vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #619 / Special reports / Reading article...

Police on Wednesday searched the private residence of Primorye’s Governor Sergei Darkin and seized the documents relating to the criminal cases launched against local top officials working for the region’s property department and accused of fraudulent actions and illegal privatization of the state objects, news reports said.

On Wednesday, prior to the search, Darkin was summoned to Primorye’s Prosecutor’s Office to give evidence in the case of Igor Meshcheryakov, acting head of Primorye’s Department of Russia’s Federal Property Management Agency, who was charged with fraud in December 2007, Ria Novosti news agency reported. Meshcheryakov is currently kept under arrest.

Following the interrogation, police withdrew from Darkin’s house a safe with documents, the agency said citing a source in the federal police. The source refused to be identified and did not release other details.

News reports also speculated that after the search operation Darkin was taken to a cardiology department one of Vladivostok hospitals with heart pains.

Russia’s Far Eastern Prosecutor’s Office has recently started a criminal case against Primorye’s Department of Russia’s Federal Property Fund which officials deliberately reduced prices ten times for the state property in the Primorye region.

The investigation revealed that in the past two years the state property objects, as well as arrested and confiscated property, were evaluated and later sold at prices considerably lower than the actual market costs.

The actions resulted in considerable damages caused to the federal budget amounting to more than one billion rubles ($41.7 million) in 2006 and over 500 million rubles ($20.8 million) in 2007.