OREANDA-NEWS. September 08, 2014. A guilty verdict passed by Novgorod District Court on 14th May 2014 for creating a cartel came into force.

A founder and director of “Novomost-53” Ltd., Vyacheslav Somoilov, is found guilty in committing several violations, in particular, under Part 2 Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and is sentenced to 3 years 8 months of suspended imprisonment with 4-year probation period, deprived of the right to engage in specific activity for 2 years 6 months and fined 300,000 RUB. Imposing punishment, the Court took into account sincere repentance, pre-judicial agreement to cooperate and assistance to the law enforcement investigation.

“The importance of this criminal case is that it was investigated with involvement of the antimonopoly authority and completed with a guilty verdict. The concept of “cartel” was introduced to the Russian law, particularly, the Criminal Code, in 2012 so it is the first sentence for taking part in a cartel”, explained the Head of Anti-Cartel department, Andrey Tenischev.

The antimonopoly investigation was initiated upon materials obtained by Novgorod OFAS from Novgorod Regional Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation.

The investigation focused on an auction for the right to conclude a government contract for construction of a bridge across Perekhoda river with the starting maximum contract price over 21 million RUB, announced by “Novgorodavtodor” Novgorod Regional Automobile Road Department on 18th October 2012. Two auction bidders – “Novomost-53” Ltd. and “Baltiisky Region” Ltd. concluded a cartel agreement to maintain prices at the auction.

Having considered the materials of the antimonopoly case, Novgorod OFAS found that “Novomost-53” Ltd. and “Baltiisky Region” Ltd. violated Clause 2 Part 1 Article 11 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” (an agreement to maintain prices at auctions and tenders).

Upon issuing the decision, the materials of the antimonopoly case were forwarded to Novgorod Regional Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation that successfully completed investigating the criminal case. The prosecutor approved the indictment and the criminal case went to the Court.

The criminal case against executives of the second cartel participant - “Baltiisky Region” Ltd. is under investigation.

“The Court verdict is a result of successful cooperation between the antimonopoly authority and the law enforcement bodies. Under the law, cartels are punishable by administrative liability for legal entities and criminal liability for executives. Unfortunately, the norm on criminal liability for cartels was “dormant” for a long time and fulfilled only protective functions. The first sentence under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation for establishing a cartel showed that this norm can and must work. The goal of FAS and the law enforcement bodies is to organize joint efforts in such a way that criminal liability for cartels becomes inevitable”, said Deputy Head of FAS, Alexander Kinev.