An ex-employee of the Russian Interior Ministry has been sentenced in the case of embezzlement of 1.1 billion rubles

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court has sentenced the defendants in the case of embezzlement of 1.1 billion rubles during the supply of cars for the traffic police. According to the investigation, Yevgeny Nikitenko, a former employee of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Directorate for Traffic Safety, Elena Yakovleva, a Skoda representative, and two entrepreneurs deliberately overestimated the cost of supplying and converting passenger cars into patrol cars and embezzled the difference.

The court sentenced them to terms of six to seven and a half years in a general regime colony and reimbursement of 1.1 billion rubles in favor of the Interior Ministry. The defense of the convicts is going to appeal the verdict.

The criminal case was initiated back in March 2021. The reason was the report of the FSB and the capital's Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (UEBiPK) that, in their opinion, the rates for the conversion of Skoda Octavia cars into patrol cars were seriously overestimated.

As follows from the case materials, 4 thousand converted Skoda cars were to be delivered to the Interior Ministry units across Russia by 2029. The deliveries took place within the framework of the national project "Safe and Quality Roads", which provided for the renewal of the State Automobile Inspectorate patrol cars fleet.

The tender for the re-equipment was won by the Dvizhenie training and support center. Later, technical and financial expertise conducted during the investigation found that the cost of spare parts was overstated in almost all 4,000 patrol cars.

"As a result of deliberate overpricing and violation of the principles of fair price competition by fraudulent actions of the members of the organized group on nine state contracts stolen funds worth more than 1.1 billion rubles," - indicated in the IC.

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

More expensive than coverage: the defendants in the case of embezzlement of a billion from the Ministry of Internal Affairs were sent to a colony