29 May 2019 17:33

Court arrests convicted ex-Rosgranitsa head Bezdelov on fraud counts

MOSCOW. May 29 (Interfax) - The Moscow Tverskoi District Court has arrested former head of the Federal Agency for the Development of the State Border Facilities (Rosgranitsa) Dmitry Bezdelov, who was earlier convicted of fraud.

"The court put Bezdelov under a two-month arrest until July 28, 2019," court press secretary Svetlana Skachkova told Interfax on Tuesday, adding that he had been charged with fraud.

The Moscow Meshchansky District Court found Bezdelov guilty of fraud on December 29, 2017 and sentenced him to nine years in a general penitentiary with a fine of 1 million rubles.

Sentences passed on his seven accomplices ranged from two to eight years in a general penitentiary.

The court established that Bezdelov, his deputy Boris Khaitovich, a number of high-ranking employees of the Directorate for the Construction and Operation of Russian Border Objects (Rosgranstroy), and general directors of commercial companies under their control had defrauded the budget of over 490 million rubles in the period from September 2009 until May 2013.

On September 7, the Moscow City Court credited the time spent by Bezdelov in the detention facility to his sentence (one day in the detention facility for 1.5 days in the penitentiary), which reduced his term to about three years.

The federal search for Bezdelov began in December 2013. He was put on the international wanted list in May 2014. Bezdelov was detained in Italy in October 2014 and extradited to Russia in April 2016.