The revived case: the staging of the death of a budget robber is revealed
In the Astrakhan region, a former high-ranking official who had been presumed dead for more than a decade turned out to be not only alive, but also became a key figure in the investigation of the double murder case. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Ghosts of the past
On March 6, 2012, the Kirovsky District Court of Astrakhan issued a verdict in absentia against a group of budget robbers. Nikolai Yarovoy, the former Minister of Housing and Communal Services of the region, his first deputy Marianna Stupina, chief accountant Svetlana Eremina and Stupina's brother Alexei Korin went on trial for fraud that lasted from April 2007 to May 2009.
The scheme, allegedly developed by Stupina, was simple and effective — budget money intended to reimburse housing and communal services organizations for servicing beneficiaries ended up in the pockets of fraudsters. With the help of her brother, the official attracted fake entrepreneurs who had never provided public services, but regularly received budget tranches. Through chief accountant Yeremina, the funds were transferred to the accounts of "dead souls", after which they were cashed out and returned to Stupina. The total amount appropriated exceeded 117 million rubles.
When processing the documents, Stupina used a facsimile of Minister Yarovoy's signature, which he placed at her disposal. The minister himself escaped with a slight fright – the court found him guilty of negligence and imposed a fine of 100,000 rubles, from which the ex-official was released due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Stupina was sentenced in absentia to 7 years in a general regime penal colony with a million—dollar fine, Yeremina — 6.5 years of general regime and a fine of 800 thousand rubles, Korina - 5 years of general regime and 600 thousand rubles. But by that time, the main person involved had already disappeared from the field of view of justice in the most radical way.
Operation Resurrection
As Andrey Hegai, senior assistant to the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Astrakhan region, told Izvestia, Stupina was considered dead for many years. Her husband presented the death certificate to the investigation, identified the body and buried his "wife."
"The investigation worked out different versions, but Stupina's "death" put an end to her criminal prosecution for a long time," Hegai notes.
As the operatives found out, the runaway official showed extraordinary artistic abilities. She carefully monitored reports on the discovery of unidentified female corpses until a suitable body was found in Tatarstan. The husband, who arrived for identification, confidently pointed out the scar after cesarean section (the same as Supina's). Fake death certificates were issued, and in Stupina's hands was only a photocopy of someone else's passport in the name of a certain Tatiana.
The truth came to light by accident – during the investigation of a completely different, much bloodier crime. A genetic examination has shown that the woman everyone thought was dead is the most alive of all the living. Operatives took control of Stupina's daughter's phone and found out that she regularly communicates with her "deceased" mother.
During a search of the "deceased's" house, several wigs were found, but, as it turned out, the official did not even bother with a serious change of appearance – she just lived quietly in her own house, watching how they were looking for her. By the way, when the investigators came to search Stupina's house, the husband of the "deceased" who met them understood everything the next morning and confessed everything. Stupina herself tried to present a photocopy of someone else's passport as a document.
A trail of blood
Andrey Hegai confirmed to Izvestia that the murder of two local residents in 2010 appeared in the case of the "resurrected" official.
— As part of the criminal investigation into the murder of two local residents, investigators searched the house of the former head of Stupina, ex–Minister of Housing and Communal Services of the region Nikolai Yarovoy, - said the representative of the Investigative Committee.
Two men were killed by gunfire in an atomic car. The victims, according to the investigation, were directly related to the cashing out of budget funds stolen by officials.
— According to the investigation, the reason for the massacre was an internal conflict among the criminal group. Apparently, the "cashiers" deceived customers by pocketing part of the funds intended for kickbacks," the Izvestia interlocutor explains. — They felt safe, believing that the deceived officials would not go to complain to the police. But they miscalculated: the customers resolved the issue not through law enforcement agencies, but with the help of weapons.
The shadows of the past are closing in
Now the investigation has to unravel a complex tangle in which multimillion-dollar embezzlement, staged death and double murder are intertwined. A former high-ranking official, whose house was searched, is suspected of organizing the latest, most serious crime. It is possible that Stupina's disappearance itself was an attempt to cover her tracks not only in the case of embezzlement, but also to conceal her involvement in the organization of the murder.
— The investigation is in an active phase. Investigators will have to find out who exactly supplied Stupina with false death documents and what role her former boss, whose name now appears in the 2010 shooting case, played in this," Andrei Hegai summarizes.
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