The ex-general director of Tsvetlit is accused of embezzling 1 billion rubles. when executing government contracts with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Spetsstroy of Russia

A criminal case has been opened against the former head of the Tsvetlit company, Sergei Volkodav, for the theft of more than 1 billion rubles. when fulfilling government contracts concluded with the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the structure of the federal agency Spetsstroy of Russia, Kommersant reports with reference to the case materials.

A case has been opened against the businessman under the article of fraud on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code), which carries a penalty of up to ten years in prison. Kommersant indicates that Volkodav is the brother of the ex-head of the Main Military Construction Directorate No. 6 (Dalspetsstroy) Yuri Volkodav. Both were previously charged with abuse of power (Article 285 of the Criminal Code) during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome.

His arrest under this article became known at the end of August. Details of the new case were not disclosed.

Now Sergei Volkodav is suspected of embezzling funds from two federal departments. According to investigators, in 2013, Volkodav entered into two contracts with the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the amount of 786 million rubles: they were related to the development of technologies and the organization of production of an X-ray emitter for a computed tomograph and angiograph. The funds were transferred to the account of the company “ErSQ”, its general director Sergei Tyurin was recruited by Volkodav to implement the theft scheme. At the same time, the work under the contracts was not completed on time; the contractors provided emitters for the tomograph and angiograph, which did not comply with the technical specifications and could not be used for medical purposes. The funds received for “fulfilling” the contract ended up in the accounts of companies controlled by Volkodav.

Another episode of theft concerns contracts in 2015 concluded between the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State Institution “Instroy” under Spetsstroy of Russia and LLC “Project Institute of Civil and Military Construction” (LLC PIGiVS) for 202 million, almost 37 million rubles. and 47 million rubles. For the first two, Instroy transferred funds in the form of advance payments, but PIGiVS did not complete the work. 235 million rubles were recognized as stolen. In the third case, 30 million were stolen.

In the Dalspetsstroy case, both brothers were found guilty, but were released taking into account the time they spent in pre-trial detention.

While the investigation was ongoing, in January 2022, the Central District Court of Khabarovsk sentenced Sergei Volkodav and his brother, the former head of the Main Military Construction Directorate (GVSU) No. 6 (Dalspetsstroy) Yuri Volkodav. The latter was found guilty of abuse of power in the execution of contracts for the purchase of cables and wires for the Vostochny Cosmodrome and a number of Russian Defense Ministry facilities in the Far East, and Sergei was found guilty of aiding and abetting this crime. Yuri Volkodav was sentenced to 6.5 years in a general regime colony, and his brother – 4 years and 9 months. In addition, the amount of damage was recovered from both in favor of GVSU No. 6, recognized as the injured party – 79 million 467 thousand rubles. In December 2022, after consideration of appeals by the Khabarovsk Regional Court, the brothers were released, taking into account the time spent in the pre-trial detention center.

Meanwhile, on May 24, 2022, Sergei Volkodav was interrogated in his new case, after which the police charged him with the episode with the contract with the Ministry of Industry and Trade. He did not admit his involvement in the crime. On March 21 of this year, when the businessman was already free and returned to Moscow, the investigation took a written undertaking from him not to leave the place, and on June 9 of this year a decision was made to bring the businessman as a defendant in three episodes with the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “State Institution “Instroy””. However, it was not possible to present it to Mr. Volkodav himself – the businessman was not at home. He was put on the wanted list. At midnight on August 25, the entrepreneur was detained on Kosygin Street in Moscow in his own Nissan. The investigation obtained his arrest in court.

Moreover, since the damage was compensated, by a court decision more than 50 real estate objects, mainly land plots, were released from seizure; a whole fleet of various construction equipment, as well as prestigious foreign cars, including a couple of Mercedes and Jaguar. Most of them were registered in the companies of Sergei Volkodav, entrepreneurs associated with him and himself. However, soon, in March of the same 2022, Sergei Volkodav was convicted in Khabarovsk for fraud. He was charged with two crimes under Art. 159 of the Criminal Code – by 4.6 million rubles. and 46 million rubles.

However, the entrepreneur appealed the verdict in the regional court, and the appellate instance overturned it due to violations of the law, deciding to return the criminal case, the charge for which was approved by the Moscow prosecutor’s office, to the supervisory department. In connection with the cancellation of the sentence, Mr. Volkodav was released and he left Khabarovsk for Moscow.