The Moscow court asks to dismiss the judge Elena Kondrat, suspected of transferring a bribe

The chairman of the Moscow Arbitration Court Nikolai Novikov sent to the city Qualification Collegium of judges a submission to suspend the powers of judge Elena Kondrat, suspected of corruption, informs RIA Novosti with reference to the press service of the court.

According to investigators, during lunch “in one of the Moscow restaurants” Kondrat offered her colleague in the arbitration court Elena Makhalkina a bribe of $ 50 thousand. For this money, the judge had to make a decision to bring certain persons to subsidiary liability and not to bring others to justice.

Investigators claim that Kondrat persuaded Makhalkina to make such a decision during telephone conversations and personal meetings. As a result, a colleague Kondrat turned to the FSB and agreed to participate in an operational experiment. After the bribe was handed over on the evening of October 18, 2020, the suspect was arrested.

Makhalkina, before putting on the judge’s robe, was secretary and assistant to Judge Kondrat for ten years. They maintained friendly relations.

As the representative of the RF CC, Pavel Kondratyev, at a meeting of the Supreme Qualification Collegium of Judges (VKKS), the circumstances of the case are confirmed by the detailed testimony of the judge, who also handed over material evidence to the investigation, records from a personal dictaphone, notes indicating who to attract and who not to involve in subsidiary responsibility.

The head of the RF IC, Alexander Bastrykin, on November 23 opened a criminal case against Kondrat under part 4 of Article 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, having obtained the consent of the VKKS to this. For mediation in bribery on an especially large scale, Kondrat faces a punishment of up to 12 years in prison.

Kondrat denies guilt. She connects her criminal prosecution with a personal conflict that she had with the leadership of the court, whose recommendations in the cases she was considering she refused to comply with. In particular, the leadership was allegedly dissatisfied with Kondrat’s decision on the case of the return of 25 billion rubles, withdrawn from Russia to offshore jurisdictions in 2014-2016. (bankruptcy case of IK RE-Porto LLC). Earlier, Kondrat filed an administrative claim against the chairman of the arbitration court Nikolai Novikov and his other heads, challenging their decisions, but on November 12, the court refused to accept the claim.

Lawyer Alexei Kovalev, representing the interests of Kondrat, said at the meeting of the VKKS that the money was transferred by Makhalkina at her own request: the judge allegedly asked for this amount in debt to buy an apartment in the elite residential complex “Shuvalovsky” on Michurinsky Prospect.

“I lent her as much as I could. She promised to return the money in the spring, ”said Kondrat. According to her, on October 18, 2020, she was ill, but Elena Makhalkina insisted on meeting, assuring that she was not far from her colleague’s house and that she and her mother were going to choose wallpaper in the apartment.

The judge expressed confidence that there was no evidence against her. “But I was mixed with mud, and I will defend myself” – led “Kommersant” the judge’s words.

According to the defender, a series of problems, including the murder charge brought against the son of Kondrat, undermined the judge’s health – she suffers from asthma, hypertension and complications after suffering a coronavirus.

Elena Kondrat has been working as a judge of the Arbitration Court since 2008. She handled bankruptcy cases.

An appeal by Kondrat was published on the Internet, in which she speaks of a “fabricated”, in her opinion, criminal case against her 19-year-old son, a law student at Moscow State University, Nikolai Kondrat. He was suspected of organizing three contract killings, one of which took place. The judge, defending her son’s innocence, turned to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev for help.

The husband of a judge who became a defendant in a criminal case, Ivan Kondrat, is a professor at the Department of Criminal Law at MGIMO. In 2004-2007. he worked as the Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia.