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Military prosecutors expose 300-mln-rbls theft

The materials of the check were sent to military investigation bodies for prosecuting the culprits for the crimes

MOSCOW, December 26 (Itar-Tass) — Military prosecutors exposed a theft of some 300 million roubles allocated for maintenance of the buildings of the Military Academy of the General Staff, an official at the Main Military Prosecutor's Office told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

"A check ascertained that under a state contract, signed by head of the Defense Ministry’s economic department E.Trunin and director general of the Security and Communications private company A.Elkin, the latter had carry out maintenance of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces. The military prosecutors found that the customer, in the person of the above military agency, arranged the conditions of the tender in such a manner as to enable the commercial organization to win it.

"It turned out that the price of the state contract was overestimated by 288 million roubles. The maintenance area was overstated by 7,000 square meters, and room space by 42,000 square meters; the 177 declared ventilation systems were missing, while Section A of the Academy which allegedly required heating system maintenance had been pulled down back in 2005.

The annual cost of cleanup work alone in the compound /200 million roubles/ exceeded similar expenses on servicing the building by Defense Ministry divisions in 2009 by four times.

In the course of two years, officials of the Defense Ministry's economic department signed monthly acceptance certificates containing unauthentic information on the works done by the commercial organization.

These criminal actions by Defense Ministry officials and executives of the Security and Communications private company caused a 288-million-rouble damage.

Deputy Prosecutor General, chief military prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky emphasized in this connection that the Slavyanka company had turned into a tool for laundering hundreds of million roubles of budget money in the past two years. Military prosecutors exposed similar facts before. The materials of the check were sent to military investigation bodies for prosecuting the culprits for the crimes covered by Article 159, Part 4 of the penal code /"grand fraud in collusion using one's office position"/.

Earlier, criminal proceedings over fictitious maintenance of Defense Ministry buildings were opened under Article 159 of the penal code /"fraud"/

In December 2010, the Defense Ministry and the Security and Communications company signed a contract of services to maintain buildings and structures belonging to the Ministry. Under the contract, the commercial organization pledged to maintain the service lines and clean the rooms inside the buildings and the adjacent area.

Among the facilities due for maintenance was a building at the address Kolymazhny Lane, House 14. Another state contract envisioned its renovation with major overhaul of all service lines in the period from February 2011 through July 2012.

Although no maintenance works were carried out within the designated period, officials of the Defense Ministry, Slavyanka and Security and Communications signed fictitious acts of completed works and the bills, in accordance with which business persons illegally drew 52.6 million roubles of income.

The SK detained director general and founder of Security and Communications Alexander Yelkin, company director Andrei Lugansky and chief accountant Yulia Rotanova.

In the course of the searches at the offices and apartments of the executives of both companies and Defense Ministry officials, investigators retrieved numerous documents relevant to the case, including electronic media and certificates of title for real estate facilities. Some 4.6 million dollars and almost 130 million roubles were removed from bank cells opened to the name of Rotanova and members of her family, the SK reported earlier.