ST. PETERSBURG, May 26 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – A former chief of the Kingisepp customs in Russia’s Leningrad Region, Sergey Slepukhin, who stands charged with taking bribes, has challenged a court ruling on seizure of assets worth over 30 million rubles (over $400,000), the United press service of Vologda Region courts has told RAPSI.

Slepukhin’s appeal will be considered by the Vologda Regional Court.

According to case papers, a court in Cherepovets, a town in the Vologda Region, earlier seized assets belonging to Slepukhin, businessmen Vladimir Novgorodtsev and Maxim Tyukin worth 38 million rubles.

Prosecutors claimed that Slepukhin acting as the Kingisepp customs head purchased luxury movable and real property items and registered them in a false name. Allegedly, Novgorodtsev bought for cash an apartment in the town of Pushkin totaling to 9.8 million rubles, while Tyukin titled a recreation camp in Cherepovets, including immovable and movable property worth 28.4 million rubles in his name.

The court found no evidence that the said assets were bought legally and granted a prosecutor’s bid to attach them. The defendants appealed the ruling.

Moreover, Slepukhin is charged with receiving a bribe in the amount of $27,000. Investigators believe he repeatedly took money for common assistance in the customs service.