considered fraud on a large scale under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The coach stated that the current federal funding standards did not allow for providing adequate salaries to coaches. Consequently, in order to pay them a decent salary, particularly in Moscow, I had to increase the number of students. Larin pointed out that for effective coaching, the coach had to work with 10-15 athletes, while the current standards required a group of a hundred people. There were also demands for money to arrange employment contracts with athletes for professional competitions, which was not covered by state subsidies. These subsidies only provided 600-700 thousand rubles per year for an athlete of the highest caliber. This amount had to cover the wages of coaches, cleaners, educators, doctors, drivers, and other staff. However, the average salary of just one such player was about 200 thousand rubles per month.

Larin acknowledges that after the criminal case was opened, the issue with the school's financing was resolved as others started to allocate funds. The defendant attributed this to the attention and publicity following his case.

During the trial, a number of Spartak players, as well as players from other teams in the Russian Premier League, testified in his favor. They praised Nikolai Larin's coaching and personal qualities. Former students also paid 16 million rubles to settle the claim of the Moscow Sports Committee for 36.2 million rubles during the proceedings.

Nikolai Larin sees nothing surprising in the fact that the students supported him. "Firstly, they do it from the bottom of their hearts, and secondly, at school we always taught the guys not only football, but also to be decent people. When you treat people like family for a long time, then, consequently, your family treats you the same way. If all of humanity lived the same way, the whole world would be better," Larin said.

During the argument, the prosecutor requested a sentence of four years and four months in a penal colony. Conversely, the defendant's lawyer, Maria Eismont, urged for a non-custodial sentence for her client.

She suggested reclassifying her client's actions from Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on a large scale, carrying a potential ten-year prison sentence) to Part 2 of Article 285.1 (misuse of budget funds on a large scale). Unlike the former, this article allows for the imposition of a fine or forced labor.

However, the judge did not agree to this. She considered that the defendant committed fraud using his official position, “stealing funds belonging to the budget of the city of Moscow” and deceiving employees of the sports department.

In her verdict, she indicated that the defendant pleaded guilty in part. “He stated that he had no mercenary motive, since he did not spend money on himself, but spent it on the Chertanovo sports boarding school, on equipment, took athletes abroad,” Judge Larisa Semenova read out the testimony of the defendant. However, she regarded them as “a way of implementing the defense and the desire to avoid responsibility for what they have done.” At the same time, the judge did not accept the numerous testimonies of defense witnesses, who said that the director of the football academy spent a lot of time at school, knew each child personally by name, and with his arrival at the position, the school began to develop, collections from parents stopped, children were free began to provide equipment, take them to tournaments abroad and provide qualified medical care, including abroad.

“The court is critical of these testimonies, since the witnesses do not know anything about the theft,” the judge came to this conclusion. She satisfied the claim of Moskomsport for damages for 20 million 211 thousand rubles.

Despite the confession and partial reparation to the defendants for damages, which the judge attributed to extenuating circumstances, she did not find grounds for assigning a suspended sentence to the coach. As soon as the punishment was over, handcuffs snapped behind his back. Larin’s lawyers, Maria Eismont and Alexander Bozunov, said they did not agree with the verdict and intended to appeal against it. They called it “unfair”.