The son of ex-Mordovia's ex-head of state Alexei Merkushkin faces 15 years in prison

Former Minister of Target Programs of Mordovia Alexei Merkushkin, son of ex-governor of the republic and Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin, faces a long term, criminal defense lawyer Maxim Kalinov told Izvestia.

Bribe of 50 mln: ex-head of Fonbet Sergey Anokhin detained in Moscow

The bookmaker's press service said the businessman left his post as CEO in January

"When merging the three compositions, he faces about 15 years in prison," the expert pointed out.

Alexei Merkushkin was detained in May 2021 at Sheremetyevo airport, the ex-officer was going to fly to Minsk. Now he is accused of fraud in the sale of "Mordovexpocentre" to the authorities of the republic, organization of abuse of power and giving a particularly large bribe.

The fraud charges refer to the fraudulent sale of "Mordovexpocentre" to the ownership of LLC "Development Corporation of the Republic of Mordovia" (its shareholder is the government of the region). According to the version of the investigation, Alexei Merkushkin managed this transaction.

"The price of the object was overestimated. According to the sale and purchase agreement, the value of the said property, which includes pavilion buildings, galleries, as well as a land plot and asphalt pavement, was determined at 271 million rubles. But the market price was a little more than 54 million rubles", - reported in the Investigative Department of the IC for Mordovia.

According to the investigation, in 2015, Merkushkin also gave a bribe of more than 7 million rubles to Alexander Terenkin, the manager of the National Bank's branch in the Republic of Mordovia of the Volgo-Vyatka main department of the Central Bank. In return, the latter was to withdraw the results of the inspection, which threatened to revoke the license of "Mordovpromstroybank".

Read more in the exclusive material "Izvestia":

Criminal shifts: what the son of the ex-head of Mordovia is being tried for