Sergey Tokarev
Legal professional since 1999.
Areas of expertise
- Crimes against public order, justice, administrative order
- Corruption and economic crimes, including tax crimes
- Advocacy investigations
- Mediation
Member of the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Advocates since 2011, register number 78/5360.
For his outstanding professional achievements, Sergey Tokarev was awarded a Certificate for the Advocate’s Successful Performance in Criminal Defense by decision of the Saint Petersburg Chamber of Advocates.
Graduated from the Kutafin Moscow State Law University in 2006.
Prior to his legal practice, Sergey Tokarev used to work with the Public Prosecutor’s Office and with the Investigative Committee at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Russia. For 10 years, he has worked his way from investigator assistant at Zyuzinskaya Interdistrict Public Prosecutor’s Office of the City of Moscow to especially important case investigator at the Directorate on Investigation of Especially Important Cases on the Crimes against Public Order and in the Field of Economics of the Central Investigations Directorate of the Investigative Committee at the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Russia. For his faithful performance, he was repeatedly awarded by decrees of Chief of Russian Investigative Committee, including the Medal for Merit.
From 2011 to 2016, Sergey Tokarev served as Advocate with Pen & Paper Attorneys at Law.
In 2016, he joined our team at the Law Bureau Q&A.
He actively participated in developing draft bills devoted to amending criminal law and criminal procedure law at the Council of Federation of the Russian Federal Assembly.
Organizer, speaker, and participant of Russian and international law conferences, forums, and round tables.
Repeatedly recognized as one of the best lawyers of Russia in litigation, according to the annual international Best Lawyers rating.
Author of the book V Raskayannom Sodeyalsya (I Do All What I Have Repent Of)
Experience
- Acquitting sentence to Medical Director of a medical institution in Saint Petersburg, accused of the crime provided for by Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Russia (abuse of office for holding an open auction).
- Acquitting sentence for a pro bono project (from Latin phrase pro bono publico, ‘for the public good’) performed on a non-reimbursable basis and related to a teenager beaten to death by police officers, to whom the crime provided for by Article 161 of the Criminal Code of Russia (robbery) was incriminated posthumously.
- Change in measure of restraint for a highest-ranked executive of the Directorate for Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Enforcement of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from custody to house arrest and amendment of charges from grand bribe (8 to 15 years of imprisonment) to fraud (0 to 10 years of imprisonment).
- Successfully minimized customer risks for a top manager of Rostelekom accused of grand bribery. Achieved amending charges down to the offence of minor gravity with change of measure of restraint from custody to house arrest, and further the minimum penalty at court in form of a fine, amounting to RUB 2 million. Herewith, the initial maximum penalty amounted to 12 years of imprisonment.
- Dropped criminal charge under Clause 2 Article 199 of the Criminal Code of Russia – tax evasion of over RUB 1 billion related to the management of one of Russia’s largest freight forwarding companies.
- Change in measure of restraint from custody to bail for Chairman of Board of one of the city-forming enterprises, accused of a range of economic crimes. Despite the accused pleaded not guilty, the court, upon consideration of the defense, contrary to the opinion of the prosecutor and the investigator, changed the measure of restraint. Later, the criminal case was dropped.
- Represented pro bono victims – parents of a boy who died to the Baba-Yaga statue falling onto him in Mandrogi Park. Chief Executive Officer and a founder of the park were found liable to prosecution under Subclauses a and c Clause 2 Article 238 of the Criminal Code of Russia. The court sentenced the said persons to 2.6 years of suspended imprisonment and RUB 300 thousand of fine to each. The victims, after the long-term effort of lawyers, received a compensation for moral damage, which is very difficult to get at Russian courts, amounting to RUB 4 million.
- Experience in dropping criminal charge under Articles 159 (fraud); 176 (illegal crediting); 201 (abuse of office); 195 (wrongful actions at bankruptcy); 145.1 (non-payment of salaries); 199–199.2 (tax offence) of the Criminal Code of Russia at the preliminary investigation stage and at court.