The former mayor of Saratov received 7 years for embezzlement of more than 40 million rubles. municipal payments of citizens
The Kirovsky District Court of Saratov gave a decision in a criminal case against the former head of the city administration, Alexei Prokopenko. He is accused of organizing embezzlement on a large scale. According to the prosecution, the official helped create management companies that collected money from the public, but did not give it to resource-supplying organizations. The case started in 2015. Last year, the same court fully found Mr. Prokopenko not guilty, but the court of appeal sent the cases for a new trial. The lawyer of the former official plans to challenge the court decision. Vitaly Romanov, the judge of the Kirovsky District Court of Saratov, sentenced the former head of the city administration Alexei Prokopenko to seven years in a penal colony with a year of restricted freedom and a fine of 700 thousand rubles. The reading of the verdict took Judge Vitaly Romanov one and a half working days. According to the court decision, Prokopenko, with his accomplices, did not give more than 40 million rubles to resource-supplying organizations for utilities payments of Saratov residents.
The verdict was only given after a second consideration. In June 2021, the Kirovsky District Court fully found the former city manager not guilty, considering that the accusation was based only on the testimony of other defendants in the criminal case, who later withdrew their statements and said that they had falsely accused Alexei Prokopenko to improve their position and under pressure from law enforcement officers. The court noted that the prosecution did not provide other evidence of the guilt of the former mayor.
The criminal case against Aleksey Prokopenko was started in early 2015. At that time, he was accused of Part 4 of Art. 159 (fraud on a large scale) and Art. 174 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (legalization of funds obtained by criminal means). According to investigators, in 2012, at the suggestion of Alexei Prokopenko, management companies Stroykomplekt LLC and Continent 2011 LLC were set up in the Zavodskoy district of Saratov. They made agreements with Settlement and Payment Center LLC, which took responsibilities on behalf of Stroykomplekt LLC to collect funds from residents for utilities.
The collected funds were taken out in cash by transferring to the accounts of Triada LLC, Standard-S LLC, Leader LLC, Top Line LLC, STK-Group LLC and others for fake reasons.
Crimes committed by Alexey Prokopenko
The victims in the criminal case were PJSC “T Plus” (at the time of the crime, JSC “Volzhskaya TGC”), Municipal Unitary Enterprise “Saratovvodokanal”, LLC SPGES.
The investigative group found out that during his time in the administration of Saratov (district and city), Alexei Prokopenko managed to significantly improve his wealth. A house was bought in Miami (USA), an apartment in Budapest (Hungary), and a cottage was built in the village of Sosenki in the Volzhsky district of Saratov. “Before he began working as the head of the administration of the Zavodskoy district, this citizen did not have any serious business and lived in an apartment on Sovetskaya Street,” a source in the regional prosecutor’s office noted. “Before coming to power, he owned the Egoist store, which was closed due to unprofitability. One of the main sources of income could be a communal monster – the Stroykomplekt management company, whose rise is associated with the name of the then head of the administration of the Zavodskoy district, Alexei Prokopenko, the source believes.
The investigation believed that employees of management companies and Settlement and Payment Center LLC Alexander Isaev, Sergey Birgin, Andrey Gnusarev, and Irina Ripinena were involved. In 2017, they were convicted of fraud and money laundering.
The court determined that the defendants used Settlement and Payment Center LLC to steal 81.9 million rubles from resource-supplying organizations in the Zavodskoy district of Saratov. This money was meant to be paid for services and resources provided to apartment buildings managed by the management companies. One of the witnesses, Boris Bunyaev, the former founder and director of Settlement and Payment Center LLC, committed suicide in late November 2016.
Alexander Isaev
The court accepted the prosecution's arguments and evidence and sentenced Alexander Isaev to 7 years in a penal colony and a fine of 1 million rubles, Sergei Birgin to 7 years in prison with a fine of 1 million rubles, Andrey Gnusarev to 4.5 years in a general regime facility with a fine of 700 thousand rubles, and Irina Ripinena to 4 years in a general regime facility with a fine of 700 thousand rubles. All defendants will also face a 1.5-year restriction of freedom.
After a criminal case was initiated, Aleksey Prokopenko fled from the investigation and became an international fugitive. His case was separated into a separate proceeding. In April 2015, the Kirovsky District Court arrested Aleksey Prokopenko in absentia, and on March 14, 2019, he voluntarily appeared at the investigative department for the Oktyabrsky District of Saratov and asked for an objective investigation into his criminal case in a statement. He was taken into custody and later released under house arrest.
Initially, Prokopenko was accused of causing 507 million rubles in damage to T Plus, but this was later reduced to 37 million rubles. The charges were reclassified to part 3 of Art. 33, part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which deals with organizing embezzlement on an especially large scale.
In July 2021, the Saratov Regional Court received an appeal from the prosecutor’s office and PJSC T Plus, both insisting on the impossibility of an acquittal despite the guilty verdicts for the rest of the defendants.
During the recent debate, the state prosecution requested an eight-year prison sentence, a fine of 900 thousand rubles, and a ban on holding leadership positions in state and municipal bodies for Alexei Prokopenko.
Kira Afanasyeva, Alexei Prokopenko’s lawyer, stated that she planned to appeal the court’s decision but declined to provide further comments.
