News

The investigating bodies of the Russia’s Investigative Committee in Saint-Petersburg have finished investigating a criminal case against former manager of Saint-Petersburg and Leningrad Region department of the Russian Pension Fund 56-year-old Natalya Grishkevich charged with taking a bribe on an especially massive scale for illegal inaction (part 6 of article 290 of the RF Penal Code).

The investigators have found that in May 2006, in a hotel on the Moyka embankment Grishkevich conspired with President of OAO VEFK (OJSC) Alexander Gitelson, interested in improvement of financial indicators of OAO Bank VEFK. According to their agreement Grishkevich was to provide transfer of money to finance pensions and other social payouts to the account in the abovementioned bank with the average non-cut balance of no less than 1 billion rubles. To implement their criminal intention in the period between May and July 2006, Grishkevich, knowing that in accordance with the Federal Law “On compulsory pension insurance in the Russian Federation” the funds of the compulsory pension insurance were kept at the accounts of the Russian Pension Fund to provide financing of pensions and other social payouts, opened in the offices of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation and about the activity of the department she was heading through the accounts of Bank VEFK, did not close the accounts in the said bank and by this committed illegal inaction.

This way, in the period between May 2006 and 29 December 2008, Grishkevich provided financing of pensions and other social payouts and financing of the activity of the department she was heading through the accounts in Bank VEFK. For these actions Grishkevich had received from Gitelson a bank card, on which in the period between August 2006 and July 2009, he transferred a bribe of over 1 million 800 thousand US dollars, which at the rate of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation equals to over 47 million rubles.

The investigators have gathered enough evidence, therefore the criminal case with the approved indictment in near future will be sent in court to be tried on the merits.

Alexander Gitelson has been detained in Austria, his extradition in the Russian Federation is under discussion.