In Vladivostok, a trial in absentia has begun in the criminal case of a well-known regional fishing merchant, Ukrainian citizen Dmitry Dremlyuga, and his accomplice Maria Borovskaya. Entrepreneurs who are on the international wanted list are accused of smuggling more than 3 thousand tons of crab worth over 1 billion rubles to South Korea. Previously, the arbitration court satisfied the claim of the prosecutor’s office to recover 17.4 billion rubles from Mr. Dremlyuga and his partners. to the federal budget as compensation for damage caused to aquatic biological resources.
The first hearing in the Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok in the case of Dmitry Dremlyuga and Maria Borovskaya did not last long. Having read out a telephone message from Ms. Borovskaya’s lawyer that he had been hospitalized, and having listened to the opinions of the parties, Judge Anton Efimov concluded that hearings without the presence of a defense lawyer were impossible, and scheduled the continuation of the trial for July 23. In August, meetings will be held every Friday.
Fishery businessman Dmitry Dremlyuga and head of several commercial structures Maria Borovskaya accused of smuggling strategically important resources (Part 3 of Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and evasion of customs duties (Part 4 of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). “According to the investigation, the accused, as part of an organized group, in the period from 2012 to 2016, illegally moved across the border to the Republic of Korea and transferred to real buyers at the market price 147 commercial lots of live snow crab opilio weighing 3.2 thousand tons and worth 1.2 billion rubles. At the same time, they submitted documents to the customs authorities understating the price of exported goods. The accomplices also evaded paying 72.9 million rubles. customs payments”— it says in a message from the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation for the Far Eastern Federal District.
A criminal case against the accused, whose property is worth more than 436 million rubles. arrest was imposed, initially it was sent to the Khasansky District Court of Primorye for consideration on the merits. But in December last year, the case was transferred to the Pervomaisky District Court of Vladivostok.
Mr. Dremlyuga’s lawyer, Maxim Shlegel, expects the process to be lengthy. “We intend to question all the witnesses who testified at the preliminary investigation stage. This will take a lot of time,” he told Kommersant.
The lawyer promised to reveal the defense position after the prosecutor announced the indictment, but made it clear that his client would not admit guilt. “If he were guilty, there would be no need for our services,” said Mr. Schlegel. Answering the question about the whereabouts of the client, the lawyer said that he did not have such information.
Let us remind you that in 2024 the Arbitration Court of the Primorsky Territory satisfied the claim of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation against Dmitry Dremlyuga and his entourage for compensation for damage to Russian biological resources in the amount of 17.4 billion rubles. The basis for filing a claim against the entrepreneur was a joint inspection of “the legality of the establishment by residents of foreign states of control over strategically important sectors of the economy of the Russian Federation,” carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the FSB and the FAS. During the investigation, it turned out that a number of coastal companies controlled by Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Dremlyuga (Crab Marine LLC, Real Development LLC, Fish Island LLC, Merlion LLC, Coastal Fishing LLC, Crab DMP JSC, etc.) illegally extracted aquatic biological resources “on the basis of fictitious transactions,” which caused damage to the state.
The Fifth Arbitration Court of Appeal in Vladivostok rejected the appeal filed by the defendants and approved the decision to recover 17.4 billion rubles. damage.
At the end of 2023, the Primorsky Regional Court satisfied another claim by Deputy Prosecutor General Igor Tkachev to recover 4.3 billion rubles from Dmitry Dremlyuga and his business partners. damages for violation of environmental legislation.
According to court materials, Dmitry Dremlyuga, his daughter Alena Dremlyuga, as well as Tatyana Zhukova and Konstantin Zemlyanov, through the controlled LLC Typhoon, LLC Khasanryba, LLC Zarubinskaya Fleet Base, LLC Pacific Marine Trelers, LLC Sakhryba-1, LLC Gunchan, LLC Helikon, LLC Aleut-Vostok, LLC Moststroy and JSC “Holding Company “Dalmoreproduct”” “acted as holders of quotas distributed by Rosrybolovstvo for the extraction (catch) of aquatic biological resources and carried out their fishing.”
However, in August 2022, the Moscow Arbitration Court declared the deals on fixing quotas invalid, since “it was established that the specified persons under the control of the foreign investor Dremlyuga D.V. do not have the right to own quotas for the extraction (catch) of aquatic biological resources.”
As compensation for damage in the amount of 4.341 billion rubles. 213 objects have been converted into state income, including real estate, pleasure yachts and fishing vessels.
Last December, the Frunzensky District Court of Vladivostok admitted guilty of smuggling more than 3 thousand tons of live crab worth 2.6 billion rubles. another Far Eastern fishing businessman Oleg Kan. Taking into account the previously passed sentence in the first criminal case on charges of organizing the murder of a competitor, Oleg Kan received a total of 24 years in a maximum security colony with a fine of 5 million rubles. He was also deprived of the right to engage in foreign economic activity for three years. In addition, state ownership confiscated 4.2 billion rubles – “equivalent to the cost of the contraband item.”
