The heads of the Siberian road state institutions, ministries and entrepreneurs are detained by FSB operatives for fraud with government contracts worth millions of rubles, bribes in exchange for patronage and embezzlement of budget funds. The federal authorities, including law enforcement agencies, have begun a serious review of the execution of state contracts for the construction of roads in Siberia. As old friends in the Siberian Federal District, for many years they have been concluding government contracts worth hundreds of millions of rubles with affiliated companies, and independent bidding winners are being forced to subcontract work to those who are pointed out.
Bribes and arrests
FSB officers have taken the fight against corruption among the Siberian road builders under special control, as evidenced by the arrests of major figures. Recall that in March 2017, the FSB detained the director of the Omsk branch of Sibupravtodor Alexandra Sakharova for major fraud. He is suspected of embezzling 2 million rubles during the reconstruction of the highway in the Omsk region.
Alexander SakharovIn October 2020, FSB operatives detained the head of the Territorial Administration of Highways of the Novosibirsk Region Mikhail Chumanov for a large bribe, which, according to investigators, was given to him by the road contractor of TUAD Samir Asadullayev – Director of LLC “Bastion”. Chumanov’s brother was also involved in the case. Igor Listopad and top manager of JSC “Novosibirskavtodor” Sergei Ilyushin – They were accused of mediation in bribery. The investigation concluded that Chumanov received 5 million rubles from Asadullayev for further cooperation in the implementation of state contracts for the construction and maintenance of roads.
On October 27, 2022, the court already found Igor Listopad guilty and sentenced him to seven years in a strict regime colony.
In March 2021, the Deputy Minister of Transport of the Novosibirsk Region was also arrested Sergei Stavitskywho oversaw the work of the regional TUAD. The investigation believes that Stavitsky regularly received bribes from Chumanov.
Sergey Stavitsky and Mikhail ChumanovIn September 2021, the FSB detained the director of the Kemerovo branch of Sibupravtodor Yuri Glinkin for taking a bribe. He provided patronage to the head of the road enterprise and signed acts of work performed under the concluded state contracts.
Yuri GlinkinIn October 2021, one of the largest contractors of road contracts in Siberia, LLC Stroyservis and JSC Omskavtodor, opened a criminal case. Again, thanks to the FSB, investigators revealed that Omsk businessman Yakov Vagner colluded with the head of Omskavtodor Alexey Shipilov with participation in large government contracts. The investigation believes that they have derived income in the amount of 1.6 billion rubles.
Yakov Wagner and Alexey ShipilovIn May 2022, the ex-Minister of Transport of the Altai Territory Alexandra Dementieva sentenced to four years in prison for a bribe of 5 million rubles. The former official took money for choosing an enterprise as a contractor for the road construction departments of the region. And the ex-head of the state institution “Gorno-Altayavtodor” Nikolay Nechaev is awaiting a court verdict in a case of fraud and embezzlement of budgetary funds allocated for road construction.
Alexander DementievIn June 2022, Vasily Lavrentiev, the head of the control laboratory of the MKU “Road Construction Department” and an entrepreneur, were detained in Novosibirsk Vahida Zamanova – Representative of LLC SU “SibStroy”. Both are suspected of fraud committed during the repair of city roads.
On November 16, 2022, the head of the municipal enterprise Metro MiR was detained Alexandra Mysik. Two criminal cases were opened against him on charges of abuse of office (Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). Both cases are related to the construction and reconstruction of roads related to the ice arena under construction in Novosibirsk. The investigation believes that the total damage to the budget is almost 400 million rubles. The roads themselves, built by Metro MiR, are recognized as unsuitable for operation.
Alexander MysikOn December 20, 2022, FSB officers detained another high-ranking road worker – the head of the Novosibirsk center for organizing traffic Vyacheslav Treshcheva. The investigation suspects him of receiving a bribe from Stroydorindustriya LLC and NPP Interval LLC of 1.2 million rubles for assistance in obtaining a state contract for the installation of video recording systems for traffic violations.
