MOSCOW, March 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Co-owner of Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant Andrei Komarov is suspected of bribery, the press center of the Russian Interior Ministry told Itar-Tass on Thursday.
His lawyer was detained with him, the press center said.
“Officers from the main department of economic security and counteraction to corruption of the Russian Interior Ministry and the Economic Security Service of the Federal Security Service detained the owner of group of companies of Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant and his lawyer who are suspected of attempted bribery of an official,” the press center reported.
During the search, operation detectives found that an organization of Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant had received groundlessly more than 1.8 billion rubles ($49.3 million) from budget in 2011.
“To conceal this offence suspects proposed a $300 thousand bribe to an official checking whether budget resources were spent reasonably for making a positive resolution on inspection results. The official turned to law enforcement agencies,” the ministry’s press center said.
In an operational experiment, the bribery fact was fixed.
“The main investigation department of the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case for bribery against suspects. A measure of restraint will be determined for them,” the press centre said.
Chairman of the board of directors of Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant Alexander Fyodorov noted on Thursday that “Komarov was brought to law enforcement agencies for questioning.” “This fact is not related with regular activity of the enterprise. All production branches of the plant operate in routine mode. The company fulfils and will fulfill all liabilities it assumed,” he stated.
Andrei Komarov is a former member of Federation Council upper house of Russian parliament. According to open sources, he owns around 90 percent of stock in company group of Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant.
Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant is an industrial group of Russian metallurgical industry and one of largest domestic pipe-producing companies with around 20 percent market share. Company’s revenues exceed two billion dollars, so, it is in the top ten largest world pipe-producing companies, the company’s official website said. The company group incorporates enterprises and companies of ferrous metallurgy, including Chelyabinsk pipe rolling plant, OJSC Pervouralsk new pipe plant, CJSC trading house Uraltrubostal, scrap metal-making and reprocessing company META and oil field services division represented by company Rimera.