Penza, 12 January 2015. PenzaNews. The Leninsky area court of Penza city continues the hearings on the case of Marina Pavlova, the former head coach of the women basketball club “Yunost” who is accused of large-scale fraud.

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During the January 12 hearing, the accused was questioned by the defendant Sergei Murin and the state attorney Ekaterina Khrupova.

In particular, the attorney wanted to learn how the accused spent the withdrawn funds the latter allegedly used to purchase food for basketball players.

“They were used to pay more to the girls, because their salaries did not cover the contracts, [were used] for medical operations for some players, to pay our foreign professional, to drive the youth team to the European Basketball League (EBL) matches, to rent flats for players and pay those bills,” Marina Pavlova explained.

According to her, the finance plan which was agreed with the regional sports committee also did not account for expenses on international youth matches.

“We had advance talks with the Penza region governor [Vasily Bochkarev] with nothing left on paper, than with a sports committee rep, then with the basketball federation. I asked for 2 million rubles for that season. It could have been included in the plan with the top’s okay,” said the offender, adding that her club took part in the European League two times, in 2011 and in 2012.

Marina Pavlova also told the court session participants that she always tried to bring the region basketball team up to the levels of the Premier league, first as a head of “Spartak-Peduniversity,” then leading “Yunost,” and afterwards making a decision to hire a basketball professional Goran Ristic from Serbia.

“I wanted to move to being a director in the future, while the foreign coach would lead the team. We went to Macedonia for a gathering in 2011,” she explained.

The prosecutor Ekaterina Khrupova made special emphasis on the ways that were used to obtain illicit funds and the original push towards the decision to resort to them.

“What scheme were you offered? How was it going to work? Through what agreement? With whom?” the state attorney asked.

“[Vladimir] Bolshakov offered me this: we sign a fake agreement on complex meal supplies,” Marina Pavlova said.

According to her, she knew this was “wrong,” but “everybody works this way.”

During the hearing, the audience learned that the agreements were signed with an individual entrepreneur Rasskazchikova and “Omega.”

Afterwards, Ekaterina Khrupova wanted to learn who and how set up salary levels.

“We were subsidized based on our results, of course. I signed the contracts, after agreeing the sums with the top,” Marina Pavlova said, stressing the fact that “Yunost” club always needed money, which forced her to use her personal contacts to keep the team afloat.

“It was always difficult to plan for it all, for the income and the expenses. I was always below zero, always loaned sums,” added the suspect.

After the prosecutor asked her if there were any written records of the sums, Marina Pavlova struggled to give a definite answer.

“There were in writing once, then they were on an HDD. When I was taken away from the club, it disappeared. There were tables of monthly expenses, who, how much, when and from where,” she explained.

The next court session is planned on Wednesday, January 14.