Yekaterina Smetanova, the head
of the Expert Center
for Legal Support company and a suspect within the Oboronservis embezzlement
case.
A court in Moscow
has sanctioned the pre-trial detention of two suspects as part of a major
embezzlement case involving the Oboronservis company which is affiliated to the
Russian Defense Ministry.
Khamovniki District court ordered the arrest of Yekaterina
Smetanova and her partner Maksim Zakutailowho reportedlyare close friends of
another suspect – the former head of the Defense Ministry’s property
department Yevgeniya Vasilyeva.
According to investigators, Smetanova, who works as a
general director in a law firm, planned and managed the sales of the 31st State
Design Institute of Special Construction – a major state company that built
docks for nuclear submarines, missile silos and launch pads for space rockets.
In 2011 the institute was sold off by the Defense Ministry.
Smetanova was also detained earlier this year as she took
part in the alleged kickback scheme during the sale of a supermarket building
in the South Russian city of Samara.
However, this case was quickly closed due to the lack of evidence.
The court agreed for the defendants to be detained because
they possess real estate abroad and could flee Russia
in order to avoid justice. In court Zakutailo asked the judge to release him on
800,000 roubles bail ($25,000) as with both partners under arrest no one would
look after their children, but the judge ruled otherwise.
The defense lawyers said they plan to appeal the decision
within three days.
A week ago the Central Investigative Committee conducted a
search in Yevgeniya Vasilyeva’s Moscow
apartment as part of their investigation into the alleged embezzlement of about
3 billion roubles (US $100 million) from the Oboronservis company.
Law enforcers suspect Defense Ministry officials of
investing heavily into real estate before selling it to affiliates at well
below market prices, the Investigative Committee’s spokesman said in a
statement.
According to press reports, investigators seized about $3
million worth of gems and jewelry in Vasilyeva’s apartment.
Comments from Russia’s
Chief Military Prosecutor Sergey Friodinskiy suggested that the Oboronservis
probe touched upon a much broader corruption scheme. “A malicious system
squeezed money from state budgets by means of joint stock companies controlled
by the Defense Ministry”, the official said.
Defense Minister Anatoliy Serdyukov said the ministry was
closely monitoring the situation with Oboronservis and stressed that any public
statements on the amount of damage and the complicity of particular officials
in the alleged fraud were nothing more than allegations. The minister stressed
that Oboronservis was a separate commercial structure with its own regulation
and management and noted that the Defense Ministry, just like anyone else, is
interested in a detailed investigation into all charges the company managers
are facing.
Earlier this week, Business daily Vedomosti reported on
investigators’ plans to question Serdyukov about the case, but the government’s
daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote that representatives of the Investigative
Committee dismissed the report as unfounded.
On the day of the first search Serdyukov met with President
Vladimir Putin, who instructed him to “ensure full cooperation with the
investigation launched into Oboronservis,” presidential press secretary Dmitry
Peskov told journalists.
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