In parallel with this, in the fall of 2022, a court in Novosibirsk, at the suit of the city prosecutor’s office, ordered the mayor’s office to update the park of snowplows for 670 vehicles due to inadequate cleaning of city roads.
The media have repeatedly reported that the need for machinery in many areas of Novosibirsk is not provided even by 50%, and the wear and tear of machines reaches 80%. This year, the regional Investigative Committee responded to the complaints of Novosibirsk residents by organizing an inspection into the fact of poor-quality snow removal.
Apparently, the Investigative Committee will have to clean up the snow that was unexpected in Siberia in the winter.
Head of the Ministry of Transport and Road Facilities of the Novosibirsk Region Anatoly Kostylevskiy still remains in his position, despite numerous scandals, which in any case call into question the level of competence of the regional sectoral leadership.
Anatoly KostylevskiyIn December 2020, a protocol was drawn up against Anatoly Viktorovich Kostylevskiy under Art. 15.15.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation (violation of the procedure for providing interbudgetary transfers). According to the Judicial Decisions.rf website, which lists all criminal and administrative cases, Judge Elena Aleksandrova did not consider the protocol. At the same time, the case of Kostylevskiy is not in the electronic filing cabinet of the Central District Court of Novosibirsk and the State Autonomous Inspectorate “Pravosudie”.
Against the backdrop of scandals and detentions of road builders, Siberian law enforcement and control and supervisory authorities seriously took up the inspection of the maintenance and construction of roads in the region, more precisely, for checking the procedure for obtaining state contracts.
Corruption in road contracts
The journalists became aware of the details about the activities of FKU “Sibupravtodor”, which will certainly be of interest to law enforcement agencies.
The state institution itself controls more than 2,000 kilometers of federal highways and distributes multimillion-dollar contracts for road construction and maintenance. The activity of some department heads aroused interest. Prior to his appointment to the post of minister, Anatoly Kostylevskiy also worked at Sibupravtodor as the first deputy head of the department. Today this position is held by Dmitry Baturin. Kostylevskiy and Baturin graduated from the Siberian State University of Railway Transport (SGUPS) in 1999 and their labor paths crossed more than once.
Entrepreneurs of a number of local companies from the Kemerovo, Omsk and Novosibirsk regions, on condition of anonymity, said that when they win the tender for contracts ordered by FKU Sibupravtodor, contractors are persistently persuaded to subcontract the execution of the contract to the firm indicated by Dmitry Baturin, known in business “road” circles as “Dmitry Sanych”.
Dmitry BaturinIn the social circle of “Dmitry Sanych” there is a company LLC “STEK – master” from Novosibirsk. The company is the winner of almost all tenders for the execution of works related to the maintenance of culverts and for some reason it is practically the only company admitted to them. For example, in the tender in October 2020, the only bid was STEK-Master LLC. In January 2021, STEK-master again became the only company to apply for a contract with Sibupravtodor. The contract amount was 30 million rubles. In total, 41 contracts worth 477 million rubles were executed between the company and the state institution.
The fact is that the director of STEK-master Vasily Vozmitelenko is a former employee of FKU “Sibupravtodor”. He oversaw the direction “Maintenance of artificial structures (bridges, culverts, etc.)”, there are possible signs of a conflict of interest.
However, such “relationships” between former colleagues will be checked by the control and supervisory authorities. And to confirm the stories of many contractors is possible only within the framework of operational measures.
There are other companies that may be of interest to the security forces, namely: Atlantdorstroy LLC, AGRA LLC and Atlant-Stroy LLC. Companies quite often perform certain types of work on contracts under federal contracts of FKU “Sibupravdor” in the Novosibirsk and Kemerovo regions. These organizations belong Andrey Bagnyuk.
According to our source in the authorities, Bagnyuk studied with Baturin and Kostylevskiy at SGUPS. All three graduated in 1999. By the way, the arrested ex-Deputy Minister Sergei Stavitsky, accused of bribery, also graduated from the same university in the same year. Interesting shots are being prepared at Siberian universities.
