Last week, at first sight, was not particularly rich in new events. But development of previous events is of interest. In particular, it is a shift of the center of gravity of the corruption scandals to St. Petersburg.
Again on the same
There is still the focus on the topic of the Ministry of Defence and Oboronservis. But now relatively minor details of previous thefts are already being covered. It is most important, perhaps, that Evgenia Vasilyeva started to cooperate with the investigation. The line connected with “ex- mistresses” of Anatoly Serdyukov is increasingly being developed.
There is a dramatic increase in the volume of information on the thefts in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rosagroleasing. Videos told about the schemes are being posted.
It is already seriously stated that the missing $ 40 million should be looked for in the accounts of the former Minister of Agriculture Elena Skrynnik. It was declared, in particular, by the senior adviser to the general director of Rosagroleasing Evgeny Zelensky, who is engaged in search of the stolen money. He believes that Skrynnik after her resignation still kept control over the company - her post was taken by her longtime colleague Leonid Orsik. Only after his mysterious death on December 31, 2009, when Valery Nazarov became the General Director, different thefts began to be opened and some “strange” scheme began to be worked out.
The structure of criminal machinations, involving government officials and businessmen, is being covered.
It is rather interesting to follow the development of the situation around the merger of BP and Rosneft. Minority shareholders of TNK-BP started to withdraw their claims from arbitration courts. On December 3, a minority shareholder Andrey Prokhorov filed in the Omsk Eighth Arbitration Court of Appeals a statement of abandonment of the claim against BP Russian Investment Limited and BP p.l.c. on collecting 288 billion rubles. This lawsuit was directly related to the transaction on the merge with Rosneft. Here, by the way, it is possible to draw one more conclusion: state-owned companies are increasingly using arbitration courts and procedures of bankruptcies to consolidate their assets. For example, the Baltiysky Zavod (Baltic Shipyard) moved to the United Shipbuilding Corporation by the same scheme.
Hearings on the case of the murder of Colonel Budanov continued. Although purely criminal topics rarely get into our reviews, this case is considered as a natural consequence of the state policy in the Caucasus. It is only the list of the jury has approved so far, and only on the second try. And if at the first try – on November 9, journalists watched a lot of the jury to be of the Caucasian peoples, and then now the selected and approved jurors, according to the same journalists, are people only of Slavic appearance.
Shift on St. Petersburg
The last week a greatest number of significant information was delivered by St. Petersburg. This array is almost completely concerned with the investigation of corruption in the Committee on Energy and Engineering of the city administration. Four suspects on charges of embezzlements and fraud when constructing and repairing of heat and water supply systems have been taken to Moscow and arrested. Chairman of the Petersburg government's committee for energy and engineering systems Vladislav Petrov has handed in his resignation. The police conducted 30 searches, seized 18 million rubles, 100 000 dollars and 100 000 euros.
Here it would be useful to point out a few interesting moments. The supplier of the rotten pipes and fake certificates was Rustrubprom. However, the managers, related to it, were released on his own recognizance. Further: it is being reported everywhere about Rustrubprom and Petrokom, but documents, money, and property titles were seized in four companies. But SMU-53 and Most-servis have remained behind the scenes.
It is possible to make two interesting assumptions. It is most likely (considering the seizure of documents at the Most-servis and SMU-53) that the circle is narrowing around the former chairman of the Committee on energy and engineering Oleg Trishkin, now peacefully governing the Energy Research Institute in St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. But for certain, the main perpetrators have already been appointed: these are four arrested representatives of representatives of the firms-contractors.
On this background, the attack on the vice-governor of St. Petersburg Igor Metelsky, supervising the property unit, is increasing (there are even titles like “Shall Luzhkov live to see Metelsky?”). He is convincingly accused of failure of regular timing of commissioning the football stadium on Krestovsky island, of patronage of construction businessmen (first of all, the heads of Stroitelny Trest Evgeny Rezvov and Beslan Bersirov), and of violation by the functionaries of the KUGI of the legislation on providing information to citizens. All this is serious in itself. But what is happening around Metelsky clearly reflects impending “tectonic shifts” in the St. Petersburg administration.
Media's attention to Skrynnik and her past performance increased when she obtained the position of Minister of Agriculture of Russia in March 2009. But the first scandal record refers to 2003, when Skrynnik was the leader of the leasing company Rosagroleasing. Deputy Transport Minister of RF, N. Smirnova published the letter on the website "Kompromat.ru, in which she exposed Skrynnik's activities in her position and described the working scheme of the scroll budget, which Skrynnik proceeded.
