Released in Khabarovsk brother of the head of construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome was arrested in Moscow.
Entrepreneur Sergei Volkodav was arrested in Moscow, who, together with his brother, ex-head Main Military Construction Directorate (GVSU) No. 6 (formerly Dalspetsstroy) Yuri Volkodav, was convicted in Khabarovsk for abuse of power, which entailed grave consequences during the construction of the Vostochny cosmodrome and objects of the Ministry of Defense. Sergei Volkodav received a second term for fraud in the same regional center, but then the court decision was canceled and he returned to the capital. After the revision of the court decision at the request of the prosecutor’s office, the police began searching for him.
The former general director of JSC “Tsvetlit” Sergei Volkodav was detained by accident. The entrepreneur’s car was stopped by the traffic police for violating traffic rules, and after checking the documents of its owner, it was established from the databases that he was on the wanted list as a person accused of committing a crime under Part 4 of Art. 159 (fraud on an especially large scale) of the Criminal Code. At the request of law enforcement officers, on August 25, he was arrested for two months by the decision of the Tverskoy District Court.
In the framework of the first criminal case, the main investigative department of the ICR accused Sergei Volkodav of complicity in the abuse of official powers (part 5 of article 33 and part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and his brother Yuri – of abuse of official powers with causing grave consequences ( part 3 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to the Main Investigative Directorate of the ICR, Yuri Volkodav, who led the completion of facilities on Vostochny, became the first person involved in this investigation. He was arrested at the end of August 2018. The investigation established that, on behalf of the former Dalspetsstroy, he concluded contracts with his brother’s company, JSC Tsvetlit, for the purchase of cable and wire products for the cosmodrome and a number of facilities of the Russian Ministry of Defense in the Far East. At the same time, the prosecution claims, these products “were not actually used or were not included in the subject of the contract originally concluded between GVSU No. 6 and the company.”
The damage caused to GVSU No. 6 amounted to 104 million rubles, but later this amount was reduced by 67 million rubles, which, by decision of the arbitration court, the customer recovered from the supplier. However, the case went to court with the same damage.
In January last year, the Central District Court of Khabarovsk found the Volkodav brothers guilty of crimes incriminated by the Main Investigative Committee of the ICR. Yuri Volkodav was sentenced to 6.5 years in a penal colony, and his brother – 4 years and 9 months. In addition, from both in favor of GVSU No. 6, recognized as the injured party, an adjusted amount of damage was recovered – 79 million 467 thousand rubles.
True, at the same time, the court decided to recalculate the term based on the fact that the brothers spent a lot of time in custody (one day in a pre-trial detention center for a day and a half in a colony), which allowed them to qualify for parole. Moreover, since the damage was compensated, more than 50 real estate objects, mainly land plots, were released from arrest by a court decision; a whole fleet of various construction equipment, as well as prestigious foreign cars, including a couple of Mercedes and Jaguars. Most of them were issued to 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.
Having again recalculated the terms for the first and this verdict, the Central District Court of the capital of the Khabarovsk Territory ruled that Sergei Volkodav should have been in custody for 4 years and 9 months.
However, the entrepreneur appealed the verdict to 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 authority.
In connection with the annulment of the sentence, Mr. Volkodav was released and he left Khabarovsk for Moscow.
In the meantime, the prosecutor’s office achieved a review of the court decision and initiated a search for the entrepreneur as allegedly hiding from the court.
Sergei Volkodav’s lawyers were unavailable for comment.
