22/7 Tass 355
MOSCOW, July 22 (Itar-Tass) —— Criminal charges have been brought against a Russian Defense Ministry employee and a sailor in the investigation of the embezzlement of 265 million rubles in the Pyotr Veliky aircraft carrying cruiser’s repairs, the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigation Committee told Itar-Tass.
“The North Fleet department of the Russian Investigation Committee has brought criminal charges against head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s 1118th military representative office Capt. 2nd Class Vitaly Vagis and commander of the electro-mechanical unit of the Pyotr Veliky cruiser Capt. 1st Class Vladimir Tayakin,” the department said.
“Vasis is suspected of negligence [Paragraph 1, Article 293 of the RF Criminal Code], and Tayakin is suspected of abusing his office with grave consequences [Paragraph 3, Article 286 of the RF Criminal Code],” the department said.
Detectives said that the servicemen signed fraudulent acceptance certificates with the Zvezdochka repair base in July-November 2010 but the works for which the government paid 265 million rubles were not done.
The North Fleet prosecutors learned that the Defense Ministry and Zvezdochka signed several contracts last spring for repairing the Pyotr Veliky and giving maintenance to a submarine of the North Fleet. More than 356 billion rubles were paid for the works, but works worth of 265 billion rubles were never done.
Fraud charges were brought against Zvezdochka General Director Fyodor Barashko. The North Fleet prosecutors said Barashko, a co-owner of Zvezdochka, spent the stolen money in the interest of his company.
Alexei Kravchenko from the United Shipbuilding Corporation told Itar-Tass that the repair plant had nothing to do with the Zvezdochka shipyard led by Vladimir Nikitin and repairing nuclear-powered submarines and cruisers.