Prosecutors charge ex-Krasnodar court deputy with money laundering
The assets in question include two apartments in Sochi acquired by the former judge.
A new corruption scandal is erupting in the judicial system in Krasnodar. City Prosecutor Andrey Kiriienko has filed an anti-corruption lawsuit against former deputy chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court, Igor Nikolaichuk. The prosecutor«s office believes that the ex-judge illegally engaged in business, acquired elite real estate, and laundered large incomes.
According to the prosecutor«s office, Nikolaichuk, while serving as a judge, violated the ban on entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, from 2007 to 2018, he participated in financing the construction of an elite residential building in Sochi on Kurortny Prospekt. As a result, the former judge acquired two apartments with a total area of over 300 square meters, which he registered in his own name and that of his son.
The lawsuit also states that Nikolaichuk for many years conducted commercial activity in construction, real estate rental, and production of PVC products, earning incomes that he did not declare. Part of these funds—about $2.2 million—according to the prosecutor«s office, was »laundered« through financing the construction of a trade-office center on Novorossiyskaya Street in Krasnodar. The building remains unfinished.
The developer of the project was LLC «Aluminum Alliance.» After the company began bankruptcy proceedings, the prosecutor«s office believes, Nikolaichuk used judicial connections to obtain priority rights to assets, including premises in the under-construction business center. In 2021, »Aluminum Alliance« was declared bankrupt.
The prosecutor«s office is requesting that the state confiscate a share in the unfinished trade-office building in Krasnodar, the land plot beneath it, two apartments in Sochi, as well as 100% stakes in the charter capitals of several companies. The total cadastral value of the property amounts to hundreds of millions of rubles (millions of dollars at current rates). The court has already imposed an arrest on the defendants» assets as a protective measure.
Igor Nikolaichuk is a retired judge, a professor at KubSU (Kuban State University), and an honored lawyer of Russia. He was appointed deputy chairman of the Krasnodar Regional Court in 2007.
