The sentence for a resident of Dagestan in the case of deceiving shareholders has been tightened.

The court canceled the suspended sentence of a resident of Dagestan, convicted of fraud involving the money of participants in shared construction in Makhachkala. The defendant was sentenced to three years in prison.

As reported by "Caucasian Knot", 895 people are included in the lists of deceived shareholders in Dagestan, the Ministry of Construction reported in March 2023, noting that most unscrupulous developers do not formalize shared participation agreements, but rather "various preliminary agreements". "They draw in [buyers] into schemes, murky housing cooperatives, sell apartments under loan agreements, and so on. Thus, people who pay multimillion sums for "apartments" do not actually become shareholders," emphasized the Ministry of Construction.

The Supreme Court of Dagestan reviewed the sentence of a local resident, convicted by the Leninsky District Court of Makhachkala under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on a particularly large scale), the united press service of the courts of general jurisdiction of the republic reported today on its Telegram channel.

"The first instance court established that the convicted person, possessing information about citizens' need for housing, developed a criminal plan to embezzle funds through deception. Under the pretext of constructing a multi-apartment residential building on Danyalov Street in Makhachkala and providing apartments after the facility was put into operation, he attracted citizens to the housing construction cooperative 'Fortress', having no intention of fulfilling the obligations he undertook," the message states.

According to the court, the construction was carried out without the necessary permits. The facility did not meet the design and operation requirements, fire safety, and seismic standards, and by the decision of the Leninsky District Court, the building was recognized as an unauthorized construction and was subject to demolition.

"Despite this, the convicted person continued to attract funds from citizens, concluding agreements for participation in shared construction. From 2016 to 2021, he received from the victims a total of 44,880,000 rubles, which he disposed of at his discretion," the publication cites the prosecution's position.

The accused was sentenced to three years of imprisonment conditionally with a probation period of 2.5 years.

"The appellate instance concluded that it was necessary to cancel the suspended sentence. By the appellate ruling, the sentence of the Leninsky District Court of Makhachkala [...] was canceled. The convicted person was sentenced to actual imprisonment for a term of 3 years to be served in a general regime correctional colony," the press service of the courts reported.

The name of the convicted person, the date of the appellate ruling, and the date of the sentence are not provided in the publication. The database on the Supreme Court's website does not publish data on the recent tightening of the sentence of the convicted person by the Leninsky District Court under part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Recall that in October 2021, developers at a protest in Makhachkala declared the illegality of the demolition of high-rise buildings in various areas of the city. Officials, in the fight against unauthorized constructions, are demolishing even houses whose construction has been legalized through the courts, and do not take into account the interests of apartment buyers, the participants of the action pointed out.

Shareholders and participants also took part in the protest. They demanded that the authorities of the republic stop the demolition of houses and the criminal prosecution of developers. "Almost all developers are under criminal investigation. Even those who built houses 15 years ago. The houses were legalized in court... Now we are all being summoned for interrogations and want to be accused of tax evasion and fraud, allegedly we sold apartments without having permission," explained one of the developers, Gazimagomed, to "Caucasian Knot" at that time.