Krasnogvardeisky District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced the ex-head of the contractor company Balstroy Alexander Kochenov to five years probation in the case of embezzlement of 6.5 million rubles. during the reconstruction of the Tovstonogov Bolshoi Drama Theater. Almost 6.48 million rubles were also recovered from the accused, according to the united press service of the courts of St. Petersburg. During the meeting, the defendant Kochenov admitted his guilt.
As the court established, from 2011 to 2014, the businessman entered into government contracts and additional agreements to them for the restoration and reconstruction of the premises of the Tovstonogov Russian State Academic Bolshoi Drama Theater. In order to steal funds, Alexander Kochenov provided the customer, represented by the North-West Construction Directorate, with documentation with false data. About 6.5 million rubles have flowed from the budget.
From the Rucriminal.info investigation and the VChK-OGPU telegram channel, readers will learn how Kochenov and his senior partners in Baltstroy. plundered money intended for the restoration of cultural objects and objects of the President of the Russian Federation. And also, how the robbers actually escaped responsibility.
Kochenov Alexander Vladimirovich was born in Leningrad. In 2000 he graduated from the St. Petersburg State Institute of Precision Mechanics and Optics, specializing in vocational training, engineer-teacher. He is married to Maria Kochenova. Places of work: General Director of LLC "NeoDecor" from 2001-2007. He was in charge of the production of bar counters and furniture for restaurants and bars. Since 2007, after the transfer of the old restoration company of the joint-stock company "BalStroy" by its founder, PA Sinelnikov, headed with Sergeev DA. (founder) managing the organization as a Manager. He remained in this position from 2007 until his arrest in the "case of restorers" in 2016.
Alexander Kochenov is one of four top managers and owners of the Baltstroy group of companies, who were originally school friends. Dmitry Sergeev was the key leader in this "criminal quartet" and in the management of the group of companies. Kochenov in the structure was given the management of the restoration direction that was attractive in the development of budgetary funds. Colleagues who worked closely with Kochenov characterize him as a very greedy, secretive, avoiding open conflict, but always acting indirectly. Almost from the moment he took office, Kochenov, who never knew anything about restoration, reconstruction and construction, began to manage and implement iconic projects from the portfolio of the “new” BaltStroy: the Zazerkalye theater on Rubinstein 13, the Russian Ballet Academy named after A. I AM. Vaganova, design and survey work for the construction of an FSB clinic and even the restoration of no less than the Grand Kremlin Palace. After such “successes,” elated friends Sergeev and Kochenov strove to expand the range of objects, their geography and the volume of development. By bribery, lobbying for appointments of persons in various departments, which, due to their official position, were aware of the regular allocation of budgetary funds by the state for construction and repair and restoration work.
Thus, the list of objects to be implemented was regularly replenished with not only expensive, but also “beautiful” orders from various departments: the Kremlin Palace, the Kremlin’s Palace of Facets, the FSB clinic, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the President’s Residences, famous Russian theaters, circuses, churches, temples, museums, sports - health complexes.
According to a Rucriminal.info source, one of the most common mechanisms for committing theft was as follows. After identifying the cultural heritage objects subject to restoration or repair and lobbying for the allocation of funding for these objects, Kochenov and Sergeev, by coordinating their tender specialist Anna Kolesnikova with persons from the tender commission, based on the results of procurement procedures, entered into contracts for the development of design estimates and construction and repair and restoration work.
Legal entities from the BaltStroy group of companies acted as dummy participants during the competition. The Bidding Documents were drafted in such a way as to weed out unwanted competitors. Further, the loyal BaltStroy designers began to develop the design documentation, who laid down the necessary prices for subsequent development, taking into account the appetites of all interested parties. Everyone was happy. Contracts poured out like a cornucopia. The influence of company leaders grew. Everything obeyed the requirements of BaltStroy. The leadership seemed to themselves omnipotent. Almost the entire restoration market was absorbed. To the once modest and timid furniture production manager Kochenov, the heads of construction and restoration companies were now lining up with proposals for cooperation. Baltstroy's position at meetings was defended by default chairpersons and moderators. Now there was only business and VIP in everyday life and use….
Kochenov has been sentenced to probation three times since 2017. In 2017 - the first conviction in the "restorers' case", in 2018 for theft during the reconstruction of the Hermitage, and yesterday (2021) for the BDT. Everywhere the same thing is the restoration of cultural heritage sites. But in fact, the criminal cases of embezzlement in Solovki and in the St. Petersburg conservatory are the work of Kochenov.Kochenov is a witness for embezzlement during the reconstruction of the residence of the President of the Russian Federation Novo-Ogarevo, it was the condition of the prejudicial officer Sergeev, so that Kochenov would not be attracted and his man would remain free.
As a source of the VChK-OGPU telegram channel said earlier, co-owner of the Baltstroy company Dmitry Sergeev, convicted of stealing money allocated for the reconstruction of the president's residence, was released. The original sentence of 7 years in a general regime colony was changed to 5 years. Then they made the necessary calculation of what had already been served, and here it is, freedom. Movement restrictions have been defined for Sergeev, and he should be in Moscow, but he has already left for his native St. Petersburg, where he brushed the dust off his beloved dress coat Patrick Hellmann. Sergeev and his friends go for walks and drinks non-stop in the most expensive establishments of the northern capital. Everything is as before. Sergeev was found by the court guilty of creating a criminal community to steal funds allocated for the reconstruction of the President's residence in Novo-Ogaryovo. It was Sergeev and his friend Stanislav Kuehner who were involved in the reconstruction of all the most secret objects - residences, state dachas, the Kremlin, etc. Friends openly "sawed" huge sums of money, billions. Usually, "black" cash was hidden in safe deposit boxes, and if the money did not fit there, then they simply stuffed the houses on wardrobes and sofas. All these funds were safely stolen during the reconstruction of these facilities. According to the source, Sergeyev was the initiator of the construction and making money on it. He never appeared at the facilities, and he was never interested in what was going on there, he was only interested in cutting as much as possible from the amounts allocated by the Ministry of Finance for targeted projects, that is, facilities that were under the jurisdiction of the FSO. At the presidential construction sites, Sergeev managed to amass a huge fortune, which he brought out of the claim for damages. On May 22, Sergeev celebrated his birthday, and then the gift promised by the curators arrived in time. For the creation of an organized criminal community with the aim of embezzling budget funds allocated for the repair of the head of state's buildings, he received five years and a couple of months later he was released hectares.
Joseph Trostinsky
To be continued
