Penza, 16 February 2018. PenzaNews. Alexei Shmatko, entrepreneur from Penza, who is hiding from Russian justice abroad but would like to return home, is accused of fraud. This was reported by Tatyana Makhnitskaya, senior assistant of the head of the regional investigative department for media relations under the Investigative Committee of Russia.

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"In February 2011 the division for investigation of particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee of Russia in the Penza region initiated a criminal case on the fact of evasion of the payment of taxes on an especially large scale by a limited liability company under Item "b", Part 2, Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The investigation established that an organized criminal group was operating in the territory of the Penza region, whose members under the pretence of VAD compensation decided to steal funds in a particularly large amount from the budget of the Russian Federation. Along with other participants Alexei Shmatko was a member of the group," the interlocutor commented.

According to her, he is accused of committing crimes under Part 4, Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Swindling".

Tatyana Makhnitskaya added that in connection with a failure to establish his location and the violation of the previously chosen measure of restraint committed by the criminal, Alexei Shmatko was declared wanted in November 2011, in December of the same year he was included in the international wanted list, and in January 2012 by a decision of the Leninsky district court the measure of restraint was changed from recognizance not to leave and appropriate conduct to penal detention.

In March 2012 an investigator for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee issued a decision on the separation of the criminal case against Alexei Shmatko and initiation of the proceeding. On the same day, a preliminary investigation of the criminal case was suspended on the grounds specified by Item 2, Part 1, Art. 208 of the Criminal-Procedural Code of the Russian Federation 'Grounds, procedure and deadlines for the suspension of the preliminary Investigation'," she explained.

The representative of the Investigative Committee specified that within an international search it was established that Alexei Shmatko lives in Great Britain and the procedure for his extradition to Russia was in process since 2015.

"At the same time in April 2013 the Leninsky district court of the city of Penza passed a verdict of guilt on six participants of the above stated organized group including the former head of the federal tax service of Russia of the Leninsky district of the city Oleg Pantyukhin who were found guilty depending on their role in committing crimes under Item "b", Part 2, Art. 199 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and several episodes of the crime under Part 4, Art. 159 of the same Code. The verdict came into legal force in October 2013," the interlocutor noted.