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After a series of publications in The Moscow Post about large-scale embezzlement during the construction of the National Space Center, the persons involved in these stories, led by previously convicted Konstantin Maslakov, the CEO of MIP-Stroy №1...
... are trying to institute criminal proceedings against our journalists under Article 128 of the Criminal Code (slander) for a bribe of 5 million rubles ($63,165). This is reported by our readers.
According to our sources, representatives of the police in the investigation department of the Department of Internal Affairs for the Central Administrative District of Moscow may be involved in the case. The CEO of MIP-Stroy №1 previously tried for fraud Konstantin Maslakov allocated a budget of 5 million rubles for a bribe, a correspondent of The Moscow Post reports.
According to knowledgeable sources, to carry out this plan Maslakov involved Deputy CEO Ivan Goloshchapov (MIP-Stroy - ed.note) and the Head of the Control and Information Technology Ruslan Rybin (Goloshchapov and Rybin are former employees of the FSB, fired for corruption related to the criminal case of Colonel Cherkalin, both were his subordinates).
The informants report that the above-mentioned persons had previously tried to negotiate in the Investigative Committee of Moscow, but failed.
Notably, The Moscow Post conducted a series of investigations on the facts of theft in the construction of the National Space Center by MIP-stroy, “'Leakage' of Corruption in the space center”, “Khusnullin’s Man Who Lives in a Shell”, “Only stars are closer”, “Rogozin Polygraph fails”, “MIP-headed on embezzlement, and what does Rogozin have to do with it?” “There's Only MIP, Hold on to It: Grigory Berezkin and Igor Sechin Grew Up with Roskosmos?”
As we wrote earlier, MIP-stroy sent us their complaint and the managers of this company received an open answer from the Editorial Board in the article “MIP-headed on embezzlement and what does Rogozin have to do with it?”
However, this was not the end of the story. We received a statement of claim to the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, from the company MIP-stroy, dated December 31, 2021.
It is unclear why this document does not appear in the file of arbitration cases. Or did Mr. Maslakov first want to “warn” us in this way?
By the way, as already reported in publications, previously MIR-stroy’s CEO, Konstantin Maslakov, was not Maslakov at all, but Grigoriev and was convicted of fraud by the Kirovsky District Court of Astrakhan.
However, the leopard can't change his spot. The fact that, according to our information, the prosecutor's office is interested in the activities of MIP-stroy №1, which is the contractor for the construction of the National Space Center, might only confirm this.
This center is in the area of responsibility of Dmitry Rogozin, Head of Roscosmos, and Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who seemingly do not see what is happening on the construction site of the strategically important facility.
The Moscow Post has already repeatedly mentioned the subsidiaries of Mosinzhproekt, which, incidentally, represents the interests of the Moscow government, in its investigations. Not so long ago, a bankruptcy petition was filed for Mip-Service, which is part of the holding structure and, among other things, is related to the above-mentioned MIP-Stroy №1.
Well, Maslakov's desire to “cover up the situation” is understandable. After all, we have uncovered more than one of his secrets. Now let's talk about the real issues, including the financial situation of the company, from which Maslakov seems to have once again extracted money in favor of his own interests. He will not be able to prove the unprovable, but the budget of MIP-Stroy №1 will again be squandered.
Ruined, but not broken
At the same time, many Mosinzhproekt companies are almost on the verge of bankruptcy. For example, the founder of the same MIP-Stroy №1 and Mip-Aktiv (the majority shareholder of MIP-Stroy No. 1 and is 100% owned by MIP-Story) has been broken as a back lately. Not to mention the fact that the company ran at a deficit in 2015.
Photo credit: https://www.rusprofile.ru
On December 2, 2020, an application was filed with the court to declare MIP-Stroy No. 1 bankrupt, since the organization does not have its own capital, and revenue and profit have fallen significantly. Nevertheless, MIP-Stroy No. 1 performs the largest multibillion-dollar contract, which Rogozin reported to the President of the Russian Federation himself. Where is the logic? In the pockets of officials?
A thief to himself
Our reader sent us a response from the prosecutor's office to the request of State Duma deputy and head of the ONF Bureau of Investigation Anton Gett about what is happening outside the walls of the “MIP corporation.”
According to the text of the document, on October 23, 2020, a criminal case was initiated against an unidentified person under the article “Fraud.” Unidentified persons, being in warehouse No. 8 of MIP-Stroy No. 1, stole the company's property worth 2.7 million rubles ($34,109.1.)
The response of the Moscow Prosecutor's Office
Photo: courtesy of The Moscow Post reader
However, it was not possible to find the culprits, so the investigation of the criminal case was suspended on November 20, 2021. On the same day, such a decision by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia in the Vykhino-Zhulebino district of Moscow was declared illegal and canceled by the Kuzmin interdistrict Prosecutor's Office of Moscow.
How come 2.7 million rubles were taken out from the warehouse of the company but performing a huge contract and having an entire branched network, and no one even mentioned it? MIP-Stroy No. 1 did not even file a lawsuit. Did people who are not related to the company do it? How come there are neither recordings from the cameras, nor any information about who could have committed the theft?
Yes, and questions arise to the Department of Internal Affairs: 2.7 million disappeared, and they just decided to close the case? Thanks to the caring people from the prosecutor's office: investigative actions are continuing now.