The scheme is as follows: all Russian factories working with Skrynnik opened an account not only in the public "Rosselkhozbank", but also in the commercial "Akademhimbank» (now Converse bank-Moscow"). Its chairman, Mr. Antonov had previously held the post of the first Deputy Director General in “Rosagrolizing». According to the letter, the second account in Antonov's bank was a prerequisite for cooperation with "Rosagroleasing. Under this scheme, as soon as budgets fell on account of "Rosagrolizing", they were reallocated among the equipment suppliers — some Russian engineering companies; and then they got shifted into the accounts in the commercial "Akademhimbank” and were kept there for years without being redeemed.
In addition to he above-stated accusations, the article contained excerpts of the Accounting Chamber inspection of the "Rosagrolizing", which confirmed that the funds received by the company for the purchase of agricultural technology, had not been fully spent. Furthermore, among the revealed infringements the following episodes were designated:
The money made in the charter capital of OAO “Rosagrolizng”, JSC "Agricultural Bank of Russia" and SUE «Federal agency on regulation of the food market”, had been on 99% used for salaries, taxes, commissions and bank licenses, but not to conduct activities under the statute.
According to the contract of 28 January 2002 between CJSC "Moscow investment real estate company" and OAO "Rosagroleasing» a search of the property had been ordered. As a result of the contract execution a compensation amounted to 30 thousand dollars was paid to ZAO Moscow investment real estate agency ".
After the Accounting Chamber had counted that equipment's credit cost the farmer 40 percent more, the percentage dropped to 2-3 per year. But thus "Rosagroleasing» took almost all the property as a deposit, and in case of non-payments under the credit the farmer risked to remain not only without the technics, but without a thing at all.
In fact Skrynnik was an autocratic ruler of "Rosagroleasing». Her mother and brother Leonid Novitsky worked under her supervision. After appointment of Skrynnik as the minister her post in "Rosagrolizinge" passed to her brother.
Skrynnik formed a team of supporters, which included the Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov, who headed the board of directors in “Rosagrolizing ", and even President Dmitry Medvedev, who had worked with Skrynnik on the national project "Agriculture ".
"Madame Leasing" Stringer", 08.07.2003, "How Skrynnik learned to plow" "interlocutor", 07.04.2009
At the end of 2009 the State Office of Public Prosecutor inspected activity of "Rosagrolizing", and identified a number of infringements. In particular, the company created a network of intermediaries between the company and the lessees, which led to more expensive services of the company. In addition, after the conclusion of contracts for the equipment sale in certain cases "Rosagroleasing" enumerated the vendors hundreds of millions of rubles as a prepayment, while the equipment was delivered in long periods of time, up to a year. All that time the private companies could use the funds for their own purposes, including to list them on the company's deposit accounts and offshore. Prosecutors remained dissatisfied with the fact that the company had not opened regional offices, while in 2007 the board of directors had decided to establish 11 branches of the company.
After prosecutor general office checking the in late November 2009 the first Deputy of Prime Minister, in charge of agriculture, as well as Chairman of the Board of Directors Zubkov convened an extraordinary board of directors of “Rosagrolizing». He demanded that the company's General Director, Leonid Orsik returned the money that had been transferred to offshore contractors and deposits and stoped advancing non-produced equipment and ensured equal access to federal leasing of all manufacturers of agricultural machinery. Orsik was to report on the elimination of deficiency at the January meeting of the Board of Directors "Rosagrolizing', but on December 31 he died of an acute heart failure at age 48.
Experts assume that the problems of Skrynnik could have appeared because of her disagreements with Zubkov, as he was interested in the fact that all the questions of agrarian policy concentrated on him personally. In addition, he had to react harshly to the violations in the "Rosagroleasing» to lift himself out of the blow, as he had been heading the board of directors of the company.
Rosagroleasing has squandered the budget for corporative events" "Gazeta", 20.11.2009, "Vedomosti", 02.02.2010
In early 2010 the Accounting Chamber inspected the federal budget usage aimed at implementation of interventions in the markets of agricultural products, raw materials and food in the late 2008. According to the inspection report, the unplanned budget expenditures in 2010 for the storage of 8 million tons of grain that had been purchased in the cereal intervention in 2008-2009, would have amounted to 8 billion rubles. They failed to sell this grain during the crisis, and now the money spent are getting literally rot.
According to the mechanism of grain interventions the part of the new crop of cheap grain is purchased with the possibility of selling it to higher price. This state agent receives a fixed fee for the intervention, and profit gained from the price "smoothing" at the grain market is transferred to the budget. When a record number of grain was baught in 2008 theAgency on regulation of the food market (ARPR) acted as the state agent (led by Vasily Krutin).
The Accounting Chamber auditor Mikhail Odintsov questioned the necessity and legitimacy of the intervention in 2008 on such a scale. He argued that part of the grain had been purchased on the basis of illegitimate orders of the Ministry of Agriculture, who failed to pass the duly registration of the RF Ministry of Justice. The grain was purchased in the amount of 970 million rubles under the "invalid orders" of the Ministry, then headed by Alexei Gordeev,.
