Owners to return property involved in Oboronservis fraud case in Russia

During the investigation of the Oboronservis criminal case the Russian Investigation Committee succeeded to obtain the voluntary return of the shares of the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction that were sold at the understated price, spokesman for the Russian Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin told Itar-Tass on Thursday. “Along with bringing to criminal responsibility the officials, who are involved in the illegal sale of property, land plots and shares, which belong to the subsidiaries and independent companies of the open joint stock company Oboronservis, the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee is working for a voluntary and gratis return of the illegally acquired property to the Russian state,” he noted. “The detectives exposed the sale of a block of buildings in downtown Moscow, where the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction was housed, at the price lower than the market price by about 300 million roubles (this institute has designed the facilities to ensure the defence capability of the country). Along with the illegal sale of the buildings the detectives also exposed the misappropriation of the institute’s shares,” he recalled. “The shares of the open joint stock company the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction, which is the enterprise strategically important for the Russian defence capability, were purchased at the understated price by two commercial structures: the company VitaProject, which Yevgeniya Vasilyeva (the former head of the department of proprietary relations of the Russian Defence Ministry) was in charge of, has bought a 70% stake of the institute, and the open joint stock company Sosnovoborelektromontazh, which was owned by the construction holding TITAN-2, has purchased a 30% stake in the institute. The wife and the daughter of the former deputy defence minister and the incumbent head of the Federal Agency of Special Construction, Grigory Naginsky, were the co-owners of TITAN-2 then,” Markin pointed out. “At its own initiative the current owner of the company VitaProject passed gratis in the state property of the Russian Federation represented by the Defence Ministry all 70% of shares of the 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction. The owner of the remaining part of the shares also voiced its intention to return gratis its stake to the Russian state,” Markin added. Markin recalled that the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee has already brought the accusation against Yevgeniya Vasilyeva for the misappropriation of the shares of the open joint stock company 31st State Design Institute of Special Construction to the tune of more than 190 million roubles. Markin also noted that “the detectives have earlier succeeded to interfere in the process of takeover and bring back to the Russian state an oil terminal on the Cape Mokhnatkina Pakhta in the Murmansk Region that was also sold at a considerably understated price by 242 million roubles to the company Commandit service.” “The Russian Investigation Committee voiced the hope that the commercial structures, which purchased the property, which was previously bought at the understated price from the Defence Ministry, including the real estate sites and land plots, which are situated in the settlement Peresyp in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Territory and the settlement Utrish in Anapa, a hotel, a compound of administrative buildings on the Vorobyevy Hills and in the Predtechensky Bystreet in Moscow, as well as several others, will return them voluntarily in the property of the Russian Federation,” Markin underlined.