Millions are like dust
Indeed, what is 2.7 million rubles for an organization from which much larger amounts can “leak out.” According to our source, during the period when the statutory VAT rate rose from 18% to 20%, MIP-Stroy-1 allegedly artificially underestimated it, which could have ended up cheating the Federal Tax Service of Russia by tens of millions of rubles.
The head of the company is a certain Konstantin Maslakov. This gentleman previously bore the surname Grigoriev and was tried in 2017 by the Kirov District Court of Astrakhan for embezzlement of budgetary funds (verdict No. 1-256/2017 from 20.07.2017). Rumor has it that he was allegedly promoted to the position of head of Mip-Stroy №1 by Marat Khusnullin himself.
According to our reader, it was Maslakov, who in September 2020 could have pulled off a large theft of property, thus causing damage to both MIP-Stroy №1 and Mosinzhproekt. The reader points out that Mr. Maslakov-Grigoriev “worked” not alone, but with the heads of the warehouse service Pavel Kruglov and Alexander Grisenko in the situation described above. We spoke in detail about the incident, as well as about the past of Mr. Maslakov-Grigoriev, in the article “Corruption Leaks at the Space Center.”
Then it would become clear why MIP-Stroy №1 “have been keeping silence in the corner” about what happened. By the way, a similar scheme in October 2020 could have been used to move 20,000 meters of cable worth 35 million rubles ($442,155) from two warehouses of the company. However, this is unlikely to “emerge” somewhere. They say that the materials were destroyed at the behest of Mr. Vladimir Kuznetsov, who is responsible for safety at the company.
All in all, MIP-Stroy No.1 could have an entire organized contractor working for it. And what about the National Space Center? The deadlines for its construction are being delayed, and not for the first time. Against this background a question arises: will it be finished at all? Probably, they will finish everything, but nobody knows how much more budget money will end up in the wrong pockets.
Or maybe it will repeat the unenviable fate of the Vostochny spaceport, during the construction of which over 1,000 criminal cases were initiated.
By the way, according to the information we were told by a source, earlier, in January 2020, MIP-Stroy №1 ordered computer equipment from Smart-Technology at an allegedly greatly inflated cost. According to the above response from the prosecutor's office, the equipment was received in full and the terms of the contract were fulfilled.
Well, in general, this is probably the case. The only strange thing is that among all the bidders, where in addition to the above-mentioned company, two large companies with multibillion-dollar turnover Infosel and ICCS, a firm with almost zero indicators was chosen.
No staff is required for construction
There is more to come. In 2020, more than 800 employees left MIP-Stroy No. 1 due to salary cuts, the cancellation of bonuses, and a simultaneous increase in workload. Five of the management staff went to court, and six more filed complaints with the labor inspectorate. The whole story happened after Yuri Kravtsov took over as CEO of Mosinzhproekt in May 2020.
In early September 2020, the employees of MIP-Stroy No.1 sent a complaint against Maslakov to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Moscow. The disadvantaged people believe that Maslakov used their withheld salary to buy a Lexus and gave it to Kravtsov, Mosinzhproekt’s CEO, as a gift for patronage.
Well, maybe so, or maybe the money from the cables and God knows where else went to the expensive cars...
Apart from Konstantin Maslakov-Grigoryev, Yuri Kravtsov's team includes other extraordinary individuals who have been implicated in the Roskosmos scandal. Three of Kravtsov's deputies, Maxim Petrov, Dmitry Chirkin, and Anton Zhiganov, came under the scrutiny of the court in 2019. The three were suspected of mismanaging budget money from 2016 to 2018, when they were in charge of RK-Actives, which was selling non-core assets of Roscosmos, the ComNews.ru online edition wrote.
As a courier-registrar
The National Space Center headed the National Space Center in the same year 2019 was marked by the fact of a sudden change of CEO. The chair of honorary builder of Russia Andrei Antipov was suddenly occupied by a courier-registrar Berik Mukhtubaev, wrote Izvestia. He didn't stay in position for long, and four days later everything was back to normal, although it is true that some funds that were allegedly spent on champagne disappeared from the company’s account.
Eyes Wide Shut
The question arises why the mayor's office and Roskosmos turn a blind eye to the situation. When people are put in unbearable working conditions, when the post of head of the contracting company of a strategically important object is occupied by a former criminal for fraud, why is there no reaction?
Let's take another look at the company's finances. Capital is in deficit by almost 5 million rubles ($63,165) as of 2020, with MIP-Stroy No.1 having 4.5 million ($56,848.5) long-term liabilities at the time and, worse, 37.2 million ($469,947.6) short-term liabilities, with more than 43 million rubles ($543,219) coming into the company.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
At the same time, the report on the frugal use of budgetary funds shows zero.
Photo: https://www.rusprofile.ru
What if what we know is the tip of the iceberg, and there is a lot of money hidden there, which is scary to think about. After all, the project is huge, and that is why big fish laps it up...
On the basis of Article 144.2 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, we ask you to consider this publication as an official appeal to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation I.V. Krasnov and the Head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation A. Bastrykin concerning a possible crime under Article 290-291 (bribery giving and taking) and Article 144 (interference with journalists' legitimate professional activities).
Original story: http://www.moscow-post.su/politics/pyat-millionov-za-zhurnalistov-cena-vozmozhnoy-vzyatki-ot-maslakova-grigoreva-167094/