The defendants in the Voentelekom case continue to hold high government positions, and the current head of the company, Alexander Yakunin, was charged with extortion and fraud.
The Moscow City Court reviewed the criminal case against the ex-adviser to the general director of Voentelecom JSC Dmitry Semiletov, mitigating his punishment. Meanwhile, those responsible for the crimes continue to hold positions in the Ministry of Defense.
Read more in the material of the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
Domino principle
Recall that in 2017, the company’s CEO Alexander Davydov and his subordinates Dmitry Semiletov and Oleg Savitsky were arrested. Together with them, Tatiana Ilyina, general director of RCAI LLC, came under investigation. Investigators have been unwinding the chain of crimes since 2013.
The specified company supplied routers to the military department, causing damage in the amount of 460 million rubles. When checking the fulfillment of other contracts with the Ministry of Defense, it turned out that instead of Russian developments, the troops received special equipment made in the PRC. Employees of “Voentelecom” simply replaced the labels.
The investigation believed that “Voentelecom” signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense at a three-fold inflated cost. Routers were supplied at a price of 1 million rubles, instead of 350 thousand rubles. The software was then ordered, again at an inflated price. And the withdrawal of money was carried out through “ERSIAy”, this company of Tatyana Ilyina, which was later closed.
And in 2019, the investigation became interested in another contract between Voentelecom and the Ministry of Defense. According to the agreement, in 2013 Voentelecom was supposed to supply and install monitoring systems for communications satellites of the Ministry of Defense in the village of Beloomut, Moscow Region. The contractor for the performance of these works was Satstroy LLC, the main activity of which is the construction of residential and non-residential buildings. From the court file, it was possible to find out that in arbitration this LLC lost all cases both as a plaintiff and a defendant. The GVSU TFR believes that the implementation of this contract was not without numerous violations and embezzlement of budget funds.
Judging by the data of Rusprofile, it was from 2013 that financial indicators rose sharply, and then fell, now the company is in the process of bankruptcy. This can hardly be called a coincidence.
Photo: rusprofile.ru
Three from the casket
Detained in 2017, Voentelecom employees Alexandra Davydov, Dmitry Semiletov and Oleg Savitsky immediately made a deal with the investigation and revealed the names of high-ranking military men, among them, the former head of the 1st department of the main communications department of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Ogloblin, who acted as a representative state customer when signing agreements between the military department and a telecom operator, Pavel Kutakhov, head of the orders department for improving the control system of the Ministry of Defense, and Colonel-General Khalil Arslanov, former deputy chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces.
And nothing has changed
Interestingly, Pavel Kutakhov headed the Department of Orders for improving the technical basis of the command and control system of the RF Armed Forces. And he was charged with two episodes of fraud for 300 million rubles.
Pavel Stepanovich did not admit his guilt, but later decided to make a deal with the investigation, which helped him to be released from the special block of the Matrosskaya Tishina pre-trial detention center. The Colonel spent exactly one year in the pre-trial detention center – the maximum possible term for a serious crime. And the investigation had no reason to keep Kutakhov under arrest.
Everything would be fine, but as of October 6, 2022, the website of the Ministry of Defense still indicates (archived link) that Pavel Kutakhov is the head of the Directorate of Orders for Improving the Technical Basis of the Control System of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Is it really so easy for him to let go of past “sins”?
Photo: structure.mil.ru
It is noteworthy that the testimony against Colonel Kutakhov and his boss Khalil Arslanov was given by the former head of the 1st department of the main communications department of the Ministry of Defense Alexander Ogloblin. He claimed that Khalil Arslanov set him the task of building work with contractors under government contracts on the terms of the so-called “kickbacks”. In February 2022, the court found Alexander Ogloblin of embezzling 1.6 billion rubles.
It is also curious that Kutakhov first testified against the boss Khalil Arslanov, but in 2020 he suddenly changed his mind and said that he had slandered him, fearing that he would be charged for crimes he did not commit.
By the way, it is worth noting that the initial confessions of officers Kutakhov and Ogloblin are very similar and abound in the same wording. So, both claimed that, agreeing to the machinations of General Arslanov, they counted on “career growth”, and also wanted to “improve their financial situation, that is, out of personal selfish interest.”
It turns out that the officers either thought out a scheme in advance on whom to “blame” the blame, or later they were helped in this by law enforcement agencies.
In addition, Arslanov was additionally accused of embezzling 6.5 billion rubles in the development and procurement of Azart portable radio stations for the army. However, he denies all the accusations, and calls his criminal case a provocation against Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, PASMI writes about this (recognized by a foreign agent).
Behind this whole chain of machinations, there may be other high-ranking military names who have not yet been named. However, if Dmitry Semiletov was knocked off the term, then he could very well have given someone else away.
And what about RZD?
In the meantime, in 2021, there was talk that Voentelekom, a telecom operator owned by the Ministry of Defense, was in danger of bankruptcy. The company has many lawsuits; over the past three years, more than 100 lawsuits have been filed against the company for a total of 7.3 billion rubles. Apparently, the money could be “lost” just on the way to counterparties as a result of fraud, which we mentioned above.
At the same time, last year the court sentenced the former deputy head of FSUE Voentelecom Sergey Luchaninov to 4 years in prison, who, together with his colleagues, stole 212 million rubles allocated by the Ministry of Defense for scientific and technical developments in the field of radio communications. Moreover, the accused was hiding from the investigation for a long time and lived under a false name in the Ukrainian Crimea.
Now the CEO of Voentelecom is Alexander Yakunin, who in 2021 became a defendant in a criminal case on extortion and fraud, Kommersant wrote.
The head of Voentelekom, Alexander Yakunin, is not a relative of the ex-head of Russian Railways, but appeared as his “false nephew” in the extortion case. Photo: https://voentelecom.ru/
True, unlike his two predecessors in this post, the investigation is not connected with the military department. According to a statement to the police by the head of the Russian Railways supplier, Mr. Yakunin, allegedly introducing himself as the nephew of the then head of the railways, could seize his business, and besides, he demanded 200 million rubles from the businessman. and the remaining 20% of the shares.
I would like to believe that Yakunin will not follow in the footsteps of Alexander Davydov, whose case is still being investigated and the former director Nikolai Tamodin, he was convicted of two episodes of fraud for 5 years and 9 months and is now at large, but must compensate the Ministry of Defense for damages of 800 million rub.
As a result, it turns out that the scandalous story of the theft from the defense department does not even think to subside, not only do the people involved in the scheme work again in the Ministry of Defense, but new faces may appear in the case.
