15 YEARS FOR BID-RIGGING COLLUSION

The sentence of Vladivostok Mayor

In October 2015, Primorie OFAS made a decision that Vladivostok City Authority, “Vladivostok Roads” Municipal Unitary Enterprise and “Vostokcement” Ltd. violated Article 16 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The materials of the antimonopoly case were transferred to the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation that held the violators criminally liable.

Following lengthy judicial proceedings, Tver Court in Moscow sentenced the former Vladivostok Mayor to 15 years imprisonment in a maximum security facility and fined him 500 million RUB. General Director of “Vostokcement” Ltd. received an 8-year suspended prison sentence and is fined 500,000 RUB. The former Director of “Vladivostok Roads” Municipal Unitary Enterprise also is sentenced to 10 years imprisonment in a maximum security facility and is fined 500 million RUB.

There were also lengthy judicial proceedings at Arbitration Courts that recognized the rightness of Primorie OFAS, upholding its decision. Economic entities, guilty of the bid-rigging anticompetitive collusion, paid multi-million administrative fines.

Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Andrey Tenishev commented: “Based on the orders given by the President oft eh Russian Federation”, we organize interaction with the law enforcement bodies to suppress criminal encroachments on competition. This case is a successful example of our cooperation; it illustrates clearly how restricting competition is inseparably connected with corruption and is a nutrient soil for it”.