Former Dagomysskoye DRSU Director Appeals Conviction

The Krasnodar Regional Court has begun considering an appeal against the verdict of the Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi, which sentenced former Dagomysskoye DRSU director Saforbiy Napso to a standard-regime penal colony for fraud and abuse of power.

The first hearing was scheduled for January 21 but was postponed to January 28, according to the regional court«s case file. Napso disagreed with the verdict despite receiving the minimum sentence after reaching a cooperation agreement with investigators. According to the Prosecutor General»s Office, Saforbiy gave testimony against former Russian State Duma MP Anatoly Voronovsky, who was stripped of his powers and sent to a pre-trial detention center. Napso stated that he had given Voronovsky a bribe of 25 million rubles (approx. $277,800 at current rates).

Recall that the Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi announced the verdict in late October last year against former director of the Krasnodar Krai State Unitary Enterprise «Dagomysskoye DRSU» Saforbiy Napso, who was found guilty on two counts—abuse of power and fraud. He is the cousin of former Russian State Duma MP Yuri Napso, who was stripped of his powers for absenteeism.

It was established that, as the director of the state enterprise, the defendant, as part of an organized group that included other DRSU employees, devised a criminal plan. From 2018 to 2021, members of the criminal group, using straw men and legal entities and individuals under their control, stole property from the enterprise: vehicles and road equipment with a total value exceeding 45 million rubles (approx. $500,000 at current rates).

In 2019, the defendant and his accomplices, having prepared fake appraisal documentation, carried out a transaction under which an asphalt concrete plant, owned by Dagomysskoye DRSU, was transferred to a legal entity controlled by the defendants. The transaction was valued at less than 1 million rubles (approx. $11,100 at current rates), while the actual value of the plant was 81,632,278 rubles (approx. $907,000 at current rates), according to the joint press service of the courts of Krasnodar Krai.

The defendants planned to use the asphalt concrete plant for personal enrichment through legal entities and individual entrepreneurs under their control.

The damage caused to the state by the defendants« actions amounted to over 80 million rubles (approx. $888,900 at current rates).

Furthermore, from 2019 to 2020, using a controlled legal entity and fake documents confirming the delivery of goods and serving as the basis for payment, Napso and his accomplices received over 4 million rubles (approx. $44,400 at current rates), which they used at their discretion. Also, from 2020 to 2021, acting as part of a group, the defendant organized the preparation of certificates on the cost of work performed and the enterprise«s expenses, into which deliberately false information was entered. Based on these documents, as payment for work under a contract that was not actually performed, money was transferred to the settlement account of Dagomysskoye DRSU, of which 79 million rubles (approx. $877,800 at current rates) were appropriated by Napso and his accomplices and then spent at their discretion.

The court found Napso guilty, but taking into account the pre-trial agreement, he received only 4 years in a standard-regime colony. The convicted man was taken into custody in the courtroom. The criminal case against other employees of the enterprise is under consideration.