As it became known to Kommersant, the Presnensky Court of Moscow returned for additional investigation the case of the former head of the pharmaceutical and medical industry development department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Olga Kolotilova, her deputy Olga Pokidysheva and their alleged accomplices. The defendants are charged with embezzlement of 450 million rubles allocated for the implementation of the state program “Pharma-2020”, however, the district court considered that the charge was not specified, in particular, it did not indicate the place of the crime.
The materials of the case against former high-ranking employees of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as well as the ex-president of the water polo, synchronized swimming and diving federations, Alexei Vlasenko, and businessmen Artem Vashurov and Elmira Zubkova, were received by the Presnensky Court at the end of May this year. However, he did not proceed to the merits of the proceedings. During the recent preliminary hearing, the district court came to the conclusion that the materials of the investigation should be sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office for an additional investigation. This fact was confirmed by Kommersant in court.
Justifying its decision, the court, according to Kommersant, emphasized that the investigation had not complied with the mandatory requirements of Art. 73 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation (“Circumstances to be proven”).
In particular, the court drew attention to the fact that the charges brought against the defendants were vague.
For example, according to Kommersant’s information, there is no place where the crime was committed in the investigation materials. Thus, the court concluded, the investigation violated the defendants’ right to defense. And on its own, the court does not have the opportunity to correct this mistake by “changing the essence of the charges brought,” and, accordingly, to issue a legal verdict or other decision on the merits of the case.
Employees of the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR were engaged in this investigation for three years. During this time, one of the accused, businessman Vladimir Zubkov, whom the investigation considers one of the organizers of the crime, died. His criminal prosecution has not been terminated, and Mr. Zubkov’s testimony forms the basis of the evidence base. Another defendant, businessman Vladimir Novakovsky, entered into a pre-trial agreement, after which his case was separated into a separate proceeding.
As Kommersant previously reported, the investigation into this case began after the Accounts Chamber checked the execution of the state program Pharma-2020, aimed at developing the domestic pharmaceutical industry. At first, the FSB officers became interested in the audit findings, and in October 2020, the TFR opened a case. Elmira Zubkova, who headed the companies Tsarebropharm, East Star Pharm and Congenix, and Artem Vashurov, CEO of Pharmdiscovery, were detained. Then they detained Ms. Zubkova’s husband Vladimir Zubkov, businessman Vladimir Novakovsky, former sports functionary Alexei Vlasenko, and officials Olga Kolotilova and Olga Pokidysheva.
The TFR considers all of them involved in the theft of 450 million rubles allocated for the implementation of the state program.
The defendants were accused of especially large-scale fraud committed by an organized group (part 4 of article 59 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). According to the TFR, in 2013 Mr. Vlasenko decided to make money on the federal program “Pharma-2020”, which financed the acquisition of promising, but “raw” developments of medicines abroad. It was assumed that the necessary clinical trials would be carried out in Russia, after which the drugs would go into production. According to the materials of the case, Mr. Vlasenko turned to an acquaintance, entrepreneur Vladimir Zubkov, who controlled the Pharmdiscovery group of companies, and informed him that, using his connections in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, he would be able to win the competition for the right to participate in transfers for the purchase of medicines by the businessman’s company. He became interested in the offer, and Alexey Vlasenko, according to the investigation, contacted the head of the relevant department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Olga Kolotilova and offered her to ensure victory in tenders for companies that were part of the Pharmdiscovery group – Tsarebrofarm LLC, East Star Pharm LLC “and LLC” Congeniks “. Olga Kolotilova and her deputy Olga Pokidysheva, according to the case, admitted these firms to competitions, lobbied their interests, and the companies received 450 million rubles from the budget. However, according to investigators, none of the contracts concluded with them was executed, and the money was stolen.
Except for Mr. Zubkov and Mr. Novakovsky, none of the defendants in the case pleaded guilty. At the same time, the investigation failed to find any valuable gifts or large sums of money from the ex-officials.
Mrs. Podkidysheva’s lawyer, Vasily Pavlov, called the decision of the Presnensky Court “legal and justified.” “The investigation committed numerous violations of the requirements of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which the defense repeatedly drew attention to, stating appropriate petitions, which justified the need to return the case for additional investigation,” the lawyer said.