Former head of the Taganrog Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex (TANTK) named after. Beriev Yuri Grudinin was again in the dock. Last year, he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for embezzling 5 million rubles. funds of the enterprise, now he is accused of abuse of power when concluding a contract with the Ministry of Defense for the manufacture of Be-200 aircraft in 2018, as a result of which the department lost 60 million rubles. Yuri Grudinin pleads not guilty. His defense denies the fact of damage, explaining what happened by the forced termination of the contract for the supply of aircraft engines from the Motor Sich plant due to the actions of the Ukrainian authorities.
In the Taganrog city court, the trial of Yuri Grudinin, the former general director of the TANCT named after. Beriev. This was reported by the joint press service of the courts of the Rostov region. The ex-head of the aircraft plant is accused of abuse of power in the execution of the state defense order (Article 201.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to investigators, in the period from December 2018 to July 2019, Yuri Grudinin instructed the financial and economic services of the enterprise to prepare a package of documents for the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation confirming the possibility of supplying D-436 aircraft engines from the plant for the needs of the military department. At the same time, the investigation believes, Yuri Grudinin knew that these engines were produced by a “foreign company”, which from the beginning of 2018 refused to supply them to Russia, and the aircraft plant named after. Beriev could not make them.
In December 2018, Yuri Grudinin signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense for the supply of engines. “The criminal actions of Grudinin led to the non-fulfillment of the state defense order and the infliction of property damage to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in the total amount of 2 billion rubles, as well as to the non-delivery of military equipment on time,” the judicial press service said in a statement.
Yuri Grudinin pleads not guilty to the crime.
Gennady Antyshev, Grudinin’s lawyer, explained the details of the incident to Kommersant-South. According to the defender, the manufacturer of the D-436 engines that powered the Be-200 aircraft is the Ukrainian Motor Sich. Since the beginning of 2018, Ukraine has banned this plant from supplying equipment to Russia.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation was aware of the current situation, however, in December 2018, the department held a closed tender for the manufacture of several Be-200s, as a result of which, with the plant named after. Beriev, a corresponding contract was signed.
According to Gennady Antyshev, the Taganrog enterprise had an agreement with Motor Sich and the necessary batch of D-436s was “waiting” to be sent to Taganrog. However, information about the results of the tender was published in open Russian sources, after which the Ukrainian authorities stopped the supply.
As a result, the Ministry of Defense and the aircraft factory were forced to terminate the contract. The company returned the advance payment to the customer, which amounted to 2 billion rubles.
However, the investigation believes that the return was not made in full. As Gennady Antyshev explained, his client is charged with “shortage” of 60 million rubles, which were allegedly written off from the account of the aircraft plant to the tax authorities as VAT from the payment under the contract. According to investigators, after the termination of the contract, the tax authorities returned this money to the plant, but Yuri Grudinin spent it on the needs of the enterprise.
Gennady Antyshev claims that the plant gave all 2 billion rubles to the Ministry of Defense, and 60 million rubles sane to Yuri Grudinin. have nothing to do with the terminated contract.
According to the lawyer, the indicated amount did indeed come from the tax authorities, but it was a VAT refund on calculations for previous business activities.
The first hearing in the case in the Taganrog City Court took place last Tuesday. Yuri Grudinin is in custody in Rostov in the FSB pre-trial detention center. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to ten years.
Thus, the former general director of the Taganrog aircraft plant may receive a second term. As Kommersant-South wrote earlier, in the fall of 2022, Yuri Grudinin was found guilty of embezzling enterprise funds in the amount of about 5 million rubles. According to the prosecution, he illegally received payments for the use of a patented invention for an amphibious aircraft for the Ministry of Emergency Situations, in which he was not involved. For this, Yuri Grudinin was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.