On February 8, the Samara Regional Court considered an appeal against the verdict…

On February 8, the Samara Regional Court considered an appeal against the verdict of the former chairman of the board of Togliattikhimbank, Alexander Popov. The court reduced the additional penalty in the form of a fine to three times the amount of the bribe – 338 million rubles, and also excluded the additional penalty in the form of a three-year ban on activities related to the management of financial companies. In the rest of the verdict, the court left the decision of the first instance unchanged.
Earlier, on June 9, the Central District Court of Tolyatti convicted the former chairman of the board of Togliattikhimbank, Alexander Popov, in a criminal case of giving a bribe on an especially large scale, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (part 3 of article 30 and part 5 of article 291 Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The court sentenced him to 7.5 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony and a fine of 500 million rubles.

The case was opened by the Investigative Committee on January 24, 2020. As the court found, Popov, at the direction of the owner of Togliattiazot PJSC Sergei Makhlay, through the mediation of third parties, tried in 2015 to bribe judges of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation for resolving a tax dispute between the Federal Tax Service and ToAZ. The attempt to corrupt the court was unsuccessful for reasons beyond Popov’s control, but the crime and Popov’s guilt were confirmed by the court.

Popov was arrested by the Investigative Committee on May 31, 2019 while trying to leave Russia. Then he was charged with committing two crimes under Part 2 of Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (tax evasion on an especially large scale), crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale by prior conspiracy), crimes under Part 3 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (creation of an organized criminal community or participation in it). Together with Popov, the defendants in these cases are the beneficiaries of PJSC Togliattiazot – Vladimir and Sergey Makhlai and their foreign accomplices.
An episode of corruption against judges of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, separated into a separate criminal case, was revealed by the investigation during the investigation of the criminal case on the creation of a criminal community.

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In addition to Popov, Sergei Makhlai is also involved in a criminal case of bribing judges of the RF Supreme Court as an accomplice and organizer of the crime. Since Makhlai remains at large, hiding in the United States, it is possible that he will make new attempts to bribe the Supreme Court in criminal cases related to Togliattiazot and other companies controlled by him.