Former Merlion CEO Vyacheslav Simonenko was convicted of organizing a criminal community, bribery, false denunciation and perjury. Moscow’s Khoroshevsky court sentenced the businessman to 22 years in prison; Simonenko will serve his sentence in a maximum security colony, the joint press service of the capital’s courts reported in a statement.
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In addition to serving his sentence, Simonenko must pay the victims of the case 2 million rubles each. We are talking about Merlion co-founders Oleg Karchev, Alexey Abramov, Vladislav Mangutov and top manager Boris Levin.
In 2020, Simonenko accused them of an attempt on his own life. As a reason, he indicated a debt of 4.5 million dollars, which Simonenko did not receive after leaving the management of Tegrus, a Merlion structure. The perpetrator was then a participant in the armed conflict that began on the territory of Ukraine after 2014.
However, on February 21, 2022, the Investigative Committee stopped investigating the criminal case of attempted murder and Simonenko himself changed his status from victim to accused. At the time, he was charged with three counts: falsification of evidence, knowingly false reporting and perjury. Later, an article on preparation for a crime and its commission, on large-scale bribery and on the organization of a criminal community was added to them.
Simonenko did not admit guilt.
Author:
Natalia Gormaleva
Source: RB
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