As it became known to Kommersant, in Moscow, consideration began on the merits of a high-profile criminal case on multimillion-dollar embezzlement during the digitalization of the Unified State Register of Real Estate (EGRN). In the dock are the former head of the information technology department of Rosreestr Alexander Bibikov and two of his acquaintances from an IT company, who were supposed to create a cadastral valuation support subsystem under a state contract, accused of particularly large-scale fraud. With the task, as considered in the FSB and the TFR, the developers did not cope, and the money was stolen. Meanwhile, the defense of the defendants claims that the subsystem is being successfully used, and the prosecution is based on the untenable conclusions of an expert who could not figure out its features.
The meeting of the Basmanny District Court on May 2 did not take much time, as it was largely of a technical nature – Natalya Dudar, presiding over the trial, considered the petitions of the accused and their lawyers.
The defendants in the investigation, which, according to the materials of the economic security service of the FSB, the investigators of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR began in July 2020, are the former head of the information technology department of Rosreestr Alexander Bibikov, as well as the co-owners and heads of the Unidata and Taskdata Rus companies Anton Evgeniev and Sergey Kuznetsov. On May 18, 2021, they were detained and placed in custody with a court order. In April last year, they were charged in the final version with particularly large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
The operatives, and then the investigation, in particular, were interested in the state contract, concluded on October 16, 2017, for the creation of a cadastral valuation support subsystem (PSKO) of the USRN Federal State Information System. It was about simplifying remote access to data, and the money – 225.8 million rubles – was allocated from the treasury as part of the Federal Target Program “Development of a unified state system for registering rights and cadastral registration of real estate (2014-2020)”. According to the Chekists and investigators of the TFR, then Mr. Bibikov developed a whole scheme for the theft of state funds, in which he attracted his acquaintances Evgeniev and Kuznetsov. Both entrepreneurs were related to the large Taskdata Rus company, which develops software and specializes in the implementation of control systems. It was this company that was supposed to perform work for Rosreestr, having concluded a subcontract with the company that won the tender, AMT-Group. As a result, by the deadline – November 2018 – the work was actually not completed, the investigation believes. Nevertheless, Alexander Bibikov considered the contract fulfilled, signing all the papers on the acceptance of work.
Meanwhile, the defendants and their defense insisted on the complete innocence of IT people. They argued that “there is no evidence of involvement in the commission of the crime, since these subsystems operate and are maintained to this day.”
Perhaps the main stumbling block in the dispute between lawyers and investigators was the examination of the subsystem’s performance, which was carried out by non-state expert Alexei Babanin. The defense side enlisted the act of an expert study of the Federal Budgetary Institution “Russian Federal Center for Forensic Science under the Ministry of Justice of Russia”, according to which the results of the work performed on the creation of the PSCO comply with the requirements of the state contract and the terms of reference for it. It should be noted that the name of this expert has already been heard more than once in other criminal cases related to alleged theft and shortcomings in various departments during their digitalization. In particular, the examination recently appointed by the court considered his conclusions untenable in the trial of the ex-Minister of Informatization of the Tula government, Artur Kontrabaev, who is accused of embezzling almost 70 million rubles. when creating and implementing a regional health information system in the Tula region.
Lawyers for the defendants in the “digital” case were not ready to comment on the beginning of the process. It should be noted that earlier they have repeatedly petitioned to change the measure of restraint for their clients to prohibit certain actions, noting that all suspicions about the possibility of continuing to engage in criminal activity or hiding are based on certificates from FSB detectives. In refusing to reduce their arrests, the court pointed out that “Bibikov has a wide range of connections in state bodies, and Evgeniev actually manages the team” of the organization involved in the case. However, all three were recently transferred to house arrests.