Fokanova Elena

Biography

2021: 3.5 years in prison and a fine of 3.9 million rubles for bribery

At the end of March 2021, Elena Fokanova was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison and a fine of 3.9 million rubles. The director of the Saratov branch of the Pharmaceutical Import, Export joint-stock company was found guilty under Part 5 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code (giving a bribe on an especially large scale).

According to the investigation, from December 2016 to April 2018, Fokanova handed over a bribe in the amount of 1.95 million rubles to Vitaly Serebryakov, who then held the post of chief physician of the Penza regional oncological dispensary. For this, Serebryakov was supposed to conclude contracts with Fokanova as the head of the Pharmimex branch following auctions for the purchase of medicines. At the same time, Serebryakov knew that the procedures for preparing and conducting tenders were prepared with violations of the law.

Director of the Pharmimex branch of the pharmaceutical company Elena Fokanova received a prison sentence for a bribe to the ex-head physician of the Penza regional oncology dispensary

Vitaly Serebryakov in 2019 was sentenced to 5 years in a maximum security colony and a fine of 11 million rubles for receiving illegal remuneration. He was also banned from holding senior positions for three years. The convict appealed the verdict to the Penza Regional Court, but in February 2021 the judicial act of the first instance was left unchanged.

Initially, the Penza OFAS drew attention to the creation by the regional oncological dispensary of special conditions for some suppliers when bidding for the purchase of drugs. The service commission established a conspiracy between the medical institution and Pharmimex, finding out that the oncological dispensary had provided Pharmimex with information about planned purchases, requirements for participants and delivery conditions in advance. Pharmimex then pointed out the partiality of the consideration of the case by the commission and insisted that Elena Fokanova was not related to the company.

The Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia recognized the Penza Oncological Dispensary as violating paragraph 2 of Part 1 of Art. 17 of the Law on the Protection of Competition (the creation of preferential conditions for a bidder).^[1]

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