Penza, 11 May 2018. PenzaNews. Former vice-governor of the Penza region Valery Savin, who was suspected of fraud, denied the information spread as far back as in December 2017 that dozens of millions of roubles were allegedly confiscated from his flat during a search.

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"Only 100,000 roubles in cash were found. But it is hard to say that they were found... I did not even try to hide them. These were the payments I received having left the service and my spouse's salary. They [the investigators] wanted to confiscate the money first and I said: "Guys, this is the last money of the family. We must continue to live somehow". Then the investigator began to call somebody and report about the amount found. The person he called ordered not to confiscate the money," Valery Savin said in an interview to the newspaper Ulitsa Moskovskaya, the next issue of which was published on May 11.

"They also found my mother-in-law's savings book, there were 3 million roubles on it. These were her savings including the money she had received from selling an apartment. The book was confiscated. We had no other financial means: neither me, nor the mother-in-law, nor the spouse. Because I have never had the amount of money the media reported about," the interlocutor added.

As it was previously reported by PenzaNews, the criminal case against the former governor of the Penza region, Valery Savin, who was charged with a crime under Part 3, Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Swindling", was initiated in the interaction of the staff of the regional offices of the Investigative Committee and the Federal Security Service of Russia in December 2017.

The investigation suspects Valery Savin of fraudulently obtaining the right for another person's property – this was a plot of land in a Penza settlement in the territory of a horticultural co-operative at a cost of 460,000 roubles – assuming that as a result of unlawful actions the municipality suffered a large-scale damage.