Urlichich goes off orbit

The amount of misappropriations in the “Russian Space Systems” corporation (RSS) during the implementation of the GLONASS system grew last Friday and reached 6,5 billion roubles. Alexander Zubakhin, Spokesman of the RSS, who had sternly criticized that declaration, was fired the same day, and 24 hours later Yury Urlichich, the General Constructor of GLONASS, was dismissed.

Igor Bozhkov, Chief of the Internal Affairs Department at the Moscow Subway of the Moscow Head Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, declared last Friday in a briefing that the sum of the misappropriations within the “Russian Space Systems” OJSC amounted to 6,5 billion. He told the journalists: “Approximately 2,5 years ago, the Fourth Department of the MIA of Russia started working on the information of misappropriation of public funds assigned to the Russian Space Systems for the implementation of GLONASS. Currently, the information of misappropriation of 6,5 billion roubles has been confirmed. A criminal case was opened on the basis of this fact”.

Last week, Alexander Zubakhin, Spokesman of the RSS, mentioned to a ComNews reporter in a telephone conversation that the Fourth Department was investigating the case in a closed procedure, and showed his surprise at how the press had access to the information on the investigation.

In his comment for Interfax on the Friday declaration by I.Bozhkov, A.Zubakhin also remarked: “Soon the foot patrolmen will comment of the case of the RSS and the GLONASS system. And the lower the rank, the scarier the amount will be”. Anatoly Yakunin, Chief of the Moscow Department of MIA, explained to the journalists that the current Chief of the Internal Affairs Department at the Moscow Subway had worked at the GLONASS case during his time as an employee of the Fourth Department.

It became known in Saturday that Alexander Zubakin quit his job at the RSS “voluntarily”. According to RIA “Novosti”, prior to that, a “source in the Kremlin” recommended on Friday that “the RSS officials should take more care with their comments and to not question the professionalism, competency and integrity of the law enforcement officers, who conduct the investigation”.

Lidia Mikhailova, Spokesperson of Dmitry Rogozin, the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the military industry, informed Sunday that Yury Urlichich, General Constructor of GLONASS, was dismissed. L.Mikhailova told the reporter of ITAR-TASS: ”The respective request by Vladimir Popovkin, Head of Roskosmos, was filed. D.Rogozin approved it and signed today the respective document regarding Urlichich”. Y.Urlichich retains his position as General Director of the RSS.

Las week, an information was published at the official website of the Moscow Head Department of the MIA of Russia regarding the search, which had been conducted at a “phony” company, to the settlement accounts of which 565 million roubles assigned within the federal special-purpose program “Global Navigation System” (the FSP “GLONASS”) had been transferred. The Department of Economic Security and Combating Corruption of the Head Police Department of the Capital informed that during the investigation “the fact of transfer of the total amount of 2 billion roubles was ascertained, of which 600 million were transferred to the accounts on phony firms”.

On November 7^th, the officials of the Fourth Department of the MIA of Russia with the support from the operatives of the Special Operations Center of the Moscow Head Department of the MIA of Russia searched the office of one of the phony firms. The press service of the Moscow Head Department (see the news of ComNews dated November 8 of 2012) informs: “During the search, the seal of an organization used for the transfer of the budget funds was discovered in the possession of the general director of the company. Also, financial and economic documents of the organizations, which have the indications of registration without business purpose, were found at the computers of the general director and financial director”.

The criminal case under part 2 of Article 201 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation “Abuse of authority with grave consequences” was initiated in July: the press center of the MIA declared that the management of the Russian Space Systems was suspected of misuse of over 500 million roubles assigned to the development of the GLONASS system. The press center of the Department of Economic Security of the MIA of Russia noted in July: “The top managers of the “Russian Space Systems” OJSC are suspected of illegal activities, who have executed agreements for research and development with commercial organizations, which do not have their own material and technical base nor qualified staff members” (see the news of ComNews dated July 11 of 2012).

Alexander Petrov, Advocate of the Law Firm "YUST", reasons: “If the crime has been committed by the managers of the OJSC, who are not public officials, their actions may be qualified under Article 201 of the CCRF “Abuse of authority”. Liability for this crime, taking into account the amount of the misappropriations, is up to 10 years of prison and the prohibition to occupy certain positions”.

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Igor Pastukhov, Tax Adviser of the Firm, agrees: “According to my practice, I may say that such crime may be classified together with embezzlement (Article 160 of the CCRF) or fraud (Article 159 of the CCRF) with abuse of authority, in very serious amounts. Under such Articles of the Penal Code, the officials may be sentenced to up to 10 years of prison and fine of up to 1 million roubles”.

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The RSS representatives consistently reject all accusations of large misappropriations of funds assigned to GLONASS. A.Zubakhin, in a conversation with the ComNes reporter, reminded: “Back in early 2012, the Territorial Department of the Federal Service of Financial and Budget Supervision in Moscow checked the legality and efficiency of use of the federal budget funds assigned by the Roskosmos to executor organizations for the development of GLONASS in the years 2010-2011. No violations were discovered during the check”.

In his turn, Sergey Stepashin, Chairman of the Accounting Chamber of the Russian Federation, in his conversation with a reporter of Interfax, reminded that when the “Russian Space Systems” corporation was checked by the Chamber one year ago, serious financial violations were discovered that had occurred during the implementation of the GLONASS system project. S.Stepashin stressed: “All necessary materials were delivered to the MIA of Russia and accepted for a serious consideration. No sensation here, just doing our job”.

© ComNews
12.11.2012

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