Artur Mints and Sergey Krokhin left the Central Ring Road

The case of the heads of Metroproekt and Spetsmetroproekt, accused of embezzling 8.8 billion rubles, was closed due to the statute of limitations

On March 2, the Moscow City Court terminated, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the criminal case against Artur Mints, co-owner of the Metroproekt company, and Sergey Krokhin, general director of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, who were accused by the investigative department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation of particularly large-scale fraud. The security forces believed that the defendants passed off the achievements of Soviet specialists from the 1980s as their own research during the expansion of the Central Ring Road, and allocated for this RUB 8.8 billion allocated budget funds.

On Wednesday, the Moscow City Court held preliminary hearings on the criminal case, during which the lawyers filed a motion to terminate the criminal prosecution of Mr. Mints and Krokhin due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, which is ten years. On Thursday, the press service of the city court reported that the petition was granted, and the case was dismissed due to non-rehabilitating defendants in circumstances. Preventive measures in the form of written undertakings not to leave and proper behavior in respect of Messrs. Mints and Krokhin were cancelled. However, the decision has not yet entered into force – it is being studied at the Prosecutor General’s Office.

As already reported by Kommersant, the investigation of the case began after his colleague testified against his future defendants – a leading specialist of the department of geoecological surveys (OGEI) of Spetsmetroproekt LLC Petr Khomyakov. Prior to this, a criminal case was initiated against him and a number of other persons for participation in the extremist organization Northern Brotherhood (banned in Russia. – Kommersant), whose members were going to overthrow the authorities in the country by organizing a “velvet revolution”.

Already after the arrest, the defendant Khomyakov, in order to mitigate the punishment, concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation, telling in detail about the theft in the design of the Central Ring Road. In particular, he said that in the course of survey work on the construction of a highway around Moscow, about 8.8 billion rubles were appropriated.

Employees of the OGEI, having received these billions, instead of their work, used the data of Soviet specialists who conducted surveys back in the 1980s.

Taking into account the fact that Pyotr Khomyakov informed the investigation of new information about the theft of funds and thereby fulfilled the agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office, the court in 2012 sentenced him for extremism to just four years in prison. True, the defendant was never released, having died of a heart attack.

On November 30, 2011, the FSB Investigative Department opened a criminal case on the facts of embezzlement (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of 8.8 billion rubles. During the investigation, the accounts of Spetsmetroproekt, OAO TsKAD, RAO-Universitet, Soyuzdorproject LLC, Galsinveststroy and Ecoproekt were arrested, the management of which, according to the investigation, was aware of the fraudulent scheme for the preparation of survey work.

Then the turn came to Artur Mints, co-owner of the Metroproekt company, and Sergey Krokhin, general director of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, in whose company the research of Soviet specialists was allegedly kept. At the end of the investigation, both were charged with fraud committed by a group of persons by prior agreement on an especially large scale. Because of the secrecy stamp, it was supposed to be considered by the Moscow City Court, which stopped the criminal prosecution of the defendants. Their lawyers did not comment on the court decision.

vchkogpu, 04.03.2022 01:21: The partner of Mints, the second co-owner of Metrogiprotrans, Valery Abramson, also appeared in the case, but he avoided being charged as a defendant. — Inset K.ru

Valery Abramson

Rucriminal.info, 06/28/2019, “How Abramovich’s partners received 8.8 billion rubles from the budget for imitation”: At one time, Khomyakov was the head of one of the directions of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, which participated in the Central Ring Road project. He was the first to talk about large-scale thefts and called them organizers of people from the inner circle. Roman Abramovich. Khomyakov did not live up to the end of his term – he died in a colony under strange circumstances.

Rucriminal.info publishes the testimony of Peter Khomyakov.

“From November 17, 2008, I began to participate in production meetings held in the building of JSC “Metrogiprotrans”, which is located next to the metro station “Paveletskaya”. Workshops were held by Yudin M.A., and large meetings were held by Mints A.M. .. .Meetings were held every 3-4 days, at which our department Mints and Yudin … were tasked with simulating the results of survey work that had allegedly been carried out since the summer of 2008 (despite the fact that these works had not been carried out), and allegedly on their Based on the report on the work done, in this report on all positions of the survey, as directed by Mints A.M., we had to include the available archival data, personal materials (or purchase materials for their inclusion), as well as conduct an imitation of work, to close all positions in order to receive the first payment for the work according to the schedule”.

According to Khomyakov’s testimony, which is at the disposal of Rucrtiminal.info, Mints and Co. ordered their subordinates to “simulate work by photographing the area from the car window”, and then pass it off as conducting route surveys.

As a result, Khomyakov drew up an estimate “on the financial costs of allegedly done work at the direction of Mintz” for 1 billion rubles. Whereas in reality the department spent 24 million rubles.

“In January 2009, during a meeting at OAO Soyuzdorproekt, Mints took me aside and said that the task for 2009 would be to write off the estimated amount of 2.5 billion rubles, and we need to prepare for this now. I asked, and how much real money will be given to the department of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, to which he answered me: “170 million rubles” … I asked him: “Is this not dangerous at all?” He told me that this was not my concern, all higher structures in the know. I asked who, for example, what he told me: for example, our President Abramson. I represented the level of Abramson’s connections and did not specify anything further.” — Inset K.ru