A 12-year prison sentence has been requested for the former speaker of the Nizhny Novgorod Duma, accused of a medical equipment scam.

Lavrichev is charged under Part 4 of Article 159 (fraud on an especially large scale), Part 4 of Article 160 (embezzlement on an especially large scale), and Subparagraph "b" of Part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Russian Criminal Code (money laundering). Svetlana Smirnova, a former lawyer for the APZ, is also a defendant in the case, charged under Part 5 of Article 33 and Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code (aiding and abetting fraud on an especially large scale). The prosecutor requested a suspended sentence for her.

Investigators believe that Lavrichev, as the head of APZ, illegally transferred a Planmed mammography machine purchased by the plant for 22.4 million rubles to the BlagoDarite charity foundation for cancer screening. The foundation, in turn, sent the equipment to a clinic co-founded by Oleg Lavrichev's wife.

The Investigative Committee classified the actions of the APZ director as embezzlement, estimating the damage to the plant at 22.4 million rubles. At a hearing in the Arzamas Court, Lavrichev stated that he was a member of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Legislative Assembly at the time the medical equipment was purchased. At a meeting at the Ritm Community Center, voters asked the governor to purchase a diagnostic machine for Arzamas.

Lavrichev took the regional governor's corresponding order as a "call to action," according to him, and purchased the necessary equipment. To ensure prompt diagnostic testing, Lavrichev donated it to a charitable foundation, which lacked a medical license. Then, as Lavrichev explained, he donated the mammography machine to a clinic where APZ employees were admitted for screenings under their compulsory medical insurance policies.

In the fraud case, the state prosecution insists that Svetlana Smirnova assisted Oleg Lavrichev in a "fraudulent transaction involving the alienation of a factory plot containing old housing." Investigators note that apartments and land belonging to the APZ on Molokzavodskaya Street were sold at a reduced price and then allegedly passed through Zodchiy-NN, a company affiliated with Oleg Lavrichev.

In response to the accusation, Lavrichev stated that he was simply implementing the decision of the APZ board of directors to sell non-core assets that lead to unnecessary expenses for the plant.

"It was a desire to avoid looking bad in front of the shareholders who had instructed me to sell the encumbering assets. Regarding the medical equipment incident, I believe the investigative materials showed that I had no personal or selfish gain. Moreover, I was also investing my own funds. My interest was ensuring the voters' instructions were carried out. I wanted to preserve my reputation with the governor in the first case and the APZ board of directors in the second," Kommersant quotes Oleg Lavrichev as saying.

A former lawyer for the APZ pleaded guilty, but clarified that the investigation had "overvalued and incorrectly" the property, which required demolition. Smirnova pointed out that since the sale of the apartments and land at the plant, regular audits had been conducted. Therefore, "the plant's management should have discovered the dubious transaction with the old building stock long ago, challenged it, and recovered damages from them." However, Smirnova stated, the damage assessment only began in 2025, when the deadline for collecting damages "had long and repeatedly expired."

At the hearing, the prosecutor noted that the defendants' guilt had been fully proven. Therefore, he asked the court to sentence Oleg Lavrichev to 12 years in a general regime penal colony and a fine of almost 2 million rubles. He requested a four-year suspended sentence for Svetlana Smirnova. The supervisory authority is also insisting on compensating damages for APZ. Initially, plant representatives sought 62 million rubles from the defendants, but after criticism from the defense, the amount was reduced by 11 million rubles.

The defense disagreed with the prosecutor's requested sentence. The lawyers intend to evaluate the evidence in the criminal case. The defense recalled that several public organizations had filed petitions for leniency in Oleg Lavrichev's case, including the Russian Fencing Federation, the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Branch of Delovaya Rossiya, the Prioksky District Board of Directors, the NAPP Board, and activists from Arzamas.

Oleg Lavrichev was detained in late April 2024 in Donetsk, where he was receiving another humanitarian shipment from Nizhny Novgorod. Two days later, he was placed in pretrial detention. His pretrial detention was repeatedly extended. In April 2025, the case was sent to court. After Lavrichev's final court appearance, his pretrial detention was extended for another three months.