Family offerings: Merkushkin, the son of the ex-head of Mordovia, was given 7 years in a penal colony

A court in Penza sentenced Alexei Merkushkin, the former Minister of Targeted Programs of Mordovia and the son of the former head of the region, to seven years in a high-security penal colony. He was charged with fraud, large-scale bribery and abuse of office. Lawyers call the sentence quite lenient — according to the totality of the imputed crimes, the term could amount to 16 years in prison, which is exactly what the prosecutor demanded. Why such a decision was made and what other scandals are connected with the activities of the Merkushkin family — in the Izvestia article.

The verdict against Alexei Merkushkin

The Pervomaisky District Court of Penza sentenced the former Minister of Targeted Programs of Mordovia to seven years in a high-security penal colony. He was charged with fraud, large-scale bribery and abuse of office. The defendant's father, Nikolai Merkushkin, the former head of Mordovia and the Samara Region, was also present at the court session.

The court also decided to fine Merkushkin Jr. 152 million rubles and collect another 43 million rubles from him in favor of the Development Corporation of the Republic of Mordovia. The investigation, in particular, found a fraudulent scheme for the sale of the MordovExpocEnter exhibition complex at an inflated price several times. The buyer was the Regional Development Corporation.

"The price of the object was overstated. According to the purchase and sale agreement, the value of the mentioned property, which includes the buildings of the pavilions, galleries, as well as the land and asphalt pavement, is set at 271 million rubles. But the market price was a little over 54 million rubles," the Investigative Committee for Mordovia said in a statement.

In addition, Merkushkin in 2015 gave a bribe of more than 7 million rubles to Alexander Terenkin, the head of the branch of the National Bank of Mordovia of the Volga-Vyatka Main Directorate of the Central Bank, the investigation proved. For this, Terenkin had to withdraw the results of the inspection, which threatened to revoke the license of Mordovpromstroybank — Merkushkin was one of the beneficiaries of this credit institution. The bribe was disguised as the purchase and sale of shares of the operator of the Lamzur confectionery factory, according to the case file.

Also, according to investigators, Alexey Merkushkin was withdrawing funds from Asset Bank, in which he and his father owned shares. The damage was estimated at almost 2 billion rubles.

In May 2021, Merkushkin Jr. was detained in Moscow at Sheremetyevo Airport and transferred to Mordovia for investigative actions. He has been under arrest ever since.

The case was not considered in the Leninsky district Court of Saransk, as one of the defendants turned out to be a relative of the judge. As a result, the process started in Penza in the summer of 2024.

What could have softened Merkushkin's sentence

The prosecutor demanded that Alexei Merkushkin be sentenced to 16 years in prison and fined 490 million rubles.

Experts interviewed by Izvestia, in particular Maxim Kalinov, a criminal defense lawyer, also believed that the term could be long — about 15 years in prison.

Seven years of strict regime under such articles of accusation is a mild measure, lawyer Andrei Mishonov believes.

"The court probably took into account mitigating circumstances, which may include, for example, compensation for damages or positive characteristics, so the punishment turned out to be lower," the expert noted.

For such crimes, the practice usually ranges from five to ten years in prison, he added.

— If all crimes committed collectively are crimes of minor or moderate severity, the final punishment is imposed by absorbing a less severe punishment with a more severe one, or by partially or completely adding up the prescribed punishments, — said lawyer Vitaly Ulianenko. — At the same time, the final punishment may not exceed more than half of the maximum term.

Articles on fraud and abuse of office, depending on the severity of the harm caused, involve imprisonment for up to ten years, and bribery for up to 15 years, he recalled.

The appointed deadline, according to the expert, cannot be called soft, it is within the law.

How did Mordovia react to Merkushkin's arrest

The Minister of Mordovia, Alexander Pykov, told Izvestia that a whole group was responsible for the sale of the Mordovexpocenter, not just Alexei Merkushkin. He called for checking the Merkushkin family's connections to assess who and what role played in the deal at that time.

According to him, the Merkushkin family owned assets worth more than 70 billion rubles.

— I do not remember a single case of financial activity of this family, which would be transparent. For example, Mordovpromstroybank was not run by the Merkushkins' relatives, but there were close people in high positions who carried out the will of Nikolai Merkushkin," said Alexander Pykov.

According to him, when Nikolai Merkushkin began his career as the head of Mordovia, he was distinguished by a balanced approach to all the processes taking place in the republic, including demonstrating high decency and honesty.

"But since the late 90s, most of his actions have been aimed at enriching the family at the expense of the republic," Pykov believes.

For many years, the Merkushkin family represented the de facto elite of the region, said political analyst Dmitry Zhuravlev.

— Any business in the republic that was not associated with the Merkushkins in one way or another was secondary. It's dangerous for everyone. The region's economy is becoming less efficient," he stressed.

What is the Merkushkin family known for?

The activities of the Merkushkin clan-owned enterprises have also been on the environmental agenda over the past year. So, Rosprirodnadzor had complaints about the activities of the Kemlyansky distillery — according to the agency, it polluted the Alatyr River, which flows through the territory of Mordovia, Chuvashia and the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Also in Samara, the Samara Arena stadium, built for the World Cup, began to collapse. Its construction was also carried out by business structures associated with the Merkushkins — for example, the concrete was supplied by the Mordovcement company, which at that time was led by Alexander and Sergey Merkushkin, Nikolai Merkushkin's brother and nephew. During the construction, Rostechnadzor identified more than 800 defects. After the stadium was put into operation, the supervisory authorities found about 400 more defects.

A heart clinic has not been completed in the Samara region, funds for which were allocated from the regional budget. The contracts for the creation of the complex were awarded to a company associated with Merkushkin. Now there is a concrete fence and barbed wire near the entrance, and behind it there is only a concrete box. In 2016, the construction was frozen, although at that time 1.5 billion rubles were invested in the facility. In total, it was planned to spend 3 billion on construction.

The Merkushkin family is also linked to the scandal surrounding the Gration housing complex in Saransk: the developer Saranskstroyinvest (owned by Alexander Merkushkin) did not rent either the residential complex itself or the kindergarten school. People were promised to build a new neighborhood with all the infrastructure, but this did not happen.

— It was supposed to build a school for a thousand places and a kindergarten for 300, — Natalia Tushilkina, a resident of Saransk, told Izvestia. — But so far there has been no special progress.

The woman noted that the owners of apartments in the residential complex appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office, the Investigative Committee, the Prosecutor's Office for the region with a request to provide them with apartments and install all necessary facilities in the territory adjacent to the residential complex.

"In May 2024, the Saransk administration announced that it had adopted a master plan for the construction of social facilities, as well as a shopping mall and residential buildings," Natalia Tushilkina said.

But the exact dates for the readiness of apartments, schools and kindergartens, according to the woman, are not called. They only promise to deliver it within ten years.