MOSCOW, July 31 (RAPSI) - A court in the Lipetsk Region has returned a case of two businessmen charged with embezzling of over 500 mn rubles ($14 mn) from Rosagroleasing to the General Prosecutor’s Office after they refused to cooperate with the prosecutor as previously agreed and are now requesting mitigated charges, Kommersant reports.

From 2007 to 2009, Rosagroleasing entered into contracts with companies founded by Oleg Donskikh, the former chief of the company's  Central Federal District office and the head of the Lipetsk regional administration's agricultural department. Donskikh helped allocate the funds to Rosagroleasing and then embezzled them. The total damages to the state exceeded 600 million rubles ($17 million), the Interior Ministry reported earlier.

Donskikh, who has been accused of fraud, has fled the country. He has been placed on the federal wanted list.

According to investigators, Lipetsk businessmen Sergei Burdovsky and Igor Konyakhin were also involved in embezzling the funds. They have also been charged with large scale fraud.

Citing Yulia Muratova, the Lipetsk judicial department press secretary, Kommersant reports that Burdovsky and Konyakhin have requested a review of the charges suggesting that they should be changed from “large scale fraud” to “business related fraud.” The court returned their cases to the Prosecutor General’s Office for consolidation.

“The defendants are being tried within two different criminal cases by two different judges. Both are witnesses in each other’s cases with similar case materials and other involved parties. If the trials were simplified it would not be a problem. But circumstances have changed, which requires consolidation of the cases,” Muratova is quoted saying.

Alexei Mamontov, lawyer for one of the businessmen, announced that the suspects refused to cooperate with the prosecutor in order to take advantage of recent changes to the criminal code.

“When the cases were opened, the Criminal Code did not divide the fraud section into several articles. Currently, Burdovsky’s and Konyakhin’s activity are subject to article 159.4. The maximum sentence is substantially lessened even if the case is tried on general terms, especially because my client does not deny his confessionary statements,” he said.