Penza, 4 May 2016. PenzaNews. The former director of the Penza Scientific and Technical Information Center (CNTI) (a branch of the Russian Energy Agency under the Ministry of Energy) Vladimir Gruzdev and a head of one of the CNTI departments received a suspended prison sentence of 3 and 2.5 years respectively for committing a fraud.

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“It was established that Vladimir Gruzdev, while being the director of CNTI, made a secret deal with a head of one of the CNTI departments. Acting together for selfish motives, they committed a theft of property through abuse of their status, which resulted in material damages to the persons who organized own exhibitions in CNTI in 2014 and 2015,” the press service of the Penza region FSB department informed PenzaNews.

Also, the two people in question were intentionally raising the exhibition hall rent prices, they added.

“They divided the funds received from raised rent prices equally between each other, and used them as they saw fit. Overall, they embezzled 1,140,000 rubles in this manner,” the press service noted.

The two men were found guilty of committing crimes that fall under Part 3, Art. 159 of the Criminal Code, “Fraud,” the FSB department stressed.