The former head of the property relations department at the Russian Defense Ministry Evgenia Vasilyeva, one of the persons involved in the Oboronservice case, can become a witness in a new criminal case.
The senior warrant officer Valery Daniyelyan is accused of embezzling 150 municipal apartments intended for the military personnel. However, according to Daniyelyan’s lawyer, “it is naive to believe that organizers of this largest fraudulent scheme were not high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense”.
Consideration of the criminal case of the theft of apartments intended for military personnel began in Zyuzinsky court of Moscow. The apartments were built due to the presidential program 15 +15. The ensign Valery Daniyelyan, an aide-de-camp of the ex-commander-in-chief of Land Forces of the Russian Federation Alexander Postnikov-Streltsov, and his alleged accomplices are accused of fraud with more than 150 apartments in the Moscow region. Besides, Daniyelyan's spouse Christina Ivanova, businessman Igor Ganichev, head of real estate Company Vesta Violetta Fursova, and Svetlana Savina are connected to the case too.
The investigation began in December 2012. The operations development of the case was accomplished by the General Directorate of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption (GUEBiPK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in collaboration with the Department of Military Counterintelligence of FSB.
At first proceedings were initiated against unidentified persons, but in March 2013, the FSB and GUEBiPK notified the names of seven suspects. At first the criminal case in their relation was brought only according Part 4 Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud). Five from the persons, including Valery Daniyelyan, considered as the organizer of the scam, were arrested.
The investigation found out that in 2010, on the basis of fabricated contracts of social hiring, the accused defendants in court declared the rights for privatization of the real estate and received original certificates of property on the municipal apartments. After that, they sold the apartments at market prices. False owners of the apartments received compensation. The cost of the stolen property is estimated at 1 billion rubles. Thus, now the defendant is now charged with participation in a criminal organization (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), the legalization of money received by a criminal way (Article 174 of the Criminal Code), and fraud in especially large size (Part 4 Article 159 of the Criminal Code). Daniyelyan is considered to be the organizer of the criminal scheme.
Alexey Binetsky, Daniyelyan’s lawyer, declared that his client had already admitted his guilt at the stage of investigation. “It has helped investigators to quickly establish the closest circle of people who were involved in the theft of apartments. However, the investigation failed to determine how it happened that tens of thousands of apartments of the Ministry of Defense had appeared out of control of ranking officials. A number of interesting names are emerging here, including the name of Vasilyeva. As for the other defendants of the criminal case, they could be easily misled”.
Binetsky also promised that he would apply for attraction of Evgenia Vasilyeva, as former high-ranking official of the Ministry of Defence, to be a witness in this process. “There are about 150 apartments abducted only in the capital and in the Moscow regions. But, according to my information, there are more than 10 thousand cases like those all over the country. I believe that the testimony of Ms. Vasilyeva will help to shed some light on this issue”, he said.
Recall that Presnensky court of Moscow began hearing on the merits of the case of Oboronservis. The main accused – the former head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Evgenia Vasilyeva - pleaded not guilty on all the charges against her.
She is charged with four articles of the Criminal Code - Part 4 Article 159 (fraud in especially large size), Article 286 (abuse of power), Article 201 (abuse of authority), and Art. 174 (laundering of income gained by a criminal way). The damage from her criminal activities is estimated at 3 billion rubles.
Vasilyeva is accused of 13 episodes of criminal activity connected with sale of real estate, land plots, and other property belonging to JSC Oboronservice, at obviously cut price. She personally disposed the stolen assets through firms that were under her control.
Vasilyeva said in court, “I didn't exceed the powers, I didn't create a criminal group, and I didn't involve people there. To believe the logic of the investigation, the then Minister of Defence was just a little fool who didn't understand what was going”. But the representative of prosecutor's office claims the opposite. He said that Anatoly Serdyukov wasn't aware of the plunders in Oboronservice. He said that the plunders could be possible because of Serdyukov’s kind relations with Vasilyeva. According to the prosecutor, Vasilyeva used the personal relations with Serdyukov for her personal purposes.
According to the investigation, the crimes were committed by a organized group. Its participants were the ex-head of the Center of Legal Support Expert Ekaterina Smetanova, her spouse - the former general director of the Material warehouse of the Moscow district of the Air Force and Air Defense Maxim Zakutaylo, the former general director of JSC Prioritet Irina Egorova, the former general director of JSC Mira Dinara Bilyalova, the former general director of Oboronstroy Larisa Egorina, and her deputy Yury Grekhnev.
