Three individuals have received suspended sentences from the Krasnogvardeisky District Court of St. Petersburg for their involvement in a fraudulent scheme where they attempted to obtain money by falsely claiming it was for bribing tax service officials.

The court’s joint press service announced the sentences on October 31. The investigation revealed that in the fall of 2018, Sergei Ermolaev, then a tax inspector, was approached by a representative of a commercial firm seeking to avoid an on-site tax audit. Ermolaev, lacking the authority to grant this request, enlisted the help of Sergei Proskurin, a Raiffeisenbank manager, to find a tax service official who could intervene.

Entrepreneur Pavel Vilkov subsequently joined the scheme, claiming he could “resolve the issue” for 9.4 million rubles, despite having no actual connections to relevant officials.

Ermolaev received 6 million rubles from the firm’s representative on November 13, 2018, followed by Proskurin receiving an additional 4 million rubles the next day. The defendants were soon apprehended.

All three participants pleaded guilty to the charges, which were classified as fraud committed by a group of persons under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The court sentenced Ermolaev to 3.5 years of suspended imprisonment, while Proskurin and Vilkov each received 4-year suspended sentences. The court’s press service stated that the defendants were released on their own recognizance pending the verdict, meaning they have not yet begun serving their sentences.