In the Russian city of Stavropol, a court handed down a sentence to two participants in a scheme to embezzle budget funds that were intended for the so‑called “resettlement” of residents of the Kherson region. The total amount of money stolen exceeds 106 million rubles.
This is reported by Russian media.
According to the Russian prosecutor’s office, the scheme operated from November 2022 to April 2024. It involved the deputy head of one of the departments of the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of Stavropol Krai.
The official used access to the state information system to create fictitious applications on behalf of alleged resettlers from Kherson and the Kherson region. Based on the forged documents, decisions were made to pay social assistance, which was transferred to the accounts of the members of the criminal group.
The funds obtained, according to the investigation, were distributed among all participants in the scheme.
Two defendants in the case were sentenced to 3.5 years and 4 years and 3 months of imprisonment in a general-regime colony, and were also fined 1 million rubles each.
The organizer of the scheme was sentenced to 3 years in prison and dismissed from her post “due to loss of confidence”.
Earlier it was reported that in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai they are demanding that resettlers from the Kherson region return the funds, received under the program of the so-called “housing certificates”.