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In Samara, Progress Rocket Space Centre JSC employees to appear in court, accused of abuse of power and misappropriation of budgetary funds

The Samara Regional Office of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation concluded the criminal investigation into Chief Technology Officer of the Federal Unitary Enterprise TsSKB-Progress State Scientific and Production Rocket Space Centre Sergey Tyulevin and Chief Financial and Foreign Trade Officer of the Progress Rocket Space Centre JSC Svetlana Kirilina, accused in committing offences under Paragraphs A and B of Part 2 of Article 258.1 (misappropriation of budgetary funds), Part 2 of Article 201 (abuse of power) of the Criminal Code of Russia.

According to the investigators, the accused, acting as a conspired organized group, had formed and approved a list of equipment to purchase for project “Production Base Reconstruction and Technical Re-Equipment of Progress Rocket Space Centre JSC” to ensure the Soyuz-2 rocket carrier mass production, including unsolicited planning documentation of overpriced equipment, while it had been possible to buy the equipment directly from the manufacturer. With those actions, they had caused 532 million rubles loss to the Russian Federation budget represented by the state corporation Roscosmos.

The investigative support of the probe was carried out by officers of the Federal Security Service Samara Regional Directorate. Under a motion of the investigators, the accused were suspended from their duties by the court.

The investigation gathered enough evidence; therefore, the criminal case with the approved indictment was sent to the court to be tried on the merits.

In addition, it should be noted that the Samara Regional Office of the Investigative Committee continues the investigation against Chief Executive Officer of the Progress Rocket Space Centre JSC Alexander Kirilin, suspected of abuse of power, which had entailed the enterprise’s purchasing of overpriced equipment and overpaying the supplier more than 2 million euros. Currently, the CEO is also suspended from his duties. Also, the Investigations Directorate is working over two more probes into abuses of authority by Progress Rocket Space Centre JSC employees, whose actions had led to the total of 404 million rubles loss to the Russian Federation budget represented by the state corporation Roscosmos.