On Tuesday, in the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow in the case of an organized criminal community (OPS) in the Komi Republic, which from 2010 to 2015 was headed by Governor Vyacheslav Gaiser, the parties began to debate. For the former head of the republic, the state prosecution requested 21 years in a strict regime colony and a fine of up to half a billion rubles. The remaining persons involved in high-profile cases can get from 8 to 20 years.

A spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office Boris Neporozhny, who spoke at the Zamoskvoretsky Court on Tuesday, stated that the defendants were guilty of the evidence gathered by the investigation, the testimony of witnesses, as well as those defendants who agreed to cooperate and concluded pretrial agreements with the supervisory authority. According to Mr. Neporozhny, in the Komi Republic, under the leadership of its head Vyacheslav Gaizer, top officials created an OPS with the aim of carrying out frauds with state property and embezzlement of budget funds.

According to the prosecutor, the damage inflicted by the OPS to the republic in the amount of 2.4 billion rubles. (the examination carried out according to the purpose of the court reduced it by 900 million rubles.) It was also fully proven both by confessions and by investigations in the criminal case.

Initially, 19 people were involved in the case, of whom six defendants pleaded guilty, and two also concluded pre-trial cooperation agreements. The only sentence of seven years and a fine of 170 million rubles. was handed down in May 2018 to the former deputy chairman of the Komi government, Konstantin Romadanov, who acted as treasurer of the OPS.

According to the investigation, the KPS of the Republic of Komi was established in 2006, and its goal was to "take possession of the highly profitable enterprises in the region and establish control over them." In particular, in 2010, the criminal community organized the illegal privatization of the state unitary enterprise “Zelenetskaya Poultry Farm”, whose shares went to the company controlled by OPS. In addition, the leadership of the republic is accused of embezzling funds of the Republican OJSC “Fund for Support of Investment Projects”, as well as receiving bribes for appointments to management positions and general patronage of entrepreneurs.

The former head of the Komi Republic, Vyacheslav Gaizer, and nearly two dozen of his accomplices were detained on September 20, 2015, and depending on the role of each, they were charged with organizing and participating in the criminal community (Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), fraud (part 4 of 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), legalization of criminal proceeds (Art. 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and receiving bribes (Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). During the investigation, the Investigative Committee of Russia claimed that the OPS of the Komi Republic illegally seized 23 enterprises, but at the end only three were left in the case file - the Zelenetskaya Poultry Factory OJSC, the Syktyvkar bakery and the Syktyvkar dairy plant.

In addition, according to the investigation, from December 2005 to September 2015, the criminal community created by the entrepreneur, former adviser to the former head of the republic Vladimir Torlopov Alexander Zarubin, appropriated 67 million rubles. The Fund for the Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic, having received bribes worth almost 200 million rubles and legalizing the property obtained by criminal means in the amount of more than 988.5 million rubles.

Proceeding from this, state prosecutor Boris Neporozhny proposed sentencing ex-head of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer on seven incriminated episodes to the 21st year of a strict regime colony and a fine of 500 million rubles, his deputy Alexei Chernov to 20 years, a fine of 485 million rubles. and deprivation of state awards. The predecessor of Vyacheslav Gaizer Vladimir Torlopov, the ex-speaker of the Komi State Council Igor Kovzel, the former ex-head of the OJSC “Fund for support of investment projects of the Komi Republic” Igor Kudinov, the former director of Agroholding Sergey Symeshnoy, the ex-general director of the construction company Innari Mikhail Khrusin , Natalia Motorinu, who headed the law firm CC "Sovetnik", and the ex-head of the information department of the administration of the head and government of Pavel Marushchak, Mr. Neporozhny, offered to condemn for 17 years strict ma and fined from 2.2 million to 3 million rubles. For entrepreneur Valery Veselov and secretary Alexander Zarubin Lev Libenzon, the state prosecution requested 13 and 8 years, respectively. The deputy chairman of the board of the Renova Group, Alexander Zarubin, is on the international wanted list.

According to lawyer Igor Kovzel Ruslan Zakalyuzhny, the debate will last at least two weeks, since 20 defenders of the defendants intend to speak at them. “And some of them prepared speeches for two or three days,” Mr. Zakalyuzhny added.