MOSCOW, April 19 (Itar-Tass) – Russia's Investigative Committee /SK/ opened a criminal case over large-scale embezzlement against Senior Vice President of the Skolkovo Foundation Alexei Beltyukov.

The SK press service told Itar-Tass that “the investigation has established that in the period from February 2011 to February 2012 Alexei Beltyukov illegally passed to State Duma member Ilya Ponomaryov 750,000 US dollars from the Skolkovo Foundation’s funds. Beltyukov tried to disguise such a major squandering by entering into contracts with Ponomaryov on behalf of the Foundation. According to these contracts, Ponomaryov for 300 thousand US dollars had to deliver 10 lectures in several Russian cities and for 450 thousand US dollars to perform a research project.”

The SK Main Investigation Department opened a criminal case against Alexei Beltyukov under Article 160, part 4 of the RF Criminal Code (large scale embezzlement).

“All the circumstances are being established within the criminal case, the information about the actually delivered lectures by Ponomaryov is verified, as well as the scientific value, novelty and validity of scientific statements made by Ponomaryov in his research work are checked,” the SK said.

It added that “the information about the crime was obtained by investigators during a procedural check that is conducted by the SK Main Investigation Department in connection with the report by Russian State Duma member Vladimir Zhirinovsky on the possible commission of a crime by his colleague MP Ilya Ponomaryov under Article 128.1, part 5 (slander) and Article 289 of the RF Criminal Code (illegal conduct of entrepreneurial activity).