Chita gas project head sentenced to 9 years for 170 million ruble fraud

A court in Chita has sentenced a gasification project manager to nine years in prison for embezzling 170 million rubles ($2.1 million at current rates), marking his second conviction in such cases.

Feb 16, 2026

The sentence will be partially served concurrently with his prior conviction for similar fraud.
Source:
Zabaykalsky Krai Prosecutor«s Office

The Central District Court of Chita sentenced 48-year-old Denis Merzlyakov from Novosibirsk, finding him guilty of fraud in the city«s gasification project. This was reported by Yevgeny Sinelnikov, senior assistant prosecutor of Zabaykalsky Krai, to Chita.Ru.

Merzlyakov and Neverov have already received sentences for one of the fraudulent schemes. The cases were considered in a special procedure and separately, as the accused entered pre-trial cooperation agreements with the prosecutor. Under the same scheme, the court is considering criminal cases against two other group members, but in the general procedure. The current case concerns a crime that Merzlyakov committed independently — separate from the group headed by Neverov.

«According to the prosecution, since 2022, under the national project »Ecology,« a gasification project for private houses has been implemented in Chita. In May 2023 and February 2024, the regional Ministry of Housing and Communal Services, Energy, Digitalization, and Communication provided subsidies totaling 700 million rubles (approximately $8.8 million at current rates) and 840 million rubles (approximately $10.5 million at current rates) to a commercial organization, which for construction and installation work engaged another legal entity as a contractor,» the statement said.

Merzlyakov, who worked for a competing company also involved in Chita«s gasification, according to the investigation, decided to embezzle budget funds. From August 2023 to March 2024, fictitious contracts for construction and installation work were concluded and three loans were issued to embezzle 170 million rubles (approximately $2.1 million at current rates).

To compensate for the damage, property and accounts of Merzlyakov totaling over 6 million rubles (approximately $75,000 at current rates) have been seized. The court also ordered him to pay the full amount of the damage caused. The sentence has not yet come into legal force.

A few days earlier, Merzlyakov, head of the gas projects department at the East Arctic Oil and Gas Corporation (VANK), had already received a sentence in another criminal case for fraud in Chita«s gasification — 6 years of imprisonment. It was established that under the leadership of former VANK general director Stanislav Neverov, a criminal group that included Merzlyakov embezzled 49 million rubles (approximately $610,000 at current rates) allocated for a project to convert private houses in the regional center from stove to gas heating. On January 26, the court sentenced Neverov to 6 years and 6 months of imprisonment in the same case. The perspective of Denis Merzlyakov himself, who is also a victim in a criminal case of kidnapping, can be found in this text.