In the Chelyabinsk region, police officers detained former Vice-Governor Alexander Ufimtsev at the airport "while attempting to cross the border." He is accused of fraud under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code, as reported by the Russian Investigative Committee.
After his detention, Ufimtsev was placed in a temporary detention facility.
According to the investigation, between 2009 and 2010, Ufimtsev and three other accomplices illegally registered the right to use a forest plot located in the protected zone of a natural monument at Lake Uvildy in the Chelyabinsk region.
The participants in the scheme fraudulently concluded a perpetual use agreement between the Main Forestry Department of the region and one of the municipal institutions. Additionally, they obtained five hectares of land free of charge for the construction of a children's health camp. Instead, as stated by the Investigative Committee, cottages were built on the site and later sold to third parties.
As part of the investigation, the transactions for the transfer of ownership rights were declared invalid, and the constructed houses were demolished.
Alexander Ufimtsev served as deputy to the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Mikhail Yurevich, who led the region from 2010 to January 2014. Ufimtsev himself resigned in April 2013.