Skrynnik claimed at the presidium of the Government, that the purchased quantity of grain allowed the State to support the grain producers by stabilizing prices and establishing a financial foundation for the field work.
The Intervention has been remembered for its account "Kommersant, 05.02.2010, Kommersant, 05.02.2010
Companies that "Rosagroleasing” had been working with were not strangers to Skrynnik. In 1998 Skrynnik established in Moscow three companies - "Rusmedinvest-M", "Medlizing" and Russian medical company. In 2000, the Russian medical company, "Medlizing" and their joint company "Investregionlizing" through affiliated structures (OOO Himgarantkonstruktsiya "," Montazhstroykonstruktsiya "and" Akademrieltservis ") acquired 15% of Akademhimbank. Subsequently, the majority of technology vendors of "Rosagroleasing» became the bank's customers.
The other two companies related to Skrynnik - TD "Grain" and "Voronezh land" - were also at least partially based on a partnership with the leasing state company. Both of them were established in 2002 and were selling the grain and paid with it to "Rosagroleasing» as the farmers never had hard cash.
The main claims of the General Prosecutor referred to the relationship of "Rosagrolizing» with Saransk Excavator Plant (JSC" Sarex "). Prosecution argued (with reference to information of Rosfinmonitoring) that "Sarex" transferred the money obtained from the "Rosagrolizing» to the bank deposits, as well as to some commercial organization, which operations were connected with the withdrawal of money to offshore.
"Sarex" was also connected to the structures of Skrynnik. In April 2007 the company Agroevrosoyuz owned 50.42% of the “Sarex's” stake. "Agroevrosoyuz" was established in 2002 by TD "Grain".
In May 25 the Board of Directors of Sarex was modified significantly. It included inter alia: the general director of "Agroevrosoyuz» and former member of the legal department" Rosagrolizing» Yuri Karpov, the head of purchasing department of "Rosagrolizing» Vladimir Dryazgov, president of «Medlizing» Leonid Zubovsky, the chief of physician Aesthetic Center «Swiss Perfection» Evgeny Makarov, a member of the expert council "Rosagrolizing" Alexander Ezhevsky and Leonid Orsik, at the time headed the Department of Science and Technology Policy of the Ministry of Agriculture. The same as in Akademhimbank case, the arrival of the Skrynnik's team to the plant led to its prosperity. State orders from "Rosagrolizing" helped "Sarex" in 2008 to become the largest Russian manufacturer of tractors.
When Skrynnik came to the Ministry of Agriculture she took the entire "Rosagrolizing" team with her. Two deputy general director of the company - Sergei Korolev and Oleg Aldoshin — became the deputies minister. The Deputy Minister was also the former CEO of "Volgogradagrolizinga" - one of the partners of sublizing partners of "Rosagrolizing" - Alexander Belyaev. Deputy Head of Department of "Rosagrolizing Vyacheslav Nungezer headed the department of scientific and technological policy of the Ministry; and the head of department on work with the leasing companystaff Olga Dulepova-Meneylyuk — went to the relevant department of Ministry of Agriculture. Starting from August 2009 the former co-owner of the leasing company "Lipetskagrosnab" and the head of the regional units "Rosagrolizing» Oleg Don headed by the administrative department of the Ministry of Agriculture.
"Vedomosti", 02.02.2010
There were also scandals related to the two ex-husbands of Skrynnik. In January 2010, the former husband of Skrynnik ( as a student) Sergei Skrynnik had been holding a position of chief of the government procurement of the material management in the Chelyabinsk region. Then he was arrested for taking bribes in Chelyabinsk. According to investigators, he had over taking bribed within the whole 2009, paid by the commercial firms for the patronage at auction. A criminal case for "taking bribes on a large scale" had been opened. The materials received from the UBEP (Directorate for Combating Economic Crimes) inspections of the regional police department became basis for the case. According to the investigative authorities, in September and December 2009 Skrynnik together with unknown persons received over 300 thousand rubles and as well as expensive alcohol from the representatives of the business organizations. Bribes had been given for illegal actions of applications acceptance with violence of terms and for the admission to participation in auction, and also for the general protection with the assistance of those commercial organisations in auctions, and for elimination of the competing organisations out of the competitions. Prosecution of Skrynnikov has not been brought yet .
"The State auctioneer has been estimated at 300 thousand rubles of bribes" "Kommersant", 16.01.2010
Yuri Kukota married Skrynnik in 2004, he wrote a statement to the police, accusing her of murder threats. In 2005 Kukoty and Skrynnik had two children born, Michael and Irina. Two years later the marriage cracked. Skrynnik filed for divorce, then did not allow him to see the children. According to Kukota, he suggested Skrynnik to meet and discuss the issue, while Skrynnik together with he security threatened him with physical violence. According to Skrynnik, Kukota asked her to marry him again, and she promised to think about it. Criminal case has not been initiated yet.
Life.Ru, 04.06.2009
