The judge is dead, but his case lives

In Omsk there is a trial, which is called the most absurd in the history of local legal proceedings. The criminal case of the late federal judge Sergei Moskalenko is being considered. He is accused of receiving a major bribe from the developer Viktor Berg, executed in October 2015. Now at the court hearings, the children of the deceased are looking for justice.

On January 14, 2017, in one of the city parks, Omsk found the body of the judges of the Kuibyshevsky district court Sergey Moskalenko. From the statements of the press secretary of the Investigative Committee of Russia it follows that 58-year-old Sergey Moskalenko "brought a hunting chair and a linen rope with him to the park, walked, and hung closer to morning." A week before suicide, the Investigative Committee of Russia petitioned for prosecution of the judge criminal liability on charges of the murder of Omsk entrepreneur Viktor Berg.

The case of Victor Berg

The paths of the developer Berg and Lawyer Moskalenko crossed back in 2010. At that time, the director of the Omstroy-2001 company Viktor Berg-formerly one of the key developers of Omsk, a regional entrepreneur, was accused of fraud. According to investigators, from May 2005 to December 2008, Berg appropriated the money of 442 equity holders. The prosecutor's office asked for Berg for 8 years in prison. The judge in the case was appointed Sergei Moskalenko.

At the first stage of the trial, Moskalenko sent the case to revise - demanded to clarify the charges. It returned to court in 2012. An article on fraud (Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) was replaced by “theft of property on an especially large scale” (Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and also added several less grave articles to the charges. Later, the chairman of the regional court Vladimir Yarkova said in an interview that the case could be considered in six months. But Berg was judged by a total of 5 years.

The son of the developer Denis Berg says that the delay in the process was into his father's hands. By 2015, out of six articles of the prosecution, there was actually left - the rest has expired.

“The judge tightened the process in every possible way,” says Denis Berg . - The maximum term was assigned to each procedural action. All in order to close articles after the statute of limitations. There was only one article on the theft of property on an especially large scale. If you look at the practice, few people sit on it. Basically give a "convent."

The location of the judge, according to investigators, Viktor Berg, having paid him a bribe totaling 8 million rubles

This location of the judge, according to investigators, wandered Victor Berg, paying him a bribe for a total of 8 million rubles. In return, Sergei Moskalenko pledged to provide the defendant with an acquittal.

On October 14, 2015, a week before the sentence, Viktor Berg was killed. He was shot dead by five shots in his own car on the outskirts of the city. On October 30, 2015, the judge of the Kuibyshevsky district court Sergey Moskalenko stopped considering the Berg in connection with the death of the accused.

“Many different versions have been worked out,” says Denis Berg, “interest holders, business partners, some old enemies.” The investigator demanded more versions from me, more hooks. And I said that my father gave a bribe Sergey Moskalenko. It was with further investigative work that it was precisely confirmed for this version.

The case of Sergei Moskalenko

A month after the murder of Viktor Berg, on November 9, 2015, Judge Moskalenko himself with two knife wounds of the thigh was taken to the hospital. The initial version, according to which the unknown attacked the judge, was not in the future not confirmed. The official position of the Investigative Committee: Moskalenko cut himself.

The investigators left for exactly a year to collect the evidence base and get the suspension of authority Sergei Moskalenko from the qualification commission of judges of the Omsk region (CCC). In December 2016, he was charged with receiving a bribe (Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the form of money and material benefit.

According to the stories of the relatives of the developer Viktor Berg, acting in the trial as witnesses of the prosecution, Sergei Moskalenko took the money personally. Some of the amount was transferred to him by Viktor Berg himself, the other was his partner Anatoly Gorobchanov. Their meetings took place in deserted places: groves, garages. Moskalenko demanded to turn off the phones, pulling the battery out of them. On the day of the murder of Victor Berg, both of his phones were dismantled in a similar way.

Part of the bribe, 1.5 million rubles, according to the widow of Berg Tamara, the judge demanded to give "up"

Part of the bribe, 1.5 million rubles, according to the widow of Berg Tamara, the judge demanded to give "up".

- He ( husband Victor Berg. - Approx. ) Evil came, said that "Your Highness" (he called Moskalenko) another 1.5 million demands over those that we have already given. I asked: "Why? There was a contract." He conveyed the words of the judge: "I am not the only decision, I need to share."

According to the widow, it also follows that at some point Moskalenko changed the rules of the agreement. Allegedly, the judge began to offer the developer instead of an acquittal, either a conditional term, or a short -lived exit.

“I suppose that, angry, Victor Berg could threaten Sergei Moskalenko with his receipts that he had stored,” Tamara Berg said at the trial. - We urgently sold one of the apartments and paid the remaining amount of "your highness".

According to the son and widow of the developer, the judge could perceive these words of Viktor Berg as a threat and shoot him.

The body of the judge was found hanged in one of the city parks

In early January 2017, the Investigative Committee of Russia filed a request to the CCA to attract Sergei Moskalenko as the accused under the articles "Illegal turnover of weapons and ammunition" and "Murder in order to hide another crime." But already on January 14, the judge’s body was found hanged in one of the city parks.

“I suppose that the investigators were preparing Moskalenko’s accusation of the murder of his father,” says Denis Berg. - Nobody needed the dead father: neither lenders nor equity holders. Debts from whom to recover? And Moskalenko, in my understanding, realized that he could not bear the acquittal, and fearing that his father would pass him for a bribe in the Investigative Committee, stupidly got rid of him.

On January 20, 2017, despite the death of Sergei Moskalenko, the qualification commission of judges of the Omsk region nevertheless agreed to attract him as the accused. Thus, the federal judge was suspected of two crimes: in receiving a bribe from his defendant and subsequently his murder. But for Sergey Moskalenko, a daughter stood up.

From the late judge, the charges of murder were removed

Unlike relatives of Viktor Berg, the daughter of Judge Moskalenko Ekaterina Bespalova does not give an interview. However, it was Ekaterina Bespalova who achieved the cancellation of the decision of the KKS in a higher instance. From the late judge , the charges of murder were removed . With the charge of receiving a bribe, the situation is different. Ekaterina Bespalova could write a statement about the termination of the criminal case in connection with the death of the accused (for example, Viktor Berg, for example, received). In this case, the case is closed, the guilt of the accused remains unproven. But at the same time, he remains non -rehabilitated, so Ekaterina Bespalova refused to write such a statement, counting on an acquittal.

Out of work

While the confrontation between the families of Moskalenko and the Bergs continues, the instigators of the whole story remains out of work - deceived equity holders. Recall that it all started with the case of the developer of Viktor Berg, who was accused of the fact that in 2005-2008 he stole the money of equity holders of 11 apartment buildings in the Omsk region. For 7 years, while the trials of Viktor Berg and Sergey Moskalenko were going on, the number of victims decreased from 442 to 50 people, and the amount of claims from 103 million rubles dropped to 70 million.

If the fault of Sergei Moskalenko is proved, the court will pronounce a conviction to him - posthumously

This is due to the fact that, observing the trial, many equity holders understood his futility, created ZhSK, looked for new investors, completed their homes and abandoned civil lawsuits against the original developer. But 50 equity holders are still listed as victims. Their problems, however, have faded into the background. All the attention of the Omsk public is concentrated on the posthumous investigation of the case of a former federal judge. The prosecutor’s office explained that if Sergei Moskalenko’s fault is proved, the court will pass the conviction to him - posthumously, without sentencing.