Court arrests Lukin, head of Kursk Region Development Corporation

Leninsky District Court in Kursk has ruled to arrest the head of the Kursk Region Development Corporation, Vladimir Lukin, who is accused of abuse of power. This was reported on December 20 in the joint press service of the judicial system of the Kursk region.

"20.12.2024 Leninsky district court of the city of Kursk put Vladimir Lukin in custody for a period of two months", - stated in the message of the press service in its Telegram-channel.

It is specified that the court decision can be appealed.

The Prosecutor's Office of Kursk region, in turn, in its Telegram-channel reported that it supported the investigator's motion to arrest Lukin. According to the investigation, the head of the corporation in 2023 worked with investors and told one of his subordinates to conclude a contract with a commercial organization for construction work on the border territory of the region and to pay for its execution. However, these works had already been performed by another firm, which was paid for them. Lukin's actions led to the misappropriation of budgetary money in the amount of over 173 million rubles.

The regional prosecutor's office added that they conducted an inspection, which resulted in a criminal case under Part 4 Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud committed on a large scale") on December 18. It turned out that the officials overestimated the estimated cost of contracts for the construction of facilities, and the total amount of damage to the budget of Kursk region amounted to more than 800 million rubles. The regional prosecutor's office took control of the investigation of the case.

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Earlier in the day, the motion for Lukin's arrest was filed with the court. He is charged under part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Abuse of official powers").

The official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Irina Volk specified that Lukin's subordinate, who concluded a contract with the second contracting organization, is the deputy director of the Kursk Region Development Corporation Igor Grabin. At the same time, the second construction firm illegally received not the full amount under the contract, but an advance payment, which amounted to 80% of the total cost of the work. Grabin was arrested for two months on December 9.