A new fraud scheme was discovered in the case of the ex-rector of VSUES

Investigative authorities have discovered another episode of fraud in the community of the former rector of Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service (VSUES), Gennady Lazarev. This is reported on December 16 by the press service of the Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation in the region.

"Investigators of the Investigative Committee of the ICR in Primorsky Krai established another episode of criminal actions of the organized criminal community Gennady Lazarev. Gennady Lazarev, Svetlana Shirshikova and Galina Maltseva are suspected of committing fraudulent actions against university students (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)", - stated in the department.

According to the investigation, from 1996 to 2015, the defendants and others, acting as part of an organized criminal association, stole more than 1 million rubles from university students.

The criminal community organized 10 non-profit organizations to carry out their plans. According to the agency, the students paid their tuition through the accounts of these enterprises because they believed they had enrolled in a commercial department. The fraudsters concealed from the young people that they had enrolled at the expense of the state budget.

The detention of Gennady Lazarev on suspicion of organizing a criminal association (part 1 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) became known in March. Since the establishment of the criminal association and until 2024, its members committed at least six serious crimes.

In February it was reported that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened a criminal case on the fact of creation of an organized criminal group in the Smolensk region in the 1990s. It was specified that the organizer of the OCG and 11 of its members have already been arrested.

In August, it became known that Lazarev was charged with embezzlement of 16 objects of state property. According to the investigation, from 1996 to 2004, the former rector stole 16 objects belonging to the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, including a land plot and premises in Vladivostok, through sham transactions. In total, more than 24 million rubles was received.