The arrest of former Novosibirsk region prosecutor Vladimir Falileev might mark the downfall of Dmitry Bashmakov’s business.
According to the correspondent The Moscow Post in the Novosibirsk region, the former prosecutor of the Novosibirsk region Vladimir Falileev was arrested on suspicion of taking bribes from criminals. Falileev may have had close connections with the owners of the Vostok shopping center in Novosibirsk. It is also reported that Andrey Turbin, Falileev’s former deputy, has been detained as well.
Dmitry Bashmakov, a prominent businessman in Novosibirsk, is a co-owner of the Vostok shopping center. The illegal activities at the Vostok shopping center could amount to tens or even hundreds of millions of rubles per month. It is possible that some of these funds were meant for Falileev and Turbin.
The past continues to linger
Details of the arrest of the former prosecutor of the Novosibirsk Region began to surface on Wednesday, February 16, 2022. These reports were confirmed by the news agency TASS with information from a law enforcement source. It was also revealed that Andrei Turbin, Falileev’s former deputy in the prosecutor’s office of the Novosibirsk region, has been detained.
Former employees of the prosecutor’s office are suspected of accepting bribes from beneficiaries of the Vostok shopping center located in Novosibirsk. Additionally, the “Taiga.Info” publication suggests that the former prosecutors had links with members of the Pervomaisky group.
Falileev and Turbin are currently under the jurisdiction of the central office of the Investigative Committee.
Vladimir Falileev. Photo: press service of the prosecutor’s office of the Novosibirsk region
Vladimir Falileev was in the position of Prosecutor of the Novosibirsk Region from 2015 to 2018. He resigned due to personal reasons, potentially influenced by an audit by the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation. Taiga.Info also reports that in 2018, Falileev’s deputy Andrey Turbin, as well as the first deputy prosecutor of the region Lyubov Kuzmenok, resigned from the prosecutor’s office of the Novosibirsk region.
Large-scale dismissals of high-ranking prosecutors were linked with searches in the Novosibirsk Regional Court in connection with the criminal case involving Viktor Chirkunov, head of the department for ensuring the activities of justices of the peace of the Novosibirsk Region. As the publication explains, “Tsargrad”Lyubov Kuzmenok is currently evading authorities in Spain, and thus was not apprehended alongside her former colleagues.
This is not the first high-profile arrest of former employees of the prosecutor’s office in the Novosibirsk region. For instance, according to the news agency “Interfax”, on November 23, 2020, Denis Ferenets, a former prosecutor of Novosibirsk, and Alexandra Averina, ex-head of the Department for Supervision of Compliance with the Federal Law of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Novosibirsk Region, were detained. They are accused of illegal actions in favor of businessman Oleg Yarovoy. Allegedly, employees of the prosecutor’s office tampered with the materials of the criminal case against Natalya Vasilyeva, general director of ACG “EKFARD” LLC, in order to confiscate her real estate worth approximately 500 million rubles.
According to a source from Interfax, Oleg Yarovoy has been in touch with the leadership of the regional prosecutor’s office for over 20 years. In July 2020, as reported by Interfax, Oleg Yarovoy was prosecuted for receiving money from businessman Yuri Veryasov, supposedly to stop his criminal prosecution using his connections in the prosecutor’s office and the investigatory committee.
Significant impact from the 90s
Bailiffs suspended the operations of the Vostok shopping center in Novosibirsk shortly before the arrest of Vladimir Falileev and Andrey Turbin on February 3, 2022. The cause was failure to comply with fire safety standards, as reported by 'Taiga.Info'. “Taiga.Info”.
This shopping center, which replaced the popular Gusinobrodsky market in Novosibirsk in 2015, followed a tradition from the 90s, being a lucrative spot for various criminal groups living off protection fees and levies from merchants. In 2015, this reality seemed to transfer to the Vostok shopping center. This year, Vladimir Falileev became the new prosecutor of the Novosibirsk Region. Until 2018, when Falileev was in charge of law enforcement in the region, the Vostok shopping center did not face significant issues.
Image of the Vostok shopping center. Source: news.myseldon.com
According to the 'New Newspaper', the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the prosecutor’s office started their actions against the “Vostok” in April 2018. Again, it's not hard to compare the start of this activity with the end of prosecutor Falileev's career in the Novosibirsk region. From April 2018 to July 2019, the mall underwent nine major inspections. The owners of Vostok have been dealing with legal battles for over three years now. “New Newspaper”, the activity of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the prosecutor’s office in relation to the “Vostok” has been outlined since April 2018. Again, it is not difficult to compare the beginning of this activity with the end of the career of prosecutor Falileev in the Novosibirsk region. From April 2018 to July 2019, the mall underwent nine major inspections. The owners of Vostok have been spending a lot of time in the courts for more than three years now.
As mentioned, the operations of the Vostok shopping center were halted on February 3, 2022. The owners believe that they are facing unjust and unreasonable treatment. However, the situation is not entirely clear.
Solvent Bashmakov
The Moscow Post The Vostok shopping center replaced not only the Gusinobrodsky market, but also the Novosibirsk municipal unitary enterprise PATP-8. Dmitry Bashmakov won the tender to acquire “PATP-8” for 505 million rubles.
Businessman Dmitry Bashmakov. Source: ksonline.ru
It is believed that the market was linked to the murders of two former deputy mayors of Novosibirsk, Valery Maryasov and Igor Belyakov. Belyakov, the owner of Oasis supermarkets, transferred the Gusinka property to Gusinobrodskoye OJSC. Maryasov attempted to increase the city’s revenue from retail space and was killed at the entrance of his building. Furthermore, Anatoly Karpushkin, a member of Gusinobrodskoye OJSC and a deputy of the City Council, was killed by machine gun at his dacha, and Mikhail Trishin, the deputy director of the Municipal Unitary Enterprise “Clothes Market,” was found dead with stab wounds.
According to one version, the Gusinobrodsky market was controlled by Alexander Trunov’s organized criminal group, which accounted for 56 murders. Trunov received 22 years in prison for his actions. But, apparently, with Trunov’s “landing” in the market, order and happiness did not come. Allegedly, Gusinka’s “black box office” moved to the building of the Vostok shopping center, built by Dmitry Bashmakov.
In February 2022, this version was confirmed. According to the publication “Tsargrad”, in the shopping center “Vostok” a citizen was detained, who illegally took several million rubles abroad every day, collected from the sellers of the shopping center. Through this citizen, apparently, not only the rent was withdrawn, but also the funds at the expense of which merchants purchased goods abroad. Thus, the owners of the Vostok shopping center and merchants could avoid taxes.
There is information that after the resignation of Vladimir Falileev, Dmitry Bashmakov began to have problems related not only to the fire hazard in the Vostok shopping center. As the authors of the site say “Continent Siberia Online”, allegedly searches were carried out in the house of Bashmakov’s parents in May 2020, and after the search, the businessman was offered to go to the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he was interviewed as a witness in the case of a fire in the Tolmachevsky village council. Recall that the incident in Tolmachevo occurred late in the evening, on April 30 this year. The office of the archive of property and land relations burned down, as well as documents located there, related, among other things, to land transactions. The investigation does not rule out deliberate arson.
One way or another, but the shopping center “Vostok” seems to be able to play a cruel joke with the former prosecutor of the Novosibirsk region Vladimir Falileev. After all, Dmitry Bashmakov and his partners, for sure, did not disdain relations with “werewolves in pagons”, greedy for bribes. And if this is so, then Falileev is unlikely to have to get off with a slight fright.