Some of Andrey Bagnyuk’s companies are registered with relatives. Firms are engaged in the construction of residential and non-residential buildings, and they are all located at the same address: Ob, st. Tolstoy, d. 66A. Only at this address is the sports and recreation and car wash complex “Orange”.
For example, one of the facts of the relationship between Baturin and Bagnyuk is the auction held in April 2020 to install a cable fence along the axis of the Novosibirsk-Barnaul-Gorno-Altaisk highway – the border with Mongolia. Two organizations were announced: Tochinvest Installation LLC and Atlant-Stroy LLC. By decision of the commission, chaired by Dmitry Baturin, Atlant-Stroy was chosen as the executor of the contract. The cost of work under the contract amounted to 6 million rubles.
In general, Andrey Bagnyuk’s organizations specialize in the production, installation of barrier fencing, traffic lights, as well as maintenance and service. According to the sources of the editorial office, Bagnyuk’s companies are mainly involved in subcontracting for these types of work related to traffic lights.
Bagnyuk’s competitors, in turn, complain that during the execution of contracts on federal projects, the cost of work on the maintenance of traffic lights usually increases. In addition, there is an additional allocation of budgetary funds for the regulatory maintenance of video cameras located at these traffic lights (at the stage of concluding state contracts, the regulatory maintenance of video cameras at traffic lights was not included in the estimate). Why this happened, probably, it is worth finding out for law enforcement officers. It seems that no one has yet been able to enter these contracts without patronage.
By the way, the previously mentioned Yakov Wagner also performed the contracts of Sibupravtodor. Wagner’s Stroyservice LLC has executed 45 contracts for almost 16 billion rubles and ranks third in the top 3 suppliers of Sibupravtodor.
The first place goes to JSC Novosibirskavtodor, which completed 134 contracts for 56 billion rubles. On the second line – Sibmost JSC (currently in bankruptcy), having executed 17 contracts for 21 billion rubles.
In total, FKU Sibupravtodor acted as a customer in 1983 government contracts in the amount of 142.7 billion rubles with 272 suppliers. To understand the investigation in each contract is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Contracts worth billions of rubles with major suppliers under close supervision and so on. But it is much easier to use corruption opportunities when concluding smaller contracts with small companies – less attention. It is difficult to imagine how many more affiliated companies could be involved in the execution of government contracts in this way.
Earlier we wrote about the discrepancy between the income and expenses of Dmitry Baturin. Perhaps this material describes an additional source of income. Law enforcement officers will look into this.
Luxury and wealth: how Siberian officials detained for corruption live
The editorial source noted that now contractors executing contracts on the road market are recommended to 3C LLC, which is engaged in the production of building metal structures. The director of the company is Igor Evtushenko, who, according to the editorial source, is also a former classmate of Baturin. At his son Nikita Evtushenko There is a company LLC “Molot”. Today, this company is very actively involved in the supply, installation and dismantling of barrier fences in the Kemerovo and Novosibirsk regions.
Expert: it is necessary to contact the prosecutor’s office
The situation with PKU “Sibupravtodor” is quite typical, and as local road builders say, this is how relations in the industry develop. Experts believe that these actions fall under the scope of crimes, but it is extremely difficult to prove them. That is why most road builders “take” on bribes, often red-handed. The rest of the invoice, including the testimony, had already been collected at that time.
Head of the Design and Training Laboratory for Anti-Corruption Policy, Higher School of Economics Dina Krylova considers that there is definitely a corrupt element in imposing certain firms on contractors to perform a contract or inducing them to subcontract to another company.
Dina KrylovaNote that patronage very often becomes the subject of a bribe. As soon as gratitude for patronage is transferred, it can already be qualified under Articles 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which provide for liability for receiving and giving a bribe to an official.
The expert also advised entrepreneurs who find themselves in such a situation with unscrupulous customers to collect all the evidence and contact the prosecutor’s office.
The editors sent the materials collected during the investigation to the prosecutor’s office of the Novosibirsk region and the regional Investigative Committee. We ask you to give a legal assessment of the materials and take response measures. Based on the results of consideration of requests, we will publish the responses of the authorities.
