Sverdlovsk police thwarted a fraudulent scheme to obtain government subsidies.

      Sverdlovsk police, in the course of checking citizens’ appeals and complaints and while acting on operational information, uncovered violations in the activities of one of Kachkanar’s transport companies that carries out passenger transportation in the region.

      Investigators of the Kachkanar Department of Internal Affairs suspect the company’s management of having, over a five-year period, monthly submitted forged documents to the authorized institution to obtain state subsidies from the municipal budget.

      — The reporting materials listed citizens who allegedly had the right to discounted travel in order to compensate the carrier’s lost income. The information, however, did not correspond to reality; some of the persons were already deceased at the time the documents were prepared. It has been preliminarily established that the damage to the budget may exceed 30 million rubles. Ministry of Internal Affairs officials have opened a criminal case under the article “Fraud committed by an organized group in obtaining payments on an especially large scale.” The maximum penalty for the crime is imprisonment for up to 10 years, — said Valery Gorelykh, press secretary of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk Region.

      During searches of the ticket offices where tickets were sold and of the transport company’s warehouses, detectives found and seized unmarked alcoholic and tobacco products worth more than 2.5 million rubles. A criminal case has been opened under the article “Sale of goods and products without markings.” Police have detained a 32-year-old man who, investigators believe, was the company’s nominal director.

      — In addition, operatives established that the company’s main activities were controlled by one family — a father and his two sons. According to the investigation, the suspects may have exerted psychological pressure and blackmailed witnesses, so another criminal case has been opened under the article “Bribery or coercion to give testimony, committed by an organized group.” With the tactical support of SOBR units of the National Guard, the head of the family, born in 1961, and his son, born in 1984, were detained. The defendants in the high-profile case are being held in the pretrial detention center in Nizhny Tagil. The third alleged accomplice in the criminal scheme, a man born in 1989, is under an undertaking not to leave, — Colonel Gorelykh noted.

      Additional episodes have been uncovered related to the forgery of official documents, violations in the organization of passenger transport, and fictitious pre-trip medical examinations by drivers. A number of further criminal cases are planned to be opened against the suspects.