The Cheryomushki District Court of Moscow has started today trying a case opened against two former top managers of Rosnanotekh (Russian Nanotechnologies Corporation) – CEO Leonid Melamed and finance director Svyatoslav Ponurov. They are charged with embezzling assets of the state corporation on a very large scale using their official positions under Part 4 of Article 160 of the RF Criminal Code. In addition, former deputy CEO Andrei Malyshev is also under investigation, although he escaped from investigators and is now wanted. The investigation was conducted by the Investigative Committee’s Head Office.
According to investigators, preparing for the embezzlement Melamed employed Malyshev and Ponurov controlled by him. He then advised that an advisor–company should be employed though it was unnecessary. In 2008, Ponurov conspired with Melamed and as the chair of a bidding committee ensured that Alemar firm won the bidding for the advisor-company. After that he made a draft service contract signed by Malyshev. Later on, all acceptance certificates of the services provided by the firm were agreed with Ponurov and approved by Malyshev. Then Ponurov signed the bills. This way, from February to July 2009, more than 220 million rubles of corporation’s funds were spent unreasonably.
Alemar did not execute the work stated in the contract and presented remade investment projects developed by the corporation staff with delay. The case files also confirm that the firm’s products were not used by Rosnanotekh staff.
Official spokesperson for the RF Investigative Committee S.L. Petrenko
PDF version 
DOC version
