Lopaeva Elena Sergeyevna

Lopaeva Elena Sergeyevna

Biography

2024: Recovery of 67 million rubles

On September 18, 2024, the Industrial District Court of Perm ruled to recover more than ₽67 million from the former Deputy Prime Minister of the Perm Territory Elena Lopaeva. These funds, intended for the repair of hospitals and other needs, were illegally stolen by Lopaeva and used for personal purposes.

According to Vedomosti, Lopaeva was found guilty under Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for misappropriation or embezzlement committed by an organized group on an especially large scale. The court ordered the former Deputy Prime Minister to return ₽67,69 million to the Assistance - XXI Century charitable foundation. Earlier, in January 2024, the Leninsky Court of Perm sentenced Lopaeva to four years in prison in a general regime colony and imposed a fine of ₽500 thousand on her. When sentencing, the time that Lopaeva spent in the pre-trial detention center was taken into account.

According to the investigation, from 2017 to 2019, Lopaeva, together with the ex-director of the charitable foundation Elena Naydanova, organized a criminal scheme to steal the fund's funds. Under the guise of fictitious contracts with controlled firms, money was transferred to the accounts of these companies, and then cashed out through entrepreneurs. These funds received by the fund were to be used for the repair of medical institutions and the purchase of equipment, but were used for other purposes.

Naydanova, an accomplice of Lopaeva, has been put on the international wanted list since July 2023 and arrested in absentia. The inquest found she fled abroad while evading justice. In an interview with the portal 59.RU, given before her escape, Naydanova said that the funds received by the fund were allocated by Lukoil in exchange for tax benefits. This money was supposed to go to the implementation of various social projects, but a significant part of the funds was used to carry out corruption schemes.

Former Deputy Prime Minister of the Perm Territory Elena Lopaeva was detained in Moscow in January 2022. During the trial, she denied her guilt and tried to appeal the verdict, but her application for a stay of execution was rejected on June 14, 2024. Representatives of the prosecutor's office and the pre-trial detention center of the Perm Territory, where Lopaeva is in economic service, opposed the postponement.^[1]

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