Prosecution demands six years in colony for Chita gasification fraudster
The accused is listed as a victim in a separate criminal case on kidnapping.
The prosecutor«s office of Chita»s Central District has supported the state prosecution in court in the criminal case against 48-year-old Novosibirsk resident Denis Merzlyakov, accused of fraud in the gasification of Chita«s private sector. This was reported on 22 January in the Telegram channel of the Transbaikal prosecutor»s office, and the accused«s name was given to a Chita.Ru correspondent by the region»s senior assistant prosecutor, Yevgeny Sinelnikov.
It was previously reported that the court extended the term of detention in a pre-trial detention center for Denis Merzlyakov, the head of the gas projects department of the East Arctic Oil and Gas Corporation (VANK), suspected of fraud, who was allegedly beaten and kidnapped by his own colleagues from the gasification of Chita from the company Seltis-Stroiinvest-AMP, who suspected him of embezzlement. It was noted that the man will remain in custody until 29 March 2026. His kidnappers are being prosecuted in a separate criminal case. Denis Merzlyakov«s own view of the events can be found in this text.
«During the court debates, the prosecutor proposed to find the defendant guilty and sentence him to 6 years of imprisonment in a general-regime correctional colony, and to satisfy the filed civil claims. The final decision on the criminal case will be made by the court,» the message said.
According to the prosecution, since 2022 a project to gasify private households in Chita has been implemented under the national project «Ecology». To switch homes from coal to gas heating, in May 2023 the regional Ministry of Housing and Communal Services provided a subsidy to cover costs in the amount of 700 million rubles (approximately $7.8 million at current rates) to a commercial organization, which then engaged another legal entity as a contractor to carry out construction and installation work.
«Knowing this, the Moscow-based general director of a competing organization also involved in Chita»s gasification decided to embezzle budget funds, for which he created an organized crime group, involving two of his acquaintances and the head of the contractor, one of whom is the 48-year-old Novosibirsk resident. From June to August 2023, they concluded fictitious contracts for the development and installation of software, vehicle rental, and also issued interest-free loans to five individuals, embezzling 49 million rubles (approximately $544,400 at current rates),« the prosecutor»s office post states.
According to the prosecutor«s office, the property of the accused Merzlyakov has now been seized, as well as money in his accounts totaling more than 6 million rubles (approximately $66,700 at current rates).
It was previously reported that the Transbaikal Ministry of Housing and Communal Services is seeking to recover almost 50 million rubles (approximately $555,600 at current rates) from the former concessionaire of Chita«s gasification, ex-general director of the East Arctic Oil and Gas Corporation Stanislav Neverov (he is being tried separately) and other top managers of the company — these funds, according to the lawsuit, were allocated by the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services to the company AMK LLC as a subsidy for connecting in-house gas equipment, but were eventually embezzled from AMK»s account.
In January 2026, it also became known that a criminal case was initiated against former Transbaikal Territory Minister of Housing and Communal Services Alexei Golovinkin because he allegedly failed to ensure that budget funds were used for Chita«s gasification.
