A slow conclusion: the defendants in the theft from Rosseti received up to 18 years

On April 1, the Zamoskvoretsky court announced the verdict of the defendants in the case of embezzlement of more than 8 billion rubles from PJSC ROSSETI. Among them are top managers of sales companies that provided electricity to residents of Northwestern Russia, Siberia and the Urals. According to investigators, for eight years they stole money from Rosseti and transferred it through Mosuralbank to accounts of controlled legal entities. The heads of this bank were also found guilty of fraud, money laundering and participation in the OPS. The court sentenced them to terms ranging from 15.5 to 18 years in prison and compensation for damages. How the criminal alliance of power engineers and bankers worked, and who else is involved in the case — in the Izvestia material.

What were the power engineers and bankers convicted for?

On April 1, the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow sentenced the defendants in the criminal case on the withdrawal of 8 billion rubles from the Russian energy system to long terms of imprisonment — from 15.5 to 18 years.

Ilya Shulgin, Ilya Vorachev and Nikolai Krivtsunov, the heads of the regional energy marketing companies Arkhenergosbyt, Volgdaenergosbyt, Roskommunenergo, Khakasenergosbyt and Chelyabenergosbyt, Nikolai Korneev, the former managing director of Mosuralbank, Svetlana Nikodimova and Elizaveta Sakhno, members of its board of directors, as well as entrepreneur Ilya Rosseychuk.

The court found all seven guilty of fraud, money laundering and the creation of an organized criminal community (OPS).

The sales companies managed by the defendants in the case were part of the service area of several branches of ROSSETI: PJSC ROSSETI North-West, PJSC ROSSETI Siberia, JSC IDGC of the Urals.

According to the investigation, top managers of energy marketing companies colluded with the management of Mosuralbank. They took out technical loans from the bank and issued loans on them, purchased promissory notes and shares, contributed funds to the authorized capital of third—party organizations, concluded contracts of assignment of the right of claim - that is, they carried out non-core financial activities.

"Thus, the accomplices used formal grounds to withdraw funds from the turnover of the unified energy system of Russia to the accounts of individuals and commercial organizations controlled by the accomplices," the Investigative Committee said.

What is Mosuralbank known for

Accounts payable artificially created by sales companies were repaid at the expense of funds received from electricity consumers, the Investigative Committee added. At the same time, the services of the energy supplier Rosseti were not paid for under the pretext of a shortage of working capital.

In total, according to investigators, from 2011 to 2019, the participants of the scheme withdrew about 8 billion rubles from the Russian energy system to the accounts of controlled companies.

"These funds were to be used for wholesale purchases of electricity from generating companies, implementation of state investment programs in the energy sector, modernization and maintenance of technical networks and other tasks related to ensuring the safety of the electric power industry as a strategically important industry for the Russian Federation," the IC said.

In June 2018, the Bank of Russia revoked Mosuralbank's license due to "the failure of the credit institution to comply with laws governing banking activities, the establishment of significant unreliability of accounting data and the existence of a real threat to the interests of creditors."

In September of the same year, the bank was declared bankrupt, and bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against it. At the same time, the interim administration of the bank submitted a statement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the possible presence of signs of theft of property in the actions of the management of the credit institution. As a result, the bankers also ended up in the dock.

The first arrests in the case took place in March 2021. In addition to the "economic" article on fraud, the defendants were charged with organizing a criminal community. Later, an article about money laundering also appeared in the case.

The described thefts were identified by employees of the Main Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the assistance of the Department of Economic Security of the Ministry of Energy of Russia and Rosfinmonitoring. PJSC ROSSETI has been recognized as a victim in the case.

There are other defendants in the case. These are Yuri Shulgin, General Director of the holding company Mezhregionsoyuzenergo (MRSEN), and his deputy Bagrat Katalyants. They managed to escape from the investigation abroad and were put on the international wanted list. Even before that moment, bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against the MRSEN sales structures, and in 2018 all of them were deprived of the status of guaranteeing suppliers.

Debts or embezzlement

Ilya Vorochev's lawyer, Alexander Timoshenko, had previously stated in an interview with Izvestia that the sales companies had a shortage of working capital, but it was not the result of embezzlement. Small companies, he said, periodically went bankrupt and did not pay for the resources provided by the generating companies.

— Larger companies tried to fight the debtors, but representatives of Rosseti pushed their position and accused the heads of the companies of stealing consumer funds. And that it was allegedly a whole OPS," the lawyer expressed the defense version.

The harsh sentences that the defendants received are primarily related to charges of creating a criminal community (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), this article provides for up to 20 years in prison, Alexey Gavrishev, head of AVG Legal, explained to Izvestia.

"The sentences for fraud and money laundering are shorter — up to seven and 10 years," the lawyer said. — But according to the totality of all crimes and the partial addition of punishments, significant terms have been obtained.

Looking at the charges brought against the defendants, one could assume that the article on the creation of OPS would not stand in court, Konstantin Trapaidze, chairman of the bar association "Your Legal Attorney", expressed his opinion in an interview with Izvestia. In his opinion, it is difficult to recognize an energy marketing company that provided services to subscribers, that is, acted in accordance with current legislation.

— A criminal community is created to commit crimes, a legal entity is created to make a profit in the framework of entrepreneurial activity. These are different goals," the lawyer said. — Therefore, an association of persons within an already established legal entity cannot be recognized as an OPS, and an employee registered in accordance with the Labor Code cannot be considered a participant in it. No one comes to apply for a job as an OPS accountant with an inherently criminal purpose.

The dispute over OPS

Financing organizations by issuing technical loans and similar banking products is in itself a violation of a number of norms of current legislation, Irina Kaplun, a lawyer at the Intellectual Capital Law Firm, told Izvestia. However, the organizational and staff structure of a legal entity, in this case a number of sales companies, cannot be equated with the structure of a criminal group, the lawyer believes.

"Among the signs of a criminal community are a rigid hierarchy and vertical of power, a clear distribution of roles between participants, an understanding by all participants of the illegality of their actions, general financing, and a number of others," the lawyer said. — All this distinguishes OPS from other forms of organized groups.

For this reason, back in 2019, during the "Direct Line", President Vladimir Putin pointed out the inadmissibility of equating a legal entity and its governing body with a criminal community, the lawyer recalled. Konstantin Trapaidze added that the formal application of Article 210 of the Criminal Code allows any organization whose leaders violated the law to be considered an OPS.

However, the court found the defendants guilty of all charges. Ivan Vorachev, Nikolai Krivtsunov, Igor Shulgin and Svetlana Nikodimova each received 15.5 years in a high-security penal colony. Ilya Rosseychuk will be sent to a penal colony for 16 years, Elizaveta Sakhno for 17 years, and Nikolai Korneev for 18 years.

The court also fully satisfied the civil claims of Rosseti against the defendants. Collectively, they have to pay almost 9 billion rubles to the company's branches.

The lawyers of the convicts said they would appeal the verdict.