In the Leningrad region, officials squandered millions allocated for defrauded real estate investors

According to investigators, the deputy head of the regional department of state expertise may be involved in the embezzlement of about 330 million rubles from the amount allocated for the completion of two problematic residential complexes.

Alexander Dybin, St. Petersburg

The arrest of Yevgeny Bredikhin was reported by the press service of the Investigative Department of the TFR in the Leningrad Region. Bredikhin served as deputy head of the department of state expertise. This structure, along with the regional fund for the support of equity holders, is key in the topic of completing unfinished projects. As a rule, such houses are problematic not only in terms of delivery time, but also the quality of construction, so the examination is especially thorough in such objects.

According to the press service of the Investigative Committee, the deputy head of the state expertise department was detained and interrogated on suspicion of complicity in crimes under part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The investigation intends to demand the election of a measure of restraint in the form of detention.

“The investigators establish the involvement of the management of commercial organizations and other persons in complicity in the waste of budget funds. Additionally, the fact of the theft of more than 80 million rubles allocated to the fund to help equity holders for the completion of the residential complex "Yaninsky cascade", residential complex "Ryabinovy Sad" was established, - the investigative committee reported, - at present, the total amount of budget funds illegally spent by the fund is more than 330 million rubles".

It is noted that in addition to the interrogation of an official from the Leningrad region, searches were carried out in St. Petersburg, Moscow and the Moscow region, in the offices of the state examination department of the Leningrad region, commercial firms appearing in the case, as well as at the houses of the suspects.

The Investigative Committee has been "shaking" the fund for the protection of the rights of equity holders since mid-summer, when Denis Chibisov, the former deputy director of this structure, was detained. He was accused of commercial bribery (Article 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to investigators, while preparing to complete the construction of two abandoned residential complexes, the fund ordered new project documentation, but it was based on the source documents of the troubled developer. According to law enforcement officers, the actual cost of the work amounted to 36 million rubles, and about 100 million were paid. Chibisov was taken into custody at the request of the investigator.

Later, three more defendants in this case were detained.

“The fact of embezzlement in the amount of more than 250 million rubles allocated to the fund for the completion of problematic objects of the Tridevyatkino Kingdom residential complex, the Shcheglovskaya Usadba residential complex, the Bright residential complex, the Desyatkino 2.0 residential complex, the City of Childhood residential complex, the Scottish residential complex has been established , the right of the developer of which was transferred to the regional fund”, - the Investigative Committee for the Leningrad Region specified.

It should be noted that the topic of deceived equity holders is considered a “pain point” of the region's governor Alexander Drozdenko. Recent years have passed in attempts to “expand” this problem and remove the social negativity that scandals with abandoned residential complexes generate. At the same time, against the background of the criminal case and the scandals that accompany it, the regional fund for the protection of the rights of equity holders has become more active in the media plane, regularly publishes fresh photos from the construction sites of residential complexes that appear in the reports of the investigative committee.

This is not the only corruption scandal in the government of the Leningrad region in recent weeks. At the end of August, Sergey Kharlashkin, deputy chairman of the regional government for transport and fuel and energy, was arrested. He is accused of abuse of power. But the criminal case is connected with the period of his work in St. Petersburg, when he oversaw the construction of the metro. According to investigators, Kharlashkin, being the chairman of the committee for the development of transport infrastructure in St. Petersburg, allowed the management of the now bankrupt Metrostroy OJSC to spend the money issued as an advance payment for the next work on the construction of the subway for other purposes not related to the construction of facilities. Namely, with this money, debts to counterparties were closed. The initiator of the criminal case was Rosselkhozbank, which considered that this decision violated the bank guarantee agreement.