Everyone sat down

The case of trade in automotive “special products” has been put to rest

The capital's Basmanny Court on Tuesday handed down a verdict in the scandalous case of trafficking in counterfeit orders - special documents prohibiting the inspection of a car and the people in it. The decision turned out to be completely unexpected - those who were considered the main accused received leniency. But those who were victims in the case were punished very severely by the decision of the Gagarinsky Court of Moscow last week.

The Pavlyukov brothers - Valery and Andrey, who worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, were found guilty of abuse of power by the Basmanny court and sentenced to three years in a penal colony, and their friend Vyacheslav Zaitsev received four years in prison for using a fake ID of an FSB officer. In the coming months, Valery Pavlyukov and Vyacheslav Zaitsev may apply for parole, since they served the required period in prison during the investigation and trial. Andrei Pavlyukov will have to serve another 1.5 years, since he was not detained during the investigation. At the same time, three victims in this case were unlucky. The Gagarinsky court recently found them guilty of fraud and sentenced them to actual sentences of five to six years.

As follows from the materials of the criminal case, in March 2006, three unemployed people from the capital - Alexander Zolotykh, Sergey Kuzmin and Andrey Domrachev - sold fake orders under the guise of real ones for $264 thousand to Moscow businessman Vyacheslav Kurlanov. When the businessman realized that he had been deceived, he turned for help to Vyacheslav Zaitsev, whom mutual acquaintances advised him, assuring him that he had “great connections” in the special services. Zaitsev, according to the prosecutor's office, acting for selfish reasons, asked his friends - operative of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Central Federal District Valery Pavlyukov and his brother Andrei, who worked at the Basmanny District Department of Internal Affairs - to help return the money to Kurlanov. For his assistance, he promised Pavlyukov Sr. 10 thousand dollars, and his brother - help in buying an apartment.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, in order to return the money to the businessman, Zaitsev developed a cunning plan. On March 30, he allegedly forced Kurlanov to write a statement, from which it followed that he had lent one of the counterfeit sellers $300,000 as security for his apartment and now could not return the money. On the same day, Andrei Pavlyukov registered a statement at his police department. A few days later, at a meeting with linden sellers, Pavlyukov, introducing himself as a police officer, but under a different name, demanded that they return the money. Otherwise, the detective, according to investigators, promised to open a criminal case against them and detain their relatives on suspicion of participation in terrorism. Frightened, the traders gave up part of the money on the same day; the rest promised to return it later, but turned to the FSB. During the next meeting, held on April 6 in one of the cafes of the Atrium shopping center, the extortionists were detained.

According to representatives of the Department of Internal Security (DSB) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office, during the arrest, the unemployed Zaitsev tried to mislead them, calling himself either an employee of the FSB, or the DSB, and even an adviser to the deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, showing the relevant documents. But investigators found that they were all fake. “Representatives of these departments were called to the scene and stated that all of Zaitsev’s documents were fakes, and he had never worked in their departments. This man’s whole life is a total scam,” said the Ministry of Internal Affairs DSS. — The guy is 24 years old, and according to his documents, he is already a captain. How can this be? A huge collection of medals and orders was found in his apartment on Frunzenskaya.”

One way or another, Major Pavlyukov was charged with extortion and abuse of power, Vyacheslav Zaitsev was charged with extortion, and Pavlyukov Jr. was released on bail after the trial. As punishment, the prosecutor demanded from the court that all accused be sentenced to 11 years in prison. However, the lawyers of the arrested trio had a different version of what happened. “First of all, no one extorted from anyone,” lawyer Vladimir Zherebenkov told Vremya Novostey at the time. - Kurlanov knew Zaitsev, and they purchased counterfeit special products with joint money. After learning that the orders were not real, they tried to get their money back. The actions of the Pavlyukov brothers do not constitute extortion, since the goal was not to seize someone else’s property for personal gain. They only tried to return the property to the owners - Kurlanov and Zaitsev. There was verification material on this matter. After all, the money was received by Zolotykh, Kuzmin and Domrachev as a result of an illegal transaction to sell fake orders to Kurlanov, that is, as a result of criminal activity, and it turns out that it did not belong to them.”

Soon the Prosecutor General's Office agreed with the arguments of the defendants' lawyers and opened a criminal case against the victims. Thus, in a high-profile story, everyone was accused and there was not a single victim. The courts managed to resolve the dispute. “I think this is a fair sentence. The court agreed with our arguments that there was no extortion and left both titles and awards to the operatives. We are satisfied with the court’s decision, we will not appeal it,” concluded lawyer Zherebenkov.

Alexey IVLEV