Damage in Oboronservis case exceeds 5bn roubles

The high-profile criminal case over theft of military property at Oboronservis affiliates currently brings together 18 cases where preliminary damage is estimated at over five billion roubles, the main military investigation department /GVSU/, Investigative Committee, said in an interview to Itar-Tass on Tuesday. As of now, 18 criminal cases opened since October 2012, have been pooled into one, over illegal sale or attempted sale of Defense Ministry's real estate facilities, land plots with buildings and structures, shares, stakes in authorized capital, and illegal payment under fictitious contracts. The cases have been opened against officials of the Defense Ministry’s property department and executives of Oboronservis' affiliates and third-party commercial companies," the GVSU said, adding that the damage in the criminal case had exceeded five billion roubles. In October 2012, the Oboronservis case comprised 7 criminal cases, and the sum of damage was estimated at some four billion roubles. In February 2013, GVSU director Alexander Sorochkin said the Oboronservis case now comprised 12 cases. The Slavyanka case brings together four cases, opened over theft of money allocated under state contracts to service utility lines, cleanup works in building and adjacent territories and current repairs of the Defense Ministry's building in Kolymazhny Lane, the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces in Vernardsky Avenue, the federal educational institution Moscow Cadet Corps for female students and other facilities located in Moscow and the Moscow region. The damage caused to the state amounted to more than 450 million roubles, the GVSU said. SK personnel retrieved 750 million roubles worth of Russian and foreign currencies from bank safes at various banks in Moscow during searches within the case. A search of the apartment of Oboronservis suspect Yevgenia Vasilyeva found 3.5 million roubles, a collection of paintings, and 1,173 pieces of jewelry worth over three million dollars. Earlier on Tuesday, reports said the first cases against suspects in the Oboronservis and Slavyanka cases might go on trial early as the autumn. There are four suspects in the Oboronservis case: former director general of the "Expert" legal support center Yekaterina Smetanova, former director general of Defense Ministry's property department Yevgenia Vasilyeva, former director general of a warehouse of the Moscow military district of Air Force and Air Defense Maxim Zakutailo, and former director general of the Prioritet company Irina Yegorova /investigators believe she set up four companies through which the proceeds from sales of military property were transferred - eds Itar-Tass/. They are accused under Article 159, Part 5 of Russia's penal code /grand fraud/. On top of that, Smetanova is accused under Article 204, Part 3 /commercial bribery/, and Zakutailo is accused of misusing funds. Zakutailo and Yegorova are in custody, Vasilyeva is under house arrest and Smetanova is on recognizance. Charges of grand fraud were brought against five suspects in the Slavyanka case: former Slavyanka director general and founder of the Security and Communications company Alexander Yelkin, director general of Security and Communications since April 2011 Andrei Lugansky, de facto aide to Security and Communications director general Yulia Rotanova, former acting head of the Defense Ministry’s economic department Nikolai Ryabykh and director of Slavyanka's current repairs department Konstantin Lapshin. All the suspects are in custody.