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Former Baikal region EMERCOM official sentenced to four years, fined for bribery

Criminal cases against two other members of the group made separate proceedings

ULAN-UDE, November 20 (Itar-Tass) — The Zabaikalye Territory court on Tuesday sentenced former director of the regional department of the Emergency Situations Ministry /EMERCOM/ Maj-Gen Vyacheslav Korolkov to four years in prison a 5.8-million-rouble fine for bribery.

"Korolkov will serve his sentence in a maximum security penitentiary. He was also stripped of his military rank," Yegor Markov, a representative of the Court, told Itar-Tass.

The court found the official guilty of taking bribes, abusing his authority and fraud.

In September 2007, Korolkov set up an organized criminal group at his department. It included his deputy for finance Vladimir Yermakov and chief accountant Lyubov Izmailova.

From December 2007 through December 2011, the group issued orders to grant unjustified high bonuses to 62 personnel from among their trusted persons. The criminal group charged for its patronage half of the sum of the bonus, thus collecting more than 9.2 million roubles of bribes.

During this period, Korolkov, Yermakov and Izmailova illegally collected some 5.5 million roubles from the same staff, which they spent on the reception of the EMERCOM inspectors who had come to check the operation of the Ministry's branch.

The criminal cases against two other members of the group made separate proceedings. Yermakov and Izmailova were given six-year suspended sentences and fined one million roubles each.

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