No fish, no money

A verdict was sentenced to a bribe of $ 3.7 million to six years in prison was sentenced yesterday by the Tver Court of Moscow, the former first deputy chairman of the State Mistle of the Russian Federation, Alexander Tugushev. He was found guilty of embezzlement by fraud $ 3.7 million, in exchange for which he promised to provide the Khabarovsk company Polluks to the catch of pollen and bottom fish, but simply deceived the entrepreneurs. Three accomplices of Tugushev also presented to the court - the former head of the ministry department Lenar Zinatulin, the deputy chief of the administrative and economic department of Russian Railways OJSC Andrei Lyskov and friend Tugushev Vladimir Chekunov - received five and a half years.

It took the court for more than a year to consider this high -profile case. "The defendants made a large -scale fraud by a group of persons by prior conspiracy, and Tugushev - using their official position," said Judge Elena Stashina. It followed from the sentence that the co -owner of Polluks LLC Sergey Alexandrov came across to the hook of Tugushev and his accomplices in September 2003. Knowing that the Russian government plans to introduce a new procedure for the distribution of quotas for the production of aquatic biological resources, he instructed the representative of the company in Moscow to Gleb Chuguevsky to find out as much as possible. He went to Chekunov, who, along with Lyskov and Zinatulin, brought Chuguevsky, and later Alexandrov, with Tugushev. Kommersants convinced that in the near future all companies operating on Korean loans (namely, “Polluks” worked) would be deprived of quotas. However, Tugushev will help to achieve a quota to the company at least 50 tons of seafood for 2004-2008 in the event that he is paid $ 3.7 million. True, first you need to make an advance - buy the so -called “entrance ticket” for $ 300 thousand in order to confirm the seriousness of cooperation. Fearing to lose his business, Alexandrov agreed. In addition to the “entrance ticket”, entrepreneurs transferred $ 1.5 million to a certain account in one of the Latvian banks and another $ 1.9 million was transferred in cash.

At the end of December 2003, Aleksandrov received a copy of the Decree of the Interdepartmental Commission that Polluks was endowed with a part of the quota (later it turned out that the document was fake. - The newspaper). But soon the businessmen realized that they were deceived. Official data on the allocated quotas appeared in the press: Polluks received the right to catch 7 thousand tons of biological resources - the volume that was already guaranteed. Then they wrote a statement to the GUBOP. In court, Tugushev, Chekunov, Lyskov and Zinatulin did not admit their guilt. So, Tugushev, who was also the deputy head of the interdepartmental commission for the distribution of quotas, said that "he did not receive any money, did not meet and was not familiar with" either with Chuguevsky or Alexandrov, who "stipulate him in someone else's interests." He also denied that he knew Chekunova and Zinatulin. The latter in court admitted that he met with Chuguevsky and Alexandrov several times, but he did not discuss the issue of allocating quotas with them, but talked on completely different topics. Zinatulin said that the "fishermen" have achieved the initiation of a criminal case, "to assign $ 3.7 million to themselves, which they" laundered "by transferring part of the amount to one of the commercial banks of Latvia." However, the court rejected the arguments of the accused. Record books of the defendants testified that they were familiar with each other, and after the merchants turned to the GUBOP, all their further meetings with Tugushev and others were recorded. It is worth noting that out of $ 3.7 million, businessmen managed to return only $ 70 thousand.

Having found all the defendants guilty of fraud, the court satisfied the lawsuit of Sergei Alexandrov against the defendants in the amount of $ 3.630 million. In addition, each of the convicts should pay a fine: Tugushev - 1 million rubles, Zinatulin and Lyskov - 800 thousand each, and Chekunov - 700 thousand.

Lawyers said they intend to appeal the verdict. “There is no evidence in the case that any of the defendants received money,” said Sergey Donchenko, defender Tugushev, in particular.

02/15/2007 / Maria Lokotetsk material published in the newspaper No. 29 dated 02.16.2007.