Ivan Cheberko
Izvestia, August 26, 2016, p. 4
A loud case about theft during construction of the center for control and confirmation of characteristics of GLONASS system in Korolev in Moscow Region will be heard by the Solnechnogorsk garrison military court.
HEARING OF THE CASE ABOUT THEFT OF 107.7 MILLION RUBLES DURING CONSTRUCTION OF THE CONTROL CENTER OF GLONASS START IN SEPTEMBER
A loud case about theft during construction of the center for control and confirmation of characteristics of GLONASS system in Korolev in Moscow Region will be heard by the Solnechnogorsk garrison military court.
Preliminary hearings of the case are planned to September of 2016. The accused are former deputy general director of TSNIImash George Kovkov, director of the department of capital construction of this organization Alexander Chernov, former general director of directorate No. 5 of the Federal Agency of Special Construction Alexander Belov and general director of SpetsMonolit Roman Martynenko and general director of Verny Consulting company Dmitry Belitsky.
Kovkov was charged according to article 201 of the Criminal Code (“Misuse of powers”). Other participants are accused of crimes outlined in article 159 of the Criminal Code (“Fraud”).
Construction of building 100-1 (the center for control and confirmation of characteristics of GLONASS system is called in such way in the documents) was started in June of 2010 on money of federal targeted program “Global navigation system.” According to the initial project, it was planned to spend 1.05 billion rubles on construction of the building. The fifth directorate of special construction of the Federal Agency of Special Construction was chosen as the contractor. Gennady Raikunov who was the head of TSNIImash at that moment ordered coordination of construction work to his senior deputy George Kovkov.
By the end of 2010, it became that construction estimate was exceeded and chief engineer of the information analytical center of GLONASS Alexei Agapov reported this to Raikunov and Kovkov. One of the service notes of Agapov spoke about exceeding of the estimate of the monolith work by more than 40%.
The tests conducted by experts of the company then demonstrated that the contractor was occupied with falsifications. No additional money was allocated for the project and so the building remained incomplete. Construction work was stopped in December of 2011 when federal targeted program GLONASS for the period between 2002 and 2011 expired.
The Federal Security Service grew curious about the incomplete construction at the beginning of 2013: documents were confiscated from TSNIImash and operatives took the entire construction documentation from the company. According to results of the check of the Federal Security Service, documents were transferred to the Investigations Committee for instituting of a criminal case.
In August of 2014, the main investigations department of the Investigations Committee for Moscow Region stated charges against three participants of the case about theft during construction.
In spring of 2014, the Investigations Committee accused Roman Martynenko, general director of Spetsmonolit that worked at the object as contractor of the Federal Agency of Special Construction. It was Spetsmonolit that built monolith constructions of the building. The estimate of the work amounted to 39.4 million rubles but afterwards, as investigators presumed, the accused had an idea of inflation of the estimate to 147.2 million rubles. Afterwards, Martynenko signed subcontracts with the following dummy organizations controlled by him: Maststroy, Yuves-Kom, Opttorgsbyt, Promyshlenny Alyans and CapitalStroy. To their accounts Martynenko transferred the money received from the fifth directorate of the Federal Agency of Special Construction. Afterwards, this money was distributed among the accused. They finally received 107.7 million rubles. Simultaneously with Martynenko charges were also stated for Dmitry Belitsky, owner of Verny Consulting company: according to investigators, he was occupied with legalization of the drained money.