UrBC, Yekaterinburg, October 7, 2016. Nevyansk Court upheld a motion by defense lawyers of Sergei Dubinkin, former head of Russian Pension Fund’s Sverdlovsk Region branch, granting him parole.

The court ruling was possible as Dubinkin, who got sentenced to ten years in Penal Colony 46 for bribery, has served two-thirds of his prison term by now.

The official was detained in Yekaterinburg in November 2009 with charges of bribery (36.5m RUR and $50,000) for transfer of pension fund’s money onto Bank VEFK accounts, and sentenced in December 2011. He spent the two years of trial in Remand Prison 1.

The case investigators claimed Dubinkin got paid 500,000 to 600,000 RUR a month for transferal of pension fund money to Bank VEFK-Ural on a regular basis, which meant the amounts meant for pensions and social benefits were used by the bank for its own financial transactions. The accused refused to plead guilty.