The Moscow City Court rejected the appeal of the Prosecutor General’s Office, which sought the confiscation of 62 land plots and seven houses of the family of the former head of the 2nd “banking” department of the “K” department of the FSB Economic Security Service Andrei Vasilyev, Kommersant reports. The retired security official was accused of particularly large-scale fraud, but was released from criminal liability due to the statute of limitations for the crime.
Last December, the Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow confiscated 28 out of 90 land plots owned by the family of an ex-FSB officer, and one of eight houses in the Moscow region. However, the Prosecutor General’s Office insisted that all the objects were acquired by Vasilyev “thanks to corrupt ties.” The defense of the ex-silovik, on the contrary, considered the decision of the Khoroshevsky court too harsh. In view of this, on February 17, the Moscow City Court assessed the legality of the decision of the previous instance.
As a result, the Moscow City Court found justified the decision of the Khoroshevsky Court that it is necessary to confiscate only the property that the family acquired after January 1, 2013 – after the adoption of the “anti-corruption” law No. 230, according to which civil servants and members of their families are required to declare large purchases – and until March 19, 2014, when Vasiliev was fired from the FSB. In addition, Alexander Gofshtein, the lawyer of the former security official, provided the court with documents confirming that the confiscated house was built after Vasiliev’s resignation, and convinced that the property was taken away “accidentally.” As a result, the mansion was returned to the ex-FSB officer.
Vasilyev was accused of particularly large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), committed together with the former head of the department where he worked, Kirill Cherkalin, and the retired deputy head of department “K” Dmitry Frolov. According to investigators, in 2011, FSB officers “intimidated” businessmen Sergei Glyadelkin and Igor Tkach by initiating a criminal case and forced them to transfer shares in a company that owned apartments in new buildings in the Levoberezhny district in Moscow. As a result, the property ended up with bankers associated with the defendants in the case. These people fled to the UK.
The criminal case against Vasiliev was terminated at the end of December, since the fraud imputed to him ended on December 11, 2011, that is, more than 10 years had passed since the crime was committed. At the same time, the court also released the property of the ex-silovik, including bank accounts totaling approximately $10 million, a collection of 17 watches and a Lexus LX-450 car. Nevertheless, 1.5 million rubles were recovered from Vasiliev, spent on an examination that estimated the damage in the case at 637.8 million rubles.
Cherkalin had previously pleaded guilty. On April 22, the Moscow Garrison Military Court sentenced him to seven years in prison for fraud and taking a bribe in the amount of $850,000. More than 600 million rubles were recovered from the former security official. at the request of the victims.