MOSCOW, December 20 (Itar-Tass) —— The Russian Investigation Committee issued official accusations against the brothers Alexei and Oleg Navalny on Thursday under the Post of Russia criminal case for fraud to the tune of 55 million roubles and money laundering.
“The Main Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee Alexei Navalny is charged under Article 159 Part 4 for fraud and under Article 174.1 Part 2 of the Criminal Code for legalization of funds and other property acquired in their crime,” spokesman for the Russian Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin said.
The same accusation was earlier brought against his brother Oleg Navalny.
The measure of restraint remains the same – the recognizance not to leave the city, Markin said.
“The detectives found that Alexei Navalny founded the main press subscription agency, in which his acquaintance, who was not related to further operation of the foresaid company, acted as a nominal founder and general director. In spring 2008 Oleg Navalny, who worked as the deputy director of the automated mail distribution hubs, which is a subsidiary of the federal state unitary enterprise Post of Russia, defrauded representatives of a trading company with the foreign capital that conducted commercial activities in Russia to conclude a contract for the truck mail delivery with the main press subscription agency,” Markin recalled.
“The mail delivery services were planned to provide at the deliberately overstated price and not through Navalny’s company, which lacked the material base for this, but through another delivery company, which acquaintance of Oleg Navalny ruled,” the Investigation Committee said in the criminal materials.
“From August 2008 to May 2011 this delivery company provided the mail delivery services to a foreign trading company on the Yaroslavl-Moscow route. Meanwhile, the detectives found that the trading company transferred a much larger sum for these services to the account of the main press subscription agency. With the real cost of the cargo delivery worth of more than 31 million roubles, which the delivery company had actually made, over 55 million roubles were transferred for alleged delivery services to the account of the main press subscription agency,” Markin noted.
Thus, the detectives believe that “Oleg and Alexei Navalny committed the misappropriation in a fraud of the funds of the trading company to the tune of over 55 million roubles.”
“The Navalny brothers spent a large part of this sum at their own discretion, and the Navalny brothers transferred over 19 million roubles from this sum under false contracts from the account of the main press subscription agency to the account of the Navalny-controlled Kobyakovo willow-weaving factory for the rent of non-residential premises, raw materials and other materials,” Markin added.
The criminal case was opened on December 14, then the Investigation Committee has made the searches, including at the Kobyakovo willow-weaving factory, which the Navalny family possesses, and at the office of Oleg Navalny.
Alexei Navalny is also accused under another criminal case over the property misappropriation in the Kirovles company, under which he was put on recognizance not to leave the city. The detectives found that working as a pro bono advisor to the governor of the Kirov Region, he masterminded the property misappropriation of the Kirov regional state unitary enterprise Kirovles, involving in a conspiracy with director of the Vyatka forestry company Pyotr Ofitserov and Kirovles Director General Vyacheslav Opalev. The detectives believe that from May to September 2009 over 10,000 cubic metres of timber, which was owned by Kirovles, was misappropriated, and the budget of the Kirov Region sustained over 16 million roubles of damages.