Koval Novel Olegovich

Koval Novel Olegovich

Biography

2022: Sentenced to 9 years in prison

In August 2022, the Vyborg District Court of St. Petersburg sentenced ex-deputy of the Legislative Assembly Roman Koval to nine years in prison and paid a fine of 35 million rubles on charges of taking bribes when equipping hospitals.

According to investigators, in 2017-2020, Koval, through his deputy Andrei Grishin, received a bribe in the amount of 10.6 million rubles and Audi Q7 for 6.2 million rubles. In exchange, the deputy used his powers to facilitate the allocation of subsidies for the purchase of equipment and materials to five city health care institutions. Subsequently, they all entered into state contracts with commercial companies, whose interests were represented by a bribe giver.

During the preliminary investigation, Koval pleaded guilty in part, but in the trial he stated that he did not recognize the guilt and asked the court to acquit him.

A similar episode occurred in 2019, when the deputy, through the mediation of his assistant, received a bribe in the amount of 800 thousand rubles from a representative of a private company and contributed to the allocation of a subsidy for the purchase and installation of elevator equipment to one of the maternity hospitals in St. Petersburg. The specified company subsequently also entered into a state contract with him. The Audi Q7 received as a bribe and the property of the accused in the total amount of more than 17 million rubles was seized.

According to Kommersant, at the trial on July 12, 2022, Roman Koval refused to plead guilty, saying that his lawyer Igor Rezonov "convinced" him to agree to the agreement and that he no longer intends to cooperate with him. According to the ex-deputy, he was informed that the courts did not like acquittals and in exchange for self-incrimination he would receive a mitigation of the preventive measure, but this did not happen. Regarding state contracts for the supply of equipment, he explained that he did not deal with the contracts themselves, since the deputy does not have such powers.

Earlier, the court imposed a fine of 1.5 million to Koval's accomplice, Andrei Grishin.^[1]

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