An accomplice of the ex-head of Komi was sentenced in absentia to ten years for embezzlement

St. PETERSBURG, October 12 – RIA Novosti. The Syktyvkar city court sentenced businessman Alexander Zarubin, an accomplice of the former head of Komi Vyacheslav Gaizer, convicted on corruption charges, to 10 years in prison in absentia, the joint press service of the region’s courts reported.

“Zarubin... was given a final sentence of 10 years in prison to be served in a general regime correctional colony, with a fine of 1,500,000 rubles, and with the deprivation of the honorary title “Honored Worker of the Komi Republic,” says the judicial press service’s page on the VKontakte social network.

According to investigators, in 2006 Zarubin created an organized group, into which he involved the then head of Komi Gaizer and others. From 2006 to 2011, accomplices in Syktyvkar fraudulently acquired the right to 100% of the shares of OJSC Zelenetskaya Poultry Farm. For this purpose, the shares were alienated from state property and contributed to the authorized capital of Metlizing LLC, controlled by Zarubin. As a result, the republic suffered damage amounting to 2.4 billion rubles.

At the same time, from May 2011 to September 2015, the profit received by the poultry farm in the amount of 1.45 billion rubles was transferred to the settlement account of Metleasing as a payment of dividends. Of these, more than 828 million rubles were legalized by the accomplices through financial transactions and transactions with controlled legal entities.

In addition, in July 2010, in Syktyvkar, members of an organized group, having deceived members of the board of directors of the Fund for Support of Investment Projects of the Komi Republic, stole more than 64 million rubles belonging to it, selling to the fund 98% of the shares in the authorized capital of Syktyvkar Industrial Plant LLC, controlled by Zarubin.

Zarubin was found guilty under articles of fraud (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and money laundering (Part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The period is calculated from the moment of his detention in Russia or from extradition if detained abroad.

Zarubin fled the preliminary investigation abroad and was put on the international wanted list in 2015, noted the Prosecutor General’s Office, which announced the approval of the indictment in October 2025.