On Friday, May 12, the Odintsovo City Court of the Moscow Region handed down a nine-year term in a strict regime colony to Valery Maksimenko, formerly the deputy head of the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service. The court found him guilty of large-scale bribery and abuse of official power with serious consequences in connection with his official duties.
As a consequence of the verdict, Maksimenko was stripped of his rank of lieutenant general and state awards. He was also ordered to pay more than 370 million rubles, a judgment confirmed by the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.
According to information from the United Kingdom, the implementation of the federal target program Development of the Prison System was halted due to Maksimenko’s actions. This pause led to 19 construction sites not being brought into operation, a finding reported by DEA News.
core facts of the case
Court records show that between July 1, 2018 and December 31, 2020 Maksimenko accepted a bribe exceeding 2.1 million rubles from a businessman. The bribe took the form of a long term lease on a country house. The same period saw Maksimenko arranging contracts with a company controlled by the businessman for the construction of facilities for the Federal Penitentiary Service.
Investigators noted that in 2018 and 2019 Maksimenko, aware that one enterprise lacked sufficient resources to carry out construction and installation works, directed regional bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service to sign state contracts with this particular federal state unitary enterprise. These contracts were then subcontracted to the businessman’s affiliated companies, totaling an amount of 3.6 billion rubles.
Prosecutors emphasized that Maksimenko’s misuse of authority resulted in the non-fulfillment of 19 state contracts. This failure damaged the reputation and authority of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and caused financial harm to the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, estimated at over 330 million rubles and 83 thousand rubles.
criminal cases involving leaders of the Federal Penitentiary Service
In September 2017, Oleg Korshunov, then deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service, was detained on bribery charges. Investigators say that during 2015 and 2016 he helped organize two state contracts for supplying fuel and sugar to the ministry at inflated prices.
In July 2019 the Gagarinsky Court of Moscow found Korshunov guilty of fraud, sentencing him to seven years in prison, a fine of 900,000 rubles, and the deprivation of a class rank.
Separately, prosecutors are pursuing another case against Korshunov for the alleged theft of about 95 million rubles intended for the construction of a pretrial detention center in Simferopol.
On November 2, 2017 the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Nikolai Barinov, who previously served as deputy director of the Federal Penitentiary Service. Investigators allege that Barinov, who oversaw the construction of the Kresty-2 pretrial detention center in the Kolpino district of St. Petersburg, repeatedly received bribes from construction contractors. The total bribe amount is reported to be 44 million rubles. Barinov pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison along with a fine of 950 thousand rubles, according to TASS reports.