Ex-mayor of Zhigulyovsk in revived car bribery case

The Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction published a ruling on the criminal case concerning former head of Zhigulyovsk and founder of the company «Ton-Avto» Alexander Kurylin. He was accused of bribing former head of the Sixth Cassation Court Alexander Yefanov with a car.

According to the document, the case against Kurylin was reopened at the insistence of the General Prosecutor«s Office.

Alexander Kurylin headed Zhigulyovsk from 2008 to 2013. After that, he decided to go into business. Kurylin came under close scrutiny by law enforcement in late 2023. At that time, he was first declared a federal fugitive, and then— arrested in absentia. However, what exactly the former official was suspected of was unknown.

Later, details emerged. Alexander Khinshtein (then a deputy of the State Duma) outlined the case«s narrative: allegedly, Kurylin gave a bribe to Judge Yefanov. It involved a Toyota car, received by the now former chairman of the Sixth Cassation Court from Kurylin purportedly under a use agreement.

The Moscow City Court dismissed the case against Kurylin on formal grounds, without denying the bribery incident itself. The court decided that the investigator of the Leninsky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia (ICR) for Samara Region did not have the authority to initiate a criminal case against Kurylin.

In the cassation, it was noted that «the conclusions of the judicial instances regarding the lack of authority of the investigator of the Leninsky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Samara Region to initiate a criminal case against Kurylin A. I. under Part 5 of Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the detection and disclosure of which fall under the competence of investigators of the Investigative Committee of Russia, were made without taking into account <…> legal norms.»

As a result, the cassation court transferred the materials for new consideration to the Zamoskvoretsky Court of the capital, and later the investigation was resumed.