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Investigators demand arrest of ex dep minister of regional development

The police have exposed the misappropriation of 93 million roubles

MOSCOW, November 10 (Itar-Tass) —— The investigation demands arrest of former Deputy Minister of Regional Development, who is Prime Minister of the Perm Territory, Roman Panov, as he is suspected of involvement in theft of money allocated for preparations for the APEC summit organised in Vladivostok in September, Press Secretary of Tverskoy Court Alexandra Berezina said on Saturday.

“The court has received a request from the investigator about remanding in custody of Panov, and the court hearings are due soon,” she said.

Berezina said Panov had been taken to the court already.

The police have exposed the misappropriation of 93 million roubles, which were allocated for a trend of the activities in the run-up and holding of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, which was held in Vladivostok this year, the press service of the main department of economic security and counteraction to corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“The investigators of the main department of economic security and counteraction to corruption have exposed the misappropriation of more than 93 million roubles of budget funds, which were allocated for a trend of the activities in the run-up and holding of the APEC summit, which was held in Vladivostok this year. The investigation department of the Russian Interior Ministry opened a criminal case under Article 159 Part 4 for a massive fraud,” the press service reported.

The officers of the economic security department, territorial departments of economic security and counteraction to corruption are carrying out the scope of search measures in Moscow and Vladivostok in order to find all those involved in the misappropriation case.

The Interior Ministry suspects several officials of the Ministry of Regional development, including former deputy minister Roman Panov, were involved in the crime.

“We have found out that the suspects organised competitions for state contracts on engineering and scientific-technical supplies of the facilities of the summit. As well as on voluntary insurance of uncompleted facilities, and then made sure the commercial companies, where they had control, won the competitions,” the ministry said. Those companies received about 93.3 million roubles, though they were not involved in the realistic insurance or engineering services. “Later on, they used the money via fake organisations.”

The police made searches in Moscow and Vladivostok in residential places and offices of the suspects, as well as in the organisations, which were used for implementation of the criminal deal.

“We have confiscated documents, objects, electronic carriers of information, which are of importance for the criminal case,” the police said.

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