The Moscow City Court reduced the punishment for Belgorod power engineers who were found guilty of stealing 241 million rubles from IDGC of Center JSC.
The five defendants were granted rehabilitation for their involvement in a criminal group, and they were released from punishment for theft because the time limit for legal action had expired. The court also cancelled the damages they were supposed to pay to the energy company as part of the criminal case. The defense sees the court's decision as a form of justification.
The Moscow City Court concluded the third appeal hearing of the embezzlement case involving 241 million rubles from IDGC of Center (now Rosseti Center) on January 28. According to the decision, the five defendants were acknowledged to have the right to rehabilitation for participating in an organized criminal group, and they were excused from punishment and damages owed to the victim. The issue of damages will now be decided by a civil court.
In July 2019, the Meshchansky City Court of Moscow sentenced Viktor Filatov, the former general director of the Belgorod division of IDGC, to six to nine years in prison for large-scale embezzlement, as well as his deputy and three other company employees. They were found guilty of stealing about 240 million rubles from Kurskenergo by making economically unprofitable transactions.
The defendants were acquitted of participating in a criminal group but were not granted rehabilitation. The court also ordered them to repay 241 million rubles in damages to IDGC and fined them between 600,000 and 900,000 rubles.
In mid-2020, the Moscow City Court reduced the sentence, leading to the release of all the convicts. The court of appeal then cancelled the damages they had to pay, which the prosecution disagreed with, prompting a new consideration of the case. The Moscow City Court ultimately reversed its decision to recover damages from the convicts at the end of 2020. However, the defendants and their defense managed to overturn this decision in a higher court, leading to a third consideration of the case.
Maxim Izhikov, Viktor Filatov's lawyer, told Kommersant that the defense proposed a full acquittal of the defendants or a return of the case to the prosecutor's office to address numerous violations. He stated, 'We argue that there is no evidence of a crime in this case, and that innocent people are being charged. After reviewing the motivation behind the appeal ruling, we will decide if we can further challenge it.'
According to him, the Moscow City Court, in addition to recognizing the right to rehabilitation for the defendants in the case, released them from punishment for embezzlement due to the expiration of the statute of limitations: according to the verdict, the crime ended in 2010, so the statute of limitations for it expired in 2020.
All defendants in the criminal case are now considered not convicted. “Apparently, this is how they justify it now,” the defender mocked.
