Unhealthy and guilty

The founder of the pharmaceutical company Biotek has appealed to the court to release him from punishment due to health reasons. Information about this appeared in the card index of Preobrazhensky in Moscow. The date of the court hearing has not been set. Last Friday, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence of Boris Shpigel and Ivan Belozertsev, who were sentenced to 11 and 12 years in a maximum security prison in a corruption case. Against this background, the Biotek Group of Companies continues to participate in a whole series of court proceedings.

Case Spiegel – Belozertsev thundered in March 2021, when the former senator from the Penza region, pharmaceutical oligarch, “king of state orders”, founder of the Biotek group of companies Boris Shpigel, his wife Evgeniya Shpigelat that time the acting governor of the Penza region Ivan Belozertsev, as well as the former director of the Penza OJSC “Pharmacia” Anton Koloskov and former employees of the Penza region administration Gennady Markov And Fedor Fedotov were arrested and placed in the Moscow pretrial detention center “Matrosskaya Tishina” on charges of bribery on an especially large scale. According to the investigation, Ivan Belozertsev received through intermediaries from Boris Shpigel and his wife Evgenia monetary and other (Mercedes car, Breguet watch) remuneration totaling about 31 million rubles, and as “reciprocity” the Biotek Group of Companies received a competitive advantage for a long time when concluding government contracts for the supply of medicines and medical products to healthcare institutions in the Penza Region. In total, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Biotek managed to “earn” 9.9 billion rubles in this way.

During the course of the investigation and court proceedings, the Shpigel-Belozertsev case expanded to several trials, and some of them are still ongoing in the courts of the second and third instances. Thus, in early August, the panel of judges for civil cases of the Penza Regional Court recognized as lawful the decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Penza dated January 26, 2024, to collect 8.158 billion rubles jointly from Boris Shpigel, Ivan Belozertsev and other defendants in the corruption case (including five legal entities that are part of the Biotek holding structure), and ruled to leave it unchanged. Initially, the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) contained a demand to collect 9.9 billion rubles – this is the amount the agency estimated for the totality of all state contracts received by Biotek under the patronage of the Penza governor. The court partially satisfied the claims.

“They received this amount as a result of violating the prohibitions established by the anti-corruption legislation when concluding and executing government contracts for the supply of medicines and medical products for the needs of healthcare institutions in the Penza region in the period from May 2015 to March 2021.”the court explained its position.

Thus, it can be considered that the defendants in the high-profile corruption case failed to challenge the recovery of a large sum of money obtained by criminal means. However, there is still a cassation instance, but will the defense have convincing arguments that can change the court’s position?

“Governor-businessman”

In addition to long terms in a maximum security penal colony, the former senator and governor were sentenced to a fine of 450 million rubles each, stripped of state awards, and Belozertsev was also banned by the court from holding positions in the civil service for ten years after serving his sentence. The other defendants received 7.5 to 8.5 years in a maximum security penal colony, with the exception of Evgenia Shpigel, the wife of the odious businessman, who “got off” with a general regime penal colony and a fine of 150 million rubles. By the way, none of the defendants admitted their guilt, and the defense insisted on the lack of evidence of their guilt.

The hearing of the appeals was repeatedly postponed. In particular, on July 4, the Moscow City Court session was postponed “due to the volume of case materials” (at the time of transfer to the court of first instance, the criminal case of Shpigel-Belozertsev numbered 164 volumes). However, the session scheduled for August 16 was also postponed – this time due to medical reasons for Boris Shpigel, who cannot be present at the court hearing for more than six hours. The businessman’s lawyer Zalina Farnieva explained that the doctor had forbidden Shpigel from staying in court for a longer period of time due to his health problems. According to her, the medical restrictions are confirmed by a corresponding certificate from the pretrial detention center. Shpigel himself in court stated who underwent intensive care on the eve of the hearing, on August 15. On this basis, the defense insisted on the verdict being overturned and an acquittal being issued. In addition, the defense argued that there was no fact of giving or receiving bribes – instead, there was a joint business.

“The decision of the appellate court clearly states that Belozertsev allegedly ignored the bans and got involved in the business of the Biotek Group of Companies. This is a fact that the Prosecutor General’s Office included in its claim in the Penza court. And they clearly stated that there was a joint business, that this was not a bribe. If this was a joint business, then what kind of bribe could Belozertsev have given himself?” – in particular, the opinion of the defense was voiced in the Moscow City Court on August 16.

“Not a bribe, but a gift”

At the hearing held in the Moscow City Court on August 23, the defense team continued to present their arguments. In particular, the lawyers did not agree that the former director of the Penza Pharmacy, Anton Koloskov, “was in official or other dependence” on Shpigel and that psychological pressure was exerted on him (as established by the linguistic examination). The defense claims that the conversations between them concerned only work and were of a purely business nature. This argument, however, can be doubted if we consider that people who know Shpigel personally speak of him as a stern person, and at the same time unrestrained and extremely emotional. And this means that his very manner of communication in some cases can be assessed as the exertion of psychological pressure. Probably, the linguistic examination came to a similar conclusion.

Boris Shpigel also explained the episodes that he and Belozertsev were accused of giving and receiving bribes. According to him,

“As for the episode of 27 million rubles, Koloskov called me and said that (Alexander) Popov (deputy director of the Penza “Pharmacia”) came to him and said that money was needed for the elections (we are talking about the elections of the governor of the Penza region). Indeed, we wanted to provide support.”

Regarding the “valuable gifts” – the Mercedes car and the Breguet watch – Shpigel explained that “such a car does not exist” and he “never gave anything to anyone,” and the watch was a “reciprocal birthday gift,” since Belozertsev had previously given Shpigel an antique crystal service. As for the work letter from the former CEO of Pharmacia Lyubov Vasilyeva (now deceased) in the name of Governor Ivan Belozertsev, from whose date the investigation began counting the beginning of the activities of the organized crime group, and which, according to the defense, formed the basis of the guilty verdict – then Shpigel simply demanded that it be recognized as inadmissible evidence.

It’s a difficult situation, to be sure. On the one hand, Boris Shpigel is indeed an elderly and deeply unhealthy person, he needs constant medical supervision and sometimes even emergency medical care, and a long stay in a pretrial detention center has never improved anyone’s health. On the other hand, it turns out that he had enough health and strength to violate the law on a grand scale, but he no longer had the strength to serve the sentence imposed by the court. Let’s see how the Preobrazhensky District Court resolves this dilemma.