Penza, 19 February 2016. PenzaNews. Oleg Tyugaev, former Penza city Duma deputy from the United Russia faction, who ran away from the law, has been granted asylum in Italy, the business news agency “Business-Vector” quotes the source close to the law enforcement forces.
“Allegedly, he received the status of the politically persecuted person after the case against him on large-scale goods and services tax fraud was re-opened,” says the message published on Friday, February 19.
According to it, this decision will not stop the ex-deputy from being held responsible in accordance with the law if he will be found guilty, but the criminal extradition procedure will be greatly complicated.
Based on the information available to PenzaNews agency, of wanted persons.
Oleg Tyugaev, former Penza city Duma deputy from the United Russia faction, again became wanted in the spring of 2015 after the investigation of a large-scale fraud case related to him had been resumed as well.
The criminal persecution against Oleg Tyugaev, who had been detained in Italy in summer 2013 as a suspect in the criminal case against a criminal gang accused of fraud and causing 67 million rubles to the state, was ceased on 31 August 2014, due to the absence of the event of the crime.
The investigation asserted that Oleg Tyugaev organized a crime syndicate that illegally reimbursed VAT from the Russian budget by committing fraud on a large-scale on behalf of a number of legal entities from 2009 to 2012.
According to reports, the members of the crime syndicate stole over 17 million rubles of budget funds in 2010, and over 27 million in 2012.
The investigation also included a review of other large-scale VAT reimbursements over 23 million rubles and potential connection between these cases and the accused.
In early 2016, Oleg Tyugaev decided to post in Facebook a note of advice on improving the new web service “Open City” that was launched by the Penza authorities to resolve communal issues of the day in a timely fashion. Based on the geotagging data available in the social network, the former deputy published his post from Florence, Italy.
Soon after, the media learned that the law enforcement established the location of Oleg Tyugaev and began the extradition process.
