Deputy Director Bribed Official with Yard Renovation

The prosecutor«s office of the Oktyabrsky District of Samara discovered an unusual way of «thanking» an official. Instead of money, the bribe was given in the form of work — they renovated the yard of a relative.

An inspection showed that in November 2024, the deputy director of the Samara Regional Fund for Support of Individual Housing Construction (SOFPIZHS) organized and paid for work in the yard of a close relative of the head of the architecture department of Otradny. The reason was the issuance of permits for commissioning of objects built by the fund without actual inspection.

The prosecutor«s office initiated an administrative case on illegal remuneration on behalf of a legal entity. A magistrate fined the guilty party 1 million rubles (approximately $11,100 at current exchange rates).

Now, both the giver and the receiver of this unusual «remuneration» are facing criminal prosecution. The specific charges are not specified.

This is not the first corruption scandal involving the fund. Earlier, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (SKR) opened a criminal case on fraud in housing design. According to investigators, members of an organized group, which included leaders of the fund and controlled structures, prepared project documentation with deliberately false data. This allowed them to receive over 345 million rubles (approximately $3,833,300 at current exchange rates) in subsidies from the budget, which were then «laundered» and spent on personal needs.

The Samara Regional Fund for Support of Individual Housing Construction (SOFPIZHS) has previously been at the center of high-profile cases. In 2020, its former director, Viktor Kostin, was sentenced to 4.5 years in a penal colony for abuse of office and embezzlement.

Apparently, inspections of the fund«s activities are ongoing, and the list of suspects may grow.