Russian Official Accused of Corruption Uses Casino Records to Justify Actions

Vladimir Potapkin, former director of the Department of Chemical and Technological Complex and Biotechnology of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, is accused of receiving large bribes totaling 80,000,000 rubles.

Potapkin's defense argues that the middleman, Anton Tolmachyov, is a compulsive gambler. Tolmachyov's casino records show transactions totaling 443,500,000 rubles, with a net loss of 283,000,000 rubles.

Potapkin's defense team presented these records as evidence to support their claim that Tolmachyov could not have been trusted with such large sums of money, thus proving Potapkin's innocence.