The court seized nearly 3 billion rubles worth of property from the former head of a Stavropol region district.

Moscow's Khamovnichesky Court has seized the property of Nikolai Gyulbyakov, former head of the Predgorny District of Stavropol Krai, and has ordered it to be seized by the state. The value of the seized property is estimated at 2.9 billion rubles.

As reported by Caucasian Knot, in 2016, the Yessentuki City Court sentenced Nikolai Gyulbyakov to five years' suspended imprisonment and a fine of 1.5 million rubles in a case of bribery brokerage. According to investigators, the former official acted as an intermediary in the transfer of 1.5 million rubles to the former head of the Predgorny District Investigative Department for the downgrading of a commercial bribery case to a lesser offense.

The court found that from March 2008 to May 2013, the former official transferred 56 hectares of municipal agricultural land for development and transferred it to the ownership of trusted individuals. In 2020, the landowners, on the official's instructions, divided the land into 518 plots and partially sold them, RIA Novosti reported, citing the Stavropol Krai Prosecutor's Office.

Using the proceeds, the official purchased real estate with a total area of 5,500 square meters and set up a rental business. To conceal his ownership of the property, he registered it in the names of his wife, children, and other trusted individuals. It is specified that the former head of the district's income was not indicated in his official declarations.

"In connection with this, the prosecutor's office filed a claim with the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow to confiscate illegally obtained real estate and expensive cars belonging to the former official, his family, and trusted persons as property of the Russian Federation, as well as to recover compensation for the cost of land sold to bona fide purchasers, totaling 2.9 billion rubles. The court order regarding the recovery of property for the benefit of the state is subject to immediate execution," the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that Igor Khranovsky, who has headed the Ministry of Economic Development's Department for Social and Economic Development of the North Caucasus Federal District since 2021, and members of his family had their estate in Odintsovo and seven expensive cars confiscated. The value of the property seized from Khranovsky was estimated at 500 million rubles.