and asked for ten years of strict regime for him

debate

Yesterday, the Basmanny Court held a debate in the case of the former head of the Rosinkor group of companies, Dmitry Velichko. He is accused of helping fictitious Yukos companies evade taxes and stealing budget funds. The prosecution requested a ten-year sentence for the defendant. Lawyers are asking for his acquittal.

When state prosecutor Vadim Ovchinnikov began to speak, Dmitry Velichko, sitting in a cage, crossed himself and crossed his lawyers. The prosecutor recalled that last year the Meshchansky Court sentenced the former head of YUKOS Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the head of the MFO MENATEP Platon Lebedev. As follows from the decision of that court, the prosecutor specified, front companies controlled by YUKOS: Grace LLC, Nortex LLC, Alebra LLC, Muscron LLC, Flander LLC, Colerain LLC, Quercus LLC, registered in the city of Trekhgorny, Chelyabinsk region, and four companies from the closed administrative town of Lesnaya, Sverdlovsk region (Business Oil LLC, Mitra LLC, Wald-Oil LLC, Forest Oil LLC) did not carry out activities, but were created only for tax evasion. In the spring of 2001, all 11 of these companies were removed from tax registration. The head of Rosinkor, Dmitry Velichko, according to the prosecutor, agreed with the proposal of Natalya Chernysheva (head of the regional business department of Rosprom CJSC, last year London refused her extradition to Russia - Kommersant) to “merge” these companies with those created and registered by him in the Buryat village of Aginsky to the companies "Alkhanay" and "Perspective-Optimum". “At the same time, Velichko knew that YUKOS companies were shell companies, and he was reliably aware that their transfer and liquidation was being carried out to conceal taxes from the state by YUKOS,” the prosecutor read, wiping his forehead with a handkerchief after an hour of continuous reading. Dmitry Velichko himself and his lawyers laughed while listening to the state prosecutor’s speech.

The companies "Alkhanay" and "Perspective-Optimum" were also dummies, the prosecutor said, they did not perform the functions of a legal entity, did not carry out commercial activities, and did not make a profit. And their accounts payable and receivable arose precisely from the 11 YUKOS companies affiliated with them. Mr. Velichko, according to the prosecutor, “turned the resulting funds in the amount of 254 million rubles to his benefit and the benefit of other persons.”

The third company, Investproekt, created with the participation of Dmitry Velichko in the Chita region, became the legal successor of Alkhanaya and Perspektiva-Optimum. The Investproekt company, having contacted the Chita tax inspectorate in 2002, asked to be reimbursed from the budget for 24.1 million rubles allegedly overpaid by its predecessors to the budget in the form of Yukos promissory notes. The tax authorities transferred this amount to the company’s account in Impexbank.

As a result, the state prosecutor said, Dmitry Velichko purchased Impexbank bills for this amount. In general, Vadim Ovchinnikov summed up, Dmitry Velichko turned 278 million rubles of budget funds into his favor, committing large-scale fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code), false entrepreneurship (Article 173 of the Criminal Code) and legalizing criminally acquired funds (Article 174 of the Criminal Code). “I ask you to take into account the socially significant role of these crimes, as well as the fact that the defendant did not admit his guilt,” the prosecutor noted. At the same time, the state prosecutor asked the court to take into account the positive characteristics of the defendant, his awards (Dmitry Velichko has commendations from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and medals, including for strengthening the penal system), as well as the fact that he has minor children dependent on him. “In total, by partial addition of the terms, I ask that the defendant be sentenced to ten years of strict regime imprisonment,” said prosecutor Ovchinnikov. Those present in the courtroom did not expect such an ending and looked at each other in surprise. The defendant's lawyers, Anatoly Novikov and Ilya Aleshenko, stated in their speech that their client did not commit anything illegal. There were no thefts from the budget, they believe. Everything was done in accordance with the laws, including tax laws. The companies named by the prosecutor were not shells, but active ones, and the funds mentioned actually belonged to these companies. The defense lawyers asked the court to acquit Mr. Velichko. The defendant’s common-law wife Raisa Kozlova also hopes for this, declaring that she and their six-year-old daughter are completely financially dependent on him and Dmitry Velichko is the family’s only source of existence.

On March 9, Dmitry Velichko will give his last word, after which the court will retire to pronounce a verdict.

MARINA Kommersant-LEPINA

The state prosecutor described Yukos's partner on the positive side