MOSCOW, December 10. /TASS/. The Russian Investigative Committee is initiating the process of extraditing Alexander Korshunov from Italy, a business development director of the Russian United Engine Corporation (UEC), arrested in Italy on an international warrant by the United States, Spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko told journalists on Tuesday.
On November 6, Korshunov was arrested by Moscow’s Basmanny court in absentia. "Since Korshunov is in the Italian Republic at the moment, the process of his extradition to the Russian Federation has been initiated to hold him criminally liable for the offence he is charged with," she said.
Charges are pressed against top manager Korshunov in absentia. The investigation has established that in 2009-2014, the top manager used his position to embezzle more than seven million rubles ($110,000) of budget money through a conspiracy involving other persons. The funds were allocated for the implementation of a project to design the high-capacity PD-14 turbofan by a subsidiary — Aviadvigatel, a Russian developer and builder of aircraft engines.
"The criminal scheme was put into practice through the signing of an unprofitable agreement between the subsidiary and the Italian company Aeronova on the examination of the technical design for a PD-14 unit with its subsequent payment by the Russian company," Petrenko explained. She said Korshunov had initiated the contract. The expertise received from the Italian company had been carried out formally, had no practical value and was not used by Aviadvigatel since it contained the recommendations available in open sources.
Alexander Korshunov, director of business development at the United Engine Corporation, was arrested on August 30 at Naples Airport on an international warrant issued by the United States. The American authorities accuse him of conspiring and attempting to steal commercial secrets from an American aviation company. Charges are also pressed against Italian citizen Maurizio Paolo Bianchi, who first worked at the Italian branch of General Electric and then in a private company — Aeronova — that the United Engine Corporation had a contract with on providing consulting services. The Italian was arrested on October 2 in the town of Marino also on the American warrant, the United States Department of Justice reported.
The US side is expected to provide the documents for Korshunov’s extradition.