The Tverskoy Court of Moscow received a criminal case against the former director of the Institute for Technological Development of the Rocket and Space Industry of the Moscow State Technological University Stankin (MSTU Stankin) Grigory Zusev and the commercial director of TSD-service LLC Alexei Toporkov. They are accused of stealing 105.8 million rubles. from the funds allocated for the implementation of the Federal Space Program by the state corporation Roscosmos. The defendants do not admit their guilt, arguing that all stages of the execution of work under the contract were carried out under the strict control of the military selection committee.
Criminal case under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (fraud on an especially large scale) was initiated by the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Moscow on June 2, 2021. The reason was the materials of the check of the work of the university by the state corporation Roscosmos, conducted in the fall of 2020. Particular attention of the inspectors was paid to the implementation of the agreement between the Federal State Unitary Enterprise NPO Tekhnomash (the parent enterprise of Roscosmos for the technological support of the creation of rocket and space technology) and the institute, which provided for Stankin to carry out experimental design work Progress-2025 – AFU- With the aim of improving the characteristics of rocket and space technology to increase its service life.
The amount of the contract was 135 million rubles, but the investigation considered that real work was carried out for no more than 30 million rubles.
Meanwhile, from December 2017 to December 2019, the NPO transferred the full cost of the work to the settlement accounts of Stankin. The difference in price – 105.8 million rubles – was considered stolen by the investigation.
At the beginning, Grigory Zusev, director of the Institute for the Technological Development of the Rocket and Space Industry of the Moscow State Technical University Stankin, was a witness in the case. But in August of the same year, he was detained and, by decision of the Tverskoy Court, was placed under house arrest. He was charged with fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the investigation, Mr. Zusev’s intent to steal state funds arose almost from 2017, from the moment he became aware of the desire of the NGO leadership to carry out work under the Progress-2025 program – AFU-S. And having received the contract, he arranged so that TSD-service LLC, where his good friend Alexei Toporkov worked, became the subcontractor of the work.
The GSU believes that Mr. Zusev instructed Alexei Toporkov to start compiling fake reports on the work carried out.
At the same time, according to the materials of the case, he ordered that a smaller part of the funds received from the institute be transferred to the accounts of a number of other subcontractors who actually performed the work, and a larger part to the accounts of front companies for the purpose of their further cashing out and appropriation.
As Kommersant already reported, after a year, Grigory Zusev was transferred from house arrest to a ban on certain actions. The Tver court chose the same measure of restraint for his alleged accomplice Toporkov.
Both pleaded not guilty. So, Grigory Zusev told Kommersant that the decision to choose TSD-Service LLC as a subcontractor was not due to friendship with Toporkov, but to favorable conditions for the project – other organizations allegedly requested at least 200 million rubles for work. In addition, he categorically disagrees with the opinion of an expert from Agat JSC, who assessed the work performed by the institute and LLC. At the same time, lawyers and their clients question the very competence of the expert.
So, the lawyers emphasize, answering the questions posed by the investigation, the expert could not determine the operability of the product designed by the institute, writing in the report that “the equipment did not turn on.” But at the same time he expressed confidence that it “is not efficient.” And this, the defenders note, despite the fact that before him “the military acceptance checked the functioning of the product for a month and a half, signing all the protocols and relevant acts.” According to the lawyers, the expert could not answer the question whether the manufactured products were useful. Although members of the military selection committee have already answered it. At the same time, lawyer Sergei Akhundzyanov noted to Kommersant that he had already caught the expert in this case for incompetence in another process, thanks to which his former client was acquitted.
Mr. Zusev himself claims that he did not sign the contract, but only “led the technical part of the work.”
“I didn’t touch the accounting department, I didn’t give any instructions to the financial and economic services,” the ex-director remarked to Kommersant. “And the customer had no complaints either against me or the deputy for economics and finance.” At the same time, answering a question about the objectivity of the project cost of 135 million rubles, Grigory Zusev said that setting the price was not at all within his competence, since Roscosmos itself set the price. “There, many high-ranking officials agreed on the price of the work,” Mr. Zusev told Kommersant. “And it was indicated to us along with the requirements and standards for the expenditure of Stankin allocated funds. And in the process of doing the work, Roscosmos employees accepted reports on the spending of money and agreed with everything. ” At the same time, Mr. Zusev argued that it was extremely difficult to change the cost of spending on a project in a state corporation: “You have to go through many instances and approvals, and this was not within my competence.”