A court in Kaliningrad recovered 370 million rubles from a member of the State Duma

The court in Kaliningrad found the purchase of shares of “Kaliningrad Sea Trade Port” which were transferred to State Duma deputy Andrey Kolesnyk and his relatives to be illegal. This is reported in the telegram channel of the regional court.

The lawsuit was filed by the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the agency, Andrey Kolesnyk, as well as his wife and mother-in-law illegally acquired and then secretly owned port shares. Kolesnyk bought 28.5% of the shares in 2001-2002, registered them as legal entities, and then resold it himself, becoming the director of the port.

Since 2011, Andrey Kolesnyk has been a member of the Kaliningrad Regional Duma, and then a member of the State Duma. This prevented him from participating in entrepreneurial activities, but Kolesnyk continued to make a profit from the work of the port. He also made legislative decisions in the industry in which he had a business, but did not report a conflict of interest to the authorities.

To disguise his commercial activities, Kolesnyk introduced his relatives and friends to the board of directors, and transferred the shares to trustees under the management agreement. The prosecutor’s office believes that Kolesnyk illegally received 369 million rubles during the operation of the port’s property. The court decided to collect this amount, as well as shares of the port from the accounts of Kolesnyk and his mother-in-law, as state revenue.

In a comment to Vedomosti, Kolesnyk said that he considered the case to be a “normal civil lawsuit” and stated that he had transferred his share of shares to his mother-in-law when he became a member of the State Duma.

Andrey Kolesnyk is 63 years old, a member of the State Duma from the Kaliningrad region. In February 2022, he voted for an appeal to the president to recognize the independence of the so-called DPR and LPR, after which he came under sanctions from the European Union and the United States. Kolesnyk supports the Russian invasion of Ukraine, declares a “ring of enemies”, offers to supply the mobilized with quilters. On February 6, in an interview with the publication “Podmoskovye Segodnya”, Kolesnyk, speaking about “traitors of the Motherland”, proposed to cancel the moratorium on the death penalty for those who left the country.