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Grand fraud exposed at Rosatom corporation

Personnel of Rosatom's daughter company Gidropress, together with the administration of Siemens Russia had stolen more than 50 million roubles

A large fraud has been exposed at the Rosatom State Nuclear Energy Corporation. The investigator said personnel of Rosatom's daughter company Gidropress, together with the administration of Siemens Russia had stolen more than 50 million roubles allocated for the development of equipment for nuclear reactors. On Tuesday, the Interior Ministry's press service reported that the projects which the German concern had to implement under contract had actually been handled by Belgorod students.

According to the investigator, in 2010-2011, top manager of Siemens Industry Software /an affiliate of Siemens AG/ Anatoly Suzdaltsev and the company's deputy director general Ilya Lavrenev concluded several contracts worth over 50 million roubles with Rosatom's daughter company Gidropress through PILIM-SFERA, a dummy firm they had set up, the Novye Izvestia writes.

None of the contracts was executed although Gidropress had transferred to the contractor 14.7 million roubles.

On top of that, Rosatoms' affiliate ordered the dummy firm to produce a 3D-model of the civil engineering part of a nuclear power plant. However, it was students of the mechanical engineering department of the Belgorod-based Shukhov State Technology University who did it.

Anatoly Suzdaltsev and Ilya Lavrenev are in custody. A criminal case over grand fraud was opened against them. If convicted, they might face up to ten years in prison.

It is not the first corruption scandal involving Rosatom, the newspaper reminds. Earlier, economic crime police exposed a 26-million-rouble theft in a similar scheme used by the previous Gidropress administration. In June 2011, former Rosatom deputy director general Yevgeny Yevstratov was arrested. Law-enforcement bodies said he had embezzled more than 50 million roubles intended for nuclear industry research.

A very dangerous fraud was exposed in nuclear industry; it threatened not only the country's economy, but also the nuclear safety of ordinary people, the Rossiiskaya Gazeta notes.

The newspaper underlines that Rosatom cooperated with the design and experimental bureau in designing a 3D model of the civil engineering part of nuclear power plants, but it was students who made the 3D model.

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