The investigation considered that they overestimated the cost of purchases, and six months later opened criminal cases under the article “fraud on an especially large scale.”
Natalya, a listener from Stavropol, contacted the editors of Business FM. She said that her husband Vadim Selivanov was sent to a pre-trial detention center on May 16 under the article “fraud on an especially large scale”. The businessman last year organized the production of Arkona soft ballistic packages. In total, Selivanov has been in business for about 17 years – he was engaged in entrepreneurial activities in various fields. During partial mobilization, he received an offer from the Ministry of National Policy and Affairs of the Cossacks of the Stavropol Territory to supply sleeping bags for the participants of the NWO. Vadim Selivanov did not produce bags, but he knew where to get them from and through whom to deliver them – over the years, the necessary connections and contacts have been developed. Therefore, they turned to him.
The deliveries were made on time, in October, neither the customer nor the mobilized had any complaints, but six months later, the spouse was summoned for interrogation, says Natalia. According to her, the investigation compared prices during the rush period of scarcity and in the later quiet period and decided that the businessman received illegal benefits from this difference:
“Different prices – depending on what company, who is the manufacturer, what kind of filler, what size sleeping bag, whether it is in a cover or without a cover. The sleeping bag, which was supplied under the contract, then cost 10 thousand rubles. Now it is cheaper, about 5 thousand rubles. But it is surprising that today’s prices have begun to be compared with the prices of last year, when sleeping bags were both 15 thousand rubles and 20 thousand rubles each. Prices have skyrocketed for both boots and mats. Prices skyrocketed for everything as soon as partial mobilization was announced. The whole country began to buy them, everyone was sorely lacking.
Questions to Vadim Selivanov arose from the local department of economic security and combating corruption, as well as from the prosecutor’s office of the Leninsky district of Stavropol. And not only to him. The court sent two more businessmen, Sergei Dudkin and Alexander Titov, under arrest, they were engaged in the supply of sleeping bags, mats for them and rubber boots. Together with them, the assistant to the governor of the region, the former director of the Stavropol regional Cossack center Andrei Vorontsov, was under investigation. They are charged with embezzlement of budgetary funds in the amount of 3 million to 10 million rubles.
The comparison of prices was carried out in a paradoxical way, Roman Karkhanin, the lawyer of entrepreneur Alexander Titov, told Business FM:
“Prices are taken like this: “Why did you buy from one, and not buy from another, who had it cheaper? Why did you set such a price? No one gives out their suppliers. Like – you buy. If you don’t like it, you don’t buy. The people from whom Titov took, from whom he bought, do not say from whom they took in turn.
Here are the figures more precisely, according to the lawyer. They took purchase prices for insulated boots with insoles. In May – 2.4 thousand rubles per pair, Titov delivered 3 thousand pairs. For the same May, they take the prices of another individual entrepreneur who concluded contracts – 950 rubles per pair. Next comes a comparison with the September contract for some reason women’s boots for 650 rubles, 30 pairs. And then they attach the December contract – boots for 2.9 thousand rubles. A very strange comparison, according to which one can only say that prices are formed by the market, is indicated by the managing partner of the ZKS law office Denis Saushkin:
“Unfortunately, the situation when criminal cases are initiated solely on the opinion of some specialist that the prices are different and they were unreasonably high is very common. There are many such cases. This is due to the fact that the investigation is conducting an examination in some organization, which, at its own discretion, takes figures for one period, after which it compares prices for another period. It is concluded that they were sold there for 100 rubles, and here they were sold for 500 rubles. So the price was unreasonably high. What can be done here? We need to look very carefully at how the examination was carried out, which comparative samples were taken, which suppliers had contracts with other customer companies, and we need to have an economic justification for why they sold it for 100 rubles, and here they sold it for 500.
The court of Stavropol sent two businessmen to a pre-trial detention center, although the article is economic. The investigation stated that they could hide or put pressure on the participants in the case. The lawyers filed a complaint. Business FM sent a request to the Stavropol Ministry for National Policy and Cossack Affairs, which approved all contracts, but declined to comment. It is possible that other defendants will appear in the case. In total, according to lawyers, in the fall the ministry agreed on about 70 supply contracts.
The explosive rise in prices for uniforms during the partial mobilization caused a great public outcry and serious discontent. Then the State Duma deputies from United Russia asked the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Prosecutor General’s Office to check the validity of the prices.