• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Russian Ex-Minister Detained, Charged With Large-Scale Fraud

By RFE/RL March 26, 2019

Russia's Investigative Committee says it has launched a criminal case against a former minister, Mikhail Abyzov, on suspicion of embezzling $62 million from an energy distribution company in Siberia.

The Investigative Committee says Abyzov was arrested by Federal Security Service (FSB) agents on March 26.

Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said Abyzov was charged with large-scale fraud and creating a criminal group that embezzled 4 billion rubles, or about $62 million, from the Siberian Energy Company and Regional Electric Grid in Novosibirsk.

"Investigators are planning to seek a measure of [pretrial] restraint against him promptly," Petrenko said.

Investigators say Abyzov and five accomplices of stealing money and transferring the funds abroad.

"Abyzov will plead not guilty," his lawyer, Aleksandr Asnis, told TASS. "Investigators notified us that tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. Moscow time, they will ask Moscow's Basmanny district court to place Abyzov in pretrial detention," Asnis said.

The Kremlin said that President Vladimir Putin was informed in advance about suspicions regarding Abyzov.

"Abyzov and the above-mentioned individuals have put at risk the sustainable economic development and energy security of several regions of the country," the investigators said.

They said Abyzov founded the criminal enterprise in April 2011 -- a year before he was appointed as Minister for Open Government Affairs in the cabinet of then-president Dmitry Medvedev, who is now prime minister.

It was a post in which Abyzov was in charge of keeping Russia's government transparent and accountable, and which he held until 2018 when President Vladimir Putin abolished the office and formed his current government.

Abyzov has also held several executive positions at major Russian energy firms since the mid-1990s, including a role on the board of directors at the electric-power holding company RAO UES.

In 2017, anti-corruption activist Aleksei Navalny reported that Abyzov owns a mansion in Italy worth about $11.7 million.

Navalny reported that Abyzov amassed his wealth through his energy sector connections in Novosibirsk.

With reporting by The Moscow Times, Meduza.io, Interfax, and TASS

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/fsb-arrests-russian-ex-minister-on- suspicion-of-graft/29843712.html

Copyright (c) 2019. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.