Rostov plant's financial director convicted of billion-dollar embezzlement

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The court sentenced Felix Zakhartsov, former financial director of the Tenth Bearing Plant in Rostov-on-Don, to four years and three months in prison, finding him guilty of embezzlement of property worth more than 2.2 billion rubles.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," the Main Military Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia completed its investigation into the cases against Alexander Dyachenko, general director of the Tenth Bearing Plant (GPZ-10), and Alexey and Lyudmila Kuleshov, former Director of Economics and Finance Nikolai Borisov, and heads of the plant's planning and economics department Felix Zakhartsov and Roman Volkov. Former General Director Alexander Dyachenko and the plant's Financial Director Felix Zakhartsov pleaded guilty in full.

The Sovetsky District Court of Rostov-on-Don convicted Felix Zakhartsov, former Financial Director of the Tenth Bearing Plant (10-GPZ) LLC, Kommersant reported on May 18.

The court found that Zakhartsov, using his official position, participated in the theft of property as part of an organized group. The total damage in the case exceeded 2.2 billion rubles. The defendant pleaded guilty, and a pre-trial cooperation agreement was reached.

Zakhartsov was found guilty under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced to four years and three months' imprisonment in a general regime penal colony. He is prohibited from engaging in administrative or business activities in commercial organizations for three years, and he was also fined 500,000 rubles.

The victims' civil claims for 2.238 billion rubles were fully satisfied.

As a reminder, according to investigators, contracts for the supply of bearings were concluded with Tenth Bearing Plant LLC between 2020 and 2024 as part of a state defense order. Borisov, Dyachenko, Sukhomlin, the Kuleshovs, Volkov, and Zakhartsov stole over 2.2 billion rubles by inflating prices and deliberately introducing false information into delivery documents for the said products, causing significant damage to the state and 16 industrial enterprises.