During the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome, the Investigative Department of the TFR in the Amur region revealed suspicious movements of funds. Two criminal cases have been opened, but no one has been detained yet, Kommersant reported on Thursday, June 3.
Roscosmos told the newspaper that it assists the investigative authorities and interferes in their work.
Who is involved in the cases?
The first organization that is suspected of fraud is JSC “Center for the Operation of Ground-based Space Objects” (CENKI). In 2020, the management of the Vostochny cosmodrome signed a state contract with it to complete the construction of a complex for the production and storage of rocket fuel components located in the Tsiolkovsky district of the Amur Region.
The second person involved in the case — LLC«Respect-SEE & raquo;. With this Moscow construction company, TsENKI signed three agreements for more than 4 billion rubles. And another organization, according to investigators, involved in fraud, ” LLC “Baval”, a subsidiary of “Respect-SM”.
What kind of fraud are contractors suspected of?
From July to November 2020, the management of TsENKI paid the company “Respect-SM” 700 million rubles in total, but the work was completed, according to the investigation, was only 100 million rubles. A criminal case was opened against TsENKI under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (abuse of official authority), but it has not yet been established which officials to bring to justice.
At the same time, the Merchant notes that in the database of arbitration courts there are three relatively “fresh” claims filed by TsENKI to “Respect-SM” in the amount of about 100 million rubles. Another interesting fact is that the companies, in addition to the above-mentioned works, jointly built housing for the organizers of space launches in Zvezdny, which has been frozen since 2015.
“Respect-SM” and “Baval”, in turn, provided the local branch of the Federal Treasury with false documents, according to which they performed a number of works. According to these securities, the management of the organizations received 59.8 million rubles from the Treasury. At the same time, in fact, “Baval” did not perform any work, according to the investigation, and “Respect-SM” could not accept them. A criminal case was opened against the company under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on a particularly large scale). Specific officials have not yet been involved either.
Why hasn’t anyone been detained yet?
The investigation has not yet decided on the procedural status of the CEO of “Respect-SEE” Alik Aleksanyan, head of “Baval” Bagrat Mirzoyan and top managers of TsENKI, reports «Kommersant». The publication has not yet received any comments from the companies.
However, these are not all possible participants in the fraud. In the first case, the investigation is considering the involvement of Vladimir Zhuk, the former chief engineer of the CENKI, who was already involved in the case of abuse of official authority in the construction of a water intake on the same Vostochny. Interesting fact – during the entire construction of the cosmodrome, more than 150 criminal cases have already been initiated.