MOSCOW, October 25 (Itar-Tass) — The Main Military Investigation Directorate of the Investigation Committee of Russia (SKR) has instituted five criminal charges in connection with facts of fraud in the sale of real estate, land allotments, and shares belonging to the OAO Oboronservis public joint-stock company which is under the Defence Ministry's jurisdiction, SKR spokesman Vladimir Markin has told Itar-Tass.
"In Temryuk District of Krasnodar Territory, in particular, officials of the Defence Ministry's Property Relations Department headed by Vasiliyeva, at first unlawfully consfiscated a land allotment with an area of more than three hectares from the Federal property and leased it to a subordinate enterprise. Then,an out-of-town complex, worth over 300 million roubles, was built at thesite at the expense of Defence Ministry resources. Subsequently, the land allotment was sold for a mere 92 million roubles," the SKR spokesman said.
"The State Design Institute, consisting of a compound of buildings in downtown Moscow, was sold at a price that was 282 million roubles lower than its market cost. The job of the Institute was to design facilities in the interests of ensuring the country's defence capacity," Markin pointed out.
"Another three buidings in the very center of Moscow and the land on which they stood were sold for 700-odd million roubles, which was at least 200 million roubles less than their market cost. The Soyuz Hotel, known to everyone, and the land on which it stood on the capital's Universitetsky Prospekt (University Avenue) was sold for a mere 600 million roubles, which was 33.4 percent cheaper than its market cost," he added.
Investigation data have it that the preliminarily estimated damage caused by the sale of eight real-estate items alone amounted to over 3,000 million roubles.
"According to investigation data, Defence Ministry officials used to choose the most readily obtainable and prestigious property items, land allotments, and shares, including those in Moscow, from the property portfolio of the Oboronservis Company," the SKR spokesman specified. "Then, as a rule, huge budget resources were pumped into those real estate pieces, and the property items were then sold at substantially understated prices to the commercial entities affiliated with the Oboronservis Company".
Investigation data have it that many property pieces were bought at the expense of monetary resources stolen from the Oboronservis itself.
Within the scope of the criminal cases, investigators are making searches and attachments of documents in the Oboronservis Company on Thursday, questioning officials. Other urgent investigatory actions are being performed as well.