MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax) - State prosecutors have petitioned the court to sentence former chief of the second division of the Directorate for Counterintelligence Support to the Financial Services Sector (K Directorate) of the Federal Security Service (FSB)'s Economic Security Service Lieut. Col. Kirill Cherkalin, who pleaded guilty to corruption and fraud, to 11 years in a high-security penal facility, an Interfax correspondent reported.
"I'm asking [the court] to sentence Cherkalin through partially cumulative sentencing to imprisonment for 11 years in a high-security penal colony for multiple crimes," prosecutor Milana Digayeva said during arguments in Cherkalin's case at the Moscow Garrison Military Court on Friday.
The prosecution also petitioned the court to fine Cherkalin in an amount equal to a one-time bribe he received, 34.3 million rubles.
Additionally, the prosecutor asked that the court sentence Cherkalin to custodial restraint for one year, a ban on holding posts in law enforcement agencies for three years, and deprive him of his rank of lieutenant colonel in reserve and the Medal of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" of the second class.
The prosecutor called for granting the civilian lawsuits of aggrieved parties seeking to redress actual damage worth about 637 million rubles.
The aggrieved parties, Sergei Glyadelkin and Igor Tkach, asked the court to grant their lawsuits worth 19.4 million rubles in total, including lost profits, in full. At the same time, they asked the court for leniency for the officer.
Cherkalin himself refused to speak during arguments. At the same time, his lawyer Vladimir Mikhailov requested that the court sentence him to a punishment without a fine on the bribery charge and without an actual prison term on the fraud charge.
"Sentencing him to this fine means failing to carry out the purpose of this fine. [...] He [Cherkalin] has already been deprived of everything," the lawyer said during oral arguments.
According to Mikhailov, having complied with all conditions of the deal on cooperation with the investigators, Cherkalin "decreased the social danger of the deed he committed as much as possible."
Cherkalin has been charged with taking $850,000 in bribes from Transportny Bank co-owner Alexander Mazanov and defrauding business partners Tkach and Glyadelkin of at least 637 million rubles as a share in the YurPromConsulting company.
Cherkalin pleaded guilty as charged and made a deal with investigators. The court is hearing his case under a special procedure, which does not include an examination of the evidence.
As reported earlier, the evidence that implicated Cherkalin was given by another former employee of K Directorate, Mikhail Gorbatov, as part of his plea deal in the fraud case.
The assets of Cherkalin and his family, including more than six billion rubles in cash, were impounded by a court in 2019.
Another two officers of the FSB Economic Security Service, Dmitry Frolov and Andrei Vasilyev, were detained together with Cherkalin in spring 2019. Their cases are being heard in a separate proceeding.