MOSCOW, March 05. /ITAR-TASS/. Former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov’s wanted brother-in-law Valery Puzikov turned up voluntarily to detectives, and an official accusation is brought against him, spokesman of the Russian Investigative Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

“He is charged under Article 160 of Russia’s Criminal Code for embezzlement. He is put on recognizance not to leave the city,” Markin said.

Detectives found that St. Petersburg-based engineering and technical center of the Russian Defense Ministry that Puzikov had headed earlier executed the state contract on transport services for military management bodies of the Defense Ministry. According to the documents, the military agency rented cars Toyota Land Cruiser 78, Mercedes-Benz GL 320 4 Matic, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Hummer and BMW 760LI for the enterprise, which in turn were taken in temporary use by Puzikov from commercial organizations which belonged to his wife. Despite the fact that these cars were not actually used in the Defense Ministry, the enterprise has transferred more than 8 million rubles ($220,200) to commercial organizations from 2010 through 2012.

Meanwhile, Puzikov’s relatives were appointed at the posts of a manager, secretary and a medical nurse, but they did not actually fulfil their duties. Being aware of the offence the directorate signed orders to pay salary, bonuses to them and to pay for their expenses on office missions. These criminal actions inflicted more than four million roubles ($110.1 thousand) of damages to the enterprise that were already indemnified by defendants.

As Puzikov turned up voluntarily to detectives, he promised to turn up for questioning timely, not to hamper criminal proceedings and was put on recognisance not to leave the city and behave decently.