The court found abuses in the execution of the billion-dollar contract

The Vasileostrovsky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced the ex-director of the Central Naval Museum (CVMM) Andrei Lyalin and the general director of the NEVISS-complex company Alexander Shvirikasov, who were involved in moving the museum’s exhibitions to a new building. According to investigators, as a result of their conspiracy, hundreds of millions of rubles were paid for work not yet completed by the company. In addition, the museum worker was accused of receiving a bribe from a business partner. As a result, both were found guilty: Lyalin was sentenced to nine years in prison and a fine of 500 million rubles. and confiscation of two apartments and a car, and the businessman - to three years in prison.

Photo: Alexander Koryakov, Kommersant / buy photo

From the first lines of the verdict, it became clear that the presiding judge, Yuri Gershevsky, considered the guilt of the defendants proven. As follows from the case materials, in 2010, a state contract was concluded between the Ministry of Defense and NEVISS-complex LLC to move museum exhibitions to a new building on Truda Square. The cost of the contract was about 1 billion rubles, part of the money was transferred to the merchant in advance. Andrey Lyalin was assigned responsibilities for monitoring the execution of the contract. In fact, the verdict says, the museum worker signed fictitious documents on the execution of work prepared by the businessman. Subsequently, on the basis of these papers, misled Deputy Defense Minister Nikolai Pankov signed financial documents transferring money to the NEVISS-complex account. “Lyalin’s actions led to full payment of the contract without actual execution of the work,” the verdict notes. At the time of the initiation of the criminal case in March 2013, the cost of uncompleted work was estimated at almost 650 million rubles. However, as the court notes, the contract was actually executed only in May of this year.

In addition, Lyalin was found guilty of receiving a bribe from Shvirikasov. As follows from the verdict, the director of the museum told the businessman that he had been appointed as the responsible representative of the Ministry of Defense, and asked for a 10% kickback from the cost of the contract. However, due to the financial difficulties of the NEVISS complex that arose in 2011, Lyalin was given only 56 million rubles.

Both defendants in the case did not admit guilt in court, and Alexander Shvirikasov claimed that he even had to spend more than 200 million rubles to move the museum. in excess of the contract amount. As a result, Judge Gershevsky found Andrei Lyalin guilty of accepting a bribe, abuse of power and forgery, and Alexander Shvirikasov of aiding and abetting the last two crimes. Lyalin was sentenced to nine years in a maximum security colony, fined half a billion rubles, and two apartments and a BMW X5 were confiscated from him. In addition, he was deprived of government awards and the right to hold positions in the civil service for three years. Alexander Shvirikasov was sentenced to three years in a general regime colony.

After this, a private ruling was announced to the Ministry of Defense, in which Judge Gershevsky drew attention to the conditions that contributed to the commission of the crime. In particular, according to the court, this was weak control on the part of the central apparatus of the department.

After the verdict was announced, Alexander Shvirikasov was supposed to be arrested, but he suddenly became ill and was taken away by ambulance. Defenders of Lyalin and Shvirikasov have already promised to appeal the verdict.

Let us note that before the contract with the Ministry of Defense for the relocation of the CVMM "NEVISS-complex" actively participated in the construction projects of the presidential administration (reconstruction of the Konstantinovsky Palace and other major projects) and federal ministries and departments, and also built the Transneft residence in the center of St. Petersburg. However, after a conflict with the “daughter” of Transneft - Baltic Trunk Oil Pipelines LLC (litigation with the legal successor of Transneft-Baltika LLC is still ongoing) - the NEVISS-complex began to have problems that ended in its financial collapse and the failure of a number of large federal government contracts.

Dmitry Marakulin, Anna Pushkarskaya, St. Petersburg

The museum's move ended with a colony