The Central District Court of Kemerovo sentenced Vyacheslav Vishnevsky, co-owner of the Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping center, to eight years in a strict regime colony. This was reported by TASS with reference to the press service of the court.
He was found guilty of giving a bribe (part 5 of article 291 of the Criminal Code). According to investigators, he paid 7 million rubles for obtaining permission to put the building into operation, the former head of the State Construction Supervision Department, Tanzila Komkova, and the general director of ISK Resource, Nikita Chernenko, whose company was engaged in the reconstruction of Winter Cherry.
The court also imposed a fine of 21 million rubles on Vishnevsky. In order to compensate for the damage, investigators are establishing and seizing land belonging to him and his mother, residential buildings, apartments and commercial real estate in Russia and Spain.
The businessman left Russia in 2016. In March 2019, he was detained in Poland, and a year later he was extradited to Russia.
The fire in the Winter Cherry occurred in March 2018. 60 people died, 37 of them were children. Charges were brought against 15 people, including the former head of the Kuzbass department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, Alexander Mamontov.
According to the Investigative Committee, the fire started after a short circuit in the wiring on the fourth floor of the shopping center. Due to the actions of the defendants, the investigation claims, the fire could not be extinguished, and visitors to the Winter Cherry were not evacuated.
Fire in shopping center in Kemerovo