A billion for kickbacks and bribes

Over the past year, law enforcement officers in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region have been catching bribe-takers, revealing that municipalities and deputies have stolen over a billion rubles. This is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are likely more involved.

To the investigator how to work

The employees of the Volkovskoye municipality in St. Petersburg are in trouble, possibly due to corruption involving a municipal deputy and the deputy head of the municipality.

You know, it’s probably not true that we are with you, but it’s a pity

On February 1, early in the morning, law enforcement came to a dozen apartments of municipal employees, seeking evidence of kickbacks related to Komsomol contributions. The deputy Savchenkov was previously detained for a bribe, and the deputy head of the municipality is also under investigation. The Investigative Committee is gathering testimony from other witnesses to the criminal scheme.

Throughout the fall of 2021, authorities frequently visited the administration of the Krasnoselsky district due to two complex criminal cases related to fraud in tenders for the improvement of the Gulf of Finland embankment and the allocation of funds for school repairs.

The autumn criminal story is not the first involving the administration of the Krasnoselsky district, as scandals with a criminal aspect seem to be a common occurrence here.

The head of the education department of the Krasnoselsky district is facing a criminal case for negligence in sending disabled children to a substandard boarding house instead of the promised Black Sea rest and treatment. The case is heading to court soon.

At the end of November 2021, another employee of the Krasnoselsky district administration was put on trial. Alexei Mironov, the former deputy head of the district administration, was found guilty of accepting a large bribe. He was sentenced to 5 years in a strict regime correctional colony and a fine of 10 million rubles for demanding kickbacks from a businessman in exchange for support in obtaining government contracts and general patronage. The businessman paid him a total of 9 million rubles.

To prison with the whole team

The operational-investigative group practically dismantled the administration of the Priozersky Leningrad Region for similar reasons. In spring 2021, Yuri Gerasev, the general director of the Priozersk Regional Services Agency, was sent to the pre-trial detention center. The Sledkom later detained Alexandra Polyanskaya, the deputy head of the administration of the Priozersky district of the Leningrad region, after searching the agency. Then they interrogated Natalya Glumilina, the former deputy head of the Priozersky district for housing and communal services. A certain contractor received approximately 15-19 million rubles for work that was never performed.

The arrests and interrogations were the result of the detention of Vladimir Polishchuk, deputy head of the administration of the Priozersky district, which raised many questions from the authorities. This led to the detainment of Sergey Galushko, a member of the Council of Deputies of the Priozersky District of the Leningrad Region, who is considered the mastermind behind a major embezzlement of budget funds. Investigators believe he orchestrated a scheme to withdraw public money from the district treasury for housing and communal services, involving a regional service agency and several private companies. He is currently on the federal wanted list.

The deputy head of the administration of the Kolpinsky district of St. Petersburg, Alexei Zhukov, is now under investigation for allegedly accepting a 26 million ruble bribe. He is accused of demanding the bribe for signing acts related to the maintenance of common house property and the cleaning of yards in the Kolpinsky and Pushkinsky districts. The quality of these works was not monitored, and now three criminal cases involve the quality of cleaning and the condition of the property.

The ex-head of the Vsevolozhsk district of the Leningrad region, Alexander Sobolenko, is facing a likely grim future. Law enforcement officers have apprehended him and transported him to Moscow after complaints from the SNT Osinka participants about the misappropriation of land allocated to large families. Sobolenko is charged with causing damages of 121 million rubles.

Not for self-interest, career for!

The courts in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region only have time to pass sentences and replenish the colonies with officials of various stripes. At the very end of 2021, Oleg Mikheev, the former head of the Cadastral Chamber of the Leningrad Region, and his deputy, Sergey Khramov, received vouchers to a strict regime colony. Mikheev received 13 years, Khramov 10. But most of all he was impressed by the fine of 75 million rubles imposed by the court. The bribe-takers took bribes not only with money, but also with vouchers, air travel and accommodation in good hotels. It is worth noting that these comrades have very well inherited on the land of the Leningrad region. Frauds with lands in the Priozersky district have already been assessed by the court and the verdict was handed down in 2020. The total damage from fraud amounted to 248 million rubles.

Already at the beginning of this year 2022, another epic trial began in St. Petersburg. Alexander Boluchevsky, the former chairman of the finance committee of the Vyborg city administration, ended up in the dock. He is accused of fraud on an especially large scale and official forgery. This story at one time made a lot of noise, since the main financier of Vyborg, literally, robbed the city’s budget of 700 million rubles! The money was intended to buy a high position in Moscow. Since the financier believed that he needed a larger feeder, he did not waste time on trifles and launched both hands into the city’s treasury. Now the scope of his career dreams will be assessed by the court.

The greed of officials of various stripes, in the truest sense of the word, costs the treasury fabulous sums. In order not to be unfounded, we simply made a table

Oksana Drobinskaya