The Presnensky District Court of Moscow has completed a judicial investigation into the case of Yury Khokhlov, former adviser to the head of the Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo).
He is accused of trying to deceive: in 2016, as part of a group, he was accused of selling the deputy head position of the department for $7 million. Khokhlov denies his guilt. His accomplices were previously given short sentences.
During the court session on Tuesday, the judge Sergei Artemov announced that the judicial investigation into Yuri Khokhlov's criminal case had been completed. However, Mr. Artemov decided to delay the parties' debate scheduled for that day until March 5, to allow time for adequate preparation.
However, during the final meeting, lasting no more than thirty minutes, Yuri Khokhlov's defense, according to lawyer Igor Zuber, made several motions that the court added to the case. The defense requested the inclusion of newspaper reports about alleged torture of a former suspect, US citizen George Hager (formerly citizen of Belarus Georgy Korobochkin).
His arm was broken in the cell, and it was attributed to his alleged fall from the top bunk at night.
Lawyer Igor Zuber informed Kommersant that they believed it necessary to include these documents as they considered the preliminary investigation methods used on Khokhlov and other defendants in the case to be illegal, and even criminal. The judge agreed to add the submitted documents to the case.
According to investigators, at the end of 2015, the Federal Fisheries Agency was considering establishing its own auction house for selling fishing quotas in the Far East. Fanil Sabiryanov, a former deputy head of the Tuymazinsky district of Bashkiria, allegedly learned about this from Yuri Khokhlov. Then, with the help of his acquaintances, he sought a candidate willing to pay a large sum for the position.
The investigation claims that Minkail Umaev found the “buyer”, who turned out to be an undercover police officer posing as businessman Alexei Burtsev. The accomplices explained that he had to pay $7 million for a position in the auction house, part of which would go to officials of the Federal Agency for Fishery, including Yuri Khokhlov.
On May 24, 2016, when Mr. Burtsev transferred $300,000 to George Hager in a Nissan Pathfinder car on Nikitsky Boulevard, operatives from the Moscow FSB detained the American, and then his accomplices.
With the help of a paper doll imitating $ 3 million, the operatives hoped to detain the former adviser of the Federal Agency for Fishery. However, he refused to take the money, saying some time later that a provocation had been committed against him.
Nevertheless, materials regarding Khokhlov under Part 3 of Art. 30 and part 4. Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted fraud on an especially large scale), by that time he had moved to Cyprus, accomplices were separated from the 15-volume case.
In early 2021, he was extradited to Russia. According to Yury Khokhlov’s defense, the initial preventive measure in the form of detention was changed by the court to house arrest due to numerous violations during the investigation and at the stage of familiarization with the materials of the criminal case. Lawyers, according to them, for example, were not allowed to see Yuri Khokhlov in the pre-trial detention center, and they even tried to replace them with appointed defenders. Representatives of Yuri Khokhlov expect that this data may influence the court in sentencing.
At the same time, it should be noted that other defendants in this scandalous story have already been convicted. In April 2018, the Presnensky Court found George Hager, Minkail Umaev, Yevgeny Degtyarenko and Fanil Sabiryanov guilty of fraud and sentenced them to three to four years in prison.
