MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/. Moscow’s Basmanny Court has arrested former RusHydro CEO Yevgeny Dod accused of large-scale fraud with 2013 bonus payments. The court thus granted the investigators’ request, a TASS correspondent reports from the court.
The investigator insisted in the court on granting his request for arresting the RusHydro ex-head.
"The investigation is currently at the initial stage and many witnesses are RusHydro employees while possible accomplices have not yet been identified. A more lenient measure of restraint won’t rule out Dod’s possibility to influence the investigation and witnesses," the investigator said.
The counsel for Dod’s defense requested the court to choose home arrest or a bail of 78 million rubles ($1.2 million at the current exchange rate) as a measure of restraint for Dod. The defendant rejected the fraud charges.
Earlier on Thursday, Moscow’s Basmanny Court arrested for two months RusHydro Chief Accountant and Director of the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Department Dmitry Finkel accused of fraud.
"The court has ruled to grant the investigation’s petition and choose custody for a term until August 22 as a measure of restraint for Finkel," Judge Yelena Lenskaya said, announcing the court’s ruling.
The lawyer asked the court to choose home arrest as a measure of restraint for his defendant. Finkel rejected the fraud charges.
Spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told TASS on Wednesday that RusHydro ex-Head Yevgeny Dod and Chief Accountant Dmitry Finkel had been detained in a fraud probe.
"The Investigative Committee’s Department for High-Profile Investigations has opened a criminal case against RusHydro former Management Board Chairman Yevgeny Dod and Chief Accountant - Head of the Corporate Accounting and Reporting Department Dmitry Finkel. They are accused of committing a crime stipulated by part 4, article 159 of Russia’s Criminal Code (Gross Fraud)," the spokesman said.
This article carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
Both suspects in the criminal case were detained, the spokesman said.
The former head of Russia’s largest hydropower company has been detained on suspicion of fraud worth 73 million rubles ($2.2 million) for assigning himself a bonus for 2013, the spokesman said.
According to the investigation, Dod and Chief Accountant Finkel committed a large-scale theft of RusHydro property under conspiracy with unidentified persons.
"After approving RusHydro’s financial report, the said persons drafted and Dod personally signed an order ‘On Special Bonus Payments to Members of the RusHydro Management Board for 2013," under which he assigned a special bonus to himself for 2013 in the amount of 353.21 million rubles [$10.8 million], illegitimately overstating the bonus by no less than 73.2 million rubles," the Investigative Committee spokesman said.