In the RCC “Progress” had fun with theft

Konstantin Naumov, the former first deputy general director of JSC RCC Progress, which develops and manufactures launch vehicles and satellites, has been sentenced. The top manager was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to five years in prison. Together with Konstantin Naumov, two more entrepreneurs were convicted – according to the investigation and the court, all three were engaged in embezzlement of Progress funds, concluding fictitious contracts.

The Izmailovsky District Court of Moscow, following the results of the proceedings that have been ongoing since May last year, found Konstantin Naumov, the former First Deputy General Director of JSC Progress Rocket and Space Center, guilty of especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

Together with the top manager of the RCC Progress, his accomplices were convicted under the same article – Alexander Volodin, deputy commercial director of the Stankopress Production Company, and Mikhail Kukolev, general director of Stroyproektavangard LLC.

Mr. Volodin was sentenced to four years, and another defendant, Kukolev, to three. Information about this “Kommersant” was confirmed in court.

The criminal case became known at the beginning of 2019. Konstantin Naumov, at that time already dismissed from the RCC, a Samara enterprise that is part of the structure of Roscosmos, was detained by employees of the regional FSB. The court sent the detainee to a pre-trial detention center. Judging by the materials of the criminal case, later all three defendants were given a preventive measure in the form of a written undertaking not to leave the place and proper behavior.

According to investigators, Progress transferred Tekhnokomplektlinii LLC (TKL), headed by Messrs. Volodin and Kukolev, about 5 million rubles. for work that has already been done previously under another contract. Later, three more episodes related to the embezzlement of RCC funds appeared in the case.

As follows from the materials of the case on the website of the court, the crime of Messrs. Volodin and Kukolev was the result of a certain “beneficial owner” of TCL. The total amount of damages to the RCC is not indicated in the published court documents.

The ex-top manager of Progress, Konstantin Naumov, was a co-owner of Volga-Project LLC (liquidated in 2020), whose CEO was Igor Penin, who allegedly was part of the owners of Tekhnokomplektliny. In 2019, the investigator told the court that Konstantin Naumov tried to get through to Igor Penin on February 12, when both houses were being searched. As Mr. Naumov explained, he wanted to inform Mr. Penin that he would not be able to attend the next meeting of the Volga-Project company. The ex-head of the Progress RCC said that after this call he lost his mobile phone, but the investigation believes that he deliberately got rid of it. Law enforcement agencies do not report on the criminal case against Igor Penin.

The state prosecutor requested seven years for Konstantin Naumov, Alexander Volodin for six years, and Mikhail Kukolev for four years as punishment.

Earlier in Samara, the general director of Progress, Alexander Kirilin, was convicted. He was found guilty of embezzlement (Article 160 of the Criminal Code) and abuse of power (Article 201 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced to eight and a half years in a penal colony and a fine of 800,000 rubles. As the investigation found out, the head of Progress concluded an unprofitable contract and appropriated the property of the enterprise in the amount of several million rubles. The Samara Regional Court then reduced the sentence to five years, dropping one of the charges of embezzlement. Later, the Sixth Court of Cassation of General Jurisdiction replaced the real term of imprisonment with a suspended one. In December 2022, the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia filed a cassation appeal against the verdict against the former General Director of the Progress RCC to the Judicial Collegium for Criminal Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the supervisory authority demanded that the court decisions be canceled and the criminal case returned to the prosecutor in order to charge Mr. part 4 of article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).