MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax) - Fresh criminal charges have been brought against ex-First Deputy Prosecutor of the Moscow region Alexander Ignatenko, law enforcement sources have confirmed.
"A criminal case was started against him a few days ago on charges of fraud," after a suspect in the case of criminal casinos in the Moscow region Ivan Nazarov testified against him, a source said.
The daily Kommersant earlier reported that Ignatenko, using his authority, arranged to have 16 land plots, worth over 205 million rubles, allotted to him, which he planned to involve in fraudulent transactions.
Among those the land plots were intended for were, besides Ignatenko, the prosecutor of the town of Pushkin Ruslan Rezumenko, of Istra Mikhail Popkov, of Krasnogorsk Yevgeny Puzanov and his deputy Yevgeny Tenyayev, as well as high-placed regional police officials.
"They formed the noncommercial gardening partnership Silans. The land was leased out to them for 49 years at an annual rent of 5,847 rubles and 68 kopecks," the newspaper said.
Some of the land plots were registered under the names of front persons not affiliated with law enforcement structures, Kommersant said.
"Ignatenko wanted to sell these land plots illegally to his associates. Two attempts were made to sell two plots of land - one for $204,000 and another for $117,000 - but both fell through for reasons that did not depend on the suspects," the newspaper said.
The suspects in the new case are the regional Economic Security Department officers Vyacheslav Ivanov and Alexei Gubanov, and their colleague in Krasnogorsk Yevgeny Volchukov.