Top managers of the Voronezh branch of Rostelecom will be sued due to limited competition in the auction
Moscow will consider a criminal case against nine people, three of whom are top managers Voronezh branch of Rostelecom. The investigation believes that they came up with and implemented a plan to limit competition in the auction for the construction of communication lines in the Voronezh region for 901 million rubles. The case was opened three years ago, and during this time the security forces conducted almost three dozen searches in the Belgorod, Kursk, Volgograd, Kaluga and Voronezh regions, as well as in Moscow.
The investigation believes that in the spring of 2019, the CEO of Voronezh Rostelecom, Maxim Yeremeev, decided to hold an auction with a starting price of 901 million rubles. It is assumed that he was interested in improving personal performance and receiving bonuses. Allegedly, for this, Eremeev invited four businessmen to take part in the auction. At the same time, they were preparing to sign an agreement at the maximum price. To implement his plan, Eremeev attracted his deputy Andrey Akopyan and Andrey Belov, deputy director of the department for organizing the construction of centralized projects of the Center macro-regional branch of Rostelecom.
Lists of firms whose applications cannot be rejected were discussed by telephone. As a result, 13 applications were submitted for participation in the auction. The winners were 8 companies that offered a reduction factor of 3.5%. The firms distributed among themselves construction and installation works in 750 settlements of the Voronezh region. However, this alignment was unfavorable for Rostelecom. In addition, the bidders did not compete with each other, but cooperated. During the searches, law enforcement officers seized Hakobyan’s mobile phone, which agreed on holding auctions according to predetermined rules. As a result, the provider’s employees are also accused of abuse of office.
In Rostelecom, everyone is connected to each other
Recently, the management of Rostelecom has not publicly reported on income. But in 2014, it became known that the annual salary of the former president of the state company, Sergei Kalugin, was almost 42 million rubles. For several years, the remuneration of the head of Rostelecom has grown significantly. More than two years ago, information appeared that the current head of the company, Mikhail Oseevsky, earns about 220 million rubles a year. Prior to joining Rostelecom, Oseevsky worked at VTB, Deputy Federal Minister of Economic Development and in the government of the Northern capital. Oseevsky’s son Alexander works for Gazprom Export. And until 2018, he owned the DSDNET IT company. Its CEO was listed as the founder of “Netrika” Artem Moshkov. It is noteworthy that “Netrika” earned on government contracts.
Alexander Oseevsky has another company that develops computer software. The founders of Futumarket are Alexander Sakka and Valery Novikov. They also own General Attachment LLC, which makes money on cooperation with St. Petersburg state enterprises. And the last general director of DSDNET, Dmitry Kleiner, was the founder of the Obninsk Center for Powder Spraying, which supplies metal powder to Rosatom. This state-owned company was headed by Sergei Kiriyenko, whose son also works at Rostelecom.
The income of Vladimir Kiriyenko three years ago was estimated at more than 100 million rubles. He also has shares in Rostelecom, so he also receives dividends. The wife of Kiriyenko Jr. has a brother, Evgeny Tolmachev, who works at JSC NMGK. The founder of this enterprise maintained good relations with Sergei Kiriyenko, as they worked together. Nesterov also owns LLC Stroyresursplus, which leases premises to the engineering division of Rosatom. Previously, Evgeny Tolmachev worked at the plant of the Rusagro group of companies. Rostelecom promised this group to help track the movement of the harvest of leguminous crops and beets. The companies have even launched a joint system that improves the safety of finished products at all stages of harvesting and transportation.
Dubious Contractors
Rostelecom’s largest contractor was Inline Telecom Solutions LLC. This company earned 30 billion rubles on government contracts. It supplied set-top boxes for interactive television. However, the prosecutor’s office of Vladivostok caught the contractor of the state-owned company in corruption. It turned out that the representative of Inline Telecom Solutions gave a bribe in the amount of 180 thousand rubles to the technical director of the Primorsky branch of Rostelecom. As a result, he was fined 1 million rubles.
However, this scandal had no effect on Rostelecom’s cooperation with this contractor. At the same time, Inline Telecom Solutions excelled in Belarus as well. In 2020, the Supreme Court of this country issued a verdict in the case of corruption in the modernization of interactive television services. So, Vitaly Gorbachev, a representative of the Smartlabs company, was convicted. He handed over a bribe of $190,000. Inline Telecom Solutions LLC was owned by the Cypriot company Zilkonet Enterprises Limited. Thus, Rostelecom violated the requirement to purchase domestic software.