The Deputy Minister of Transport, who has a residence permit and property in the Czech Republic, was arrested for stealing from contracts with the subsidiary of Russian Railways.
More information about the criminal case of Deputy Minister of Transport Vladimir Tokarev, who is accused of embezzling 523 million rubles, emerged on Friday when he was arrested by Khoroshevsky District Court of Moscow. The police suspect that if he is released on bail or put under house arrest, he will escape abroad using his connections in government and attempt to sabotage the investigation due to his assets and residence in the Czech Republic.
Vladimir Tokarev was brought to court from the ITT near Komsomolskaya Square, where he had been since Wednesday. The official's defense requested closed hearings to avoid disclosing non-public information about the accused, including his illnesses. The investigator supported the motion to keep the hearings closed as he also had information to hide from journalists regarding the details of the crime he was charged with and the alleged participants.
Despite the investigator's effort to obtain Mr. Tokarev's arrest before March 18, by stating that he has a residence permit and property in the Czech Republic where he can hide and use his connections in power structures to pressure the investigation, it was revealed that the Deputy Minister is accused of a serious crime which may lead to up to ten years of imprisonment for committing a large-scale fraud.
Law enforcement officers also mentioned his telephone conversations with Czech consulting companies that support entrepreneurs, which, according to investigators, could also help Tokarev avoid responsibility. His ability to influence the investigation is also evidenced by his extensive connections in criminal circles, including with members of the Tambov organized crime group.
Mr. Tokarev himself denied involvement in the theft and expressed readiness to cooperate with the investigation. His defense proposed bail or house arrest as alternatives to pre-trial detention. Following a three-hour trial, Mr. Tokarev returned to the temporary detention center before being transferred to prison.
According to the investigation, he committed the crime accused before joining the civil service, while serving as the first deputy director of Spetstransstroy LLC. The investigation estimates the damage at 523 million rubles.
In the situation involving fraud, there was a project to completely rebuild the railway at the Maxim Gorky-Kotelnikovo-Tikhoretskaya-Krymskaya section. RZDstroy JSC, a subsidiary of Russian Railways JSC, was the customer, with one of the contractors being Spetstransstroy LLC. Mr. Tokarev was the Deputy General Director there from 2016 to 2018. The project took place from 2007 to 2018 in various parts of Russia, with investments totaling 130 billion rubles. After completing certain construction stages, it was necessary to fix roads, including in the Timashevsky and Korenovsky districts of the Krasnodar Territory. According to investigators, the management of Spetstransstroy LLC developed a scheme to unlawfully take customer funds while working on these roads. They used misleading information in the documentation for the purchase of materials from quarries in the Krasnodar Territory, but actually bought them from nearby quarries and transported them over long distances. The investigation also believes that unsuitable materials were used in the construction, not meeting the contract specifications.
According to a RIA Novosti source in law enforcement agencies, the deputy minister facilitated a contract between Glavstroyinvest, which he controlled, and Spetstransstroy. This agreement was for construction and installation work on a site in the Krasnodar Territory.
The project focused on the Maxim Gorky – Kotelnikovo – Tikhoretskaya – Krymskaya section, including a bypass of the Krasnodar railway junction. The Roszheldorproject website indicates the project's completion in 2018, with Kavzheldorproekt listed as the contractor.
Tokarev and other defendants moved advance payments from Spetstransstroy's accounts to Glavstroyinvest's account, and then spent the money on purposes unrelated to construction or contracts. The damage amounted to at least 500 million rubles. — Inset K.ru
The second defendant in the fraud case is Levan Goglidze, who served as deputy director of production at Spetstransstroy LLC. He was taken into custody in November last year.
As reported by Kommersant, Levan Goglidze denies guilt and claims he was not involved in making contracts or distributing funds, but was only responsible for the construction process, as explained by Dmitry Baykov, the defendant’s defender.
In 2013, Levan Goglidze previously faced law enforcement scrutiny and was detained by the FSB on suspicion of misappropriating funds during the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi. At that time, he was in charge of the local Tunnel Detachment 44, which was involved in building roads for the Olympics. However, in June 2014, the Khostinsky Court of Sochi sentenced him to two and a half years probation only for abusing power during the repair of 600 meters of road surface in Sochi, causing damage to the city municipality of 4 million rubles.
It should be noted that in addition to him, in the framework of the new case, another person involved is now in custody, and a milder measure of restraint has been chosen for several allegedly cooperating with the investigation. It is possible that it was thanks to their testimony that the investigation was able to obtain evidence of involvement in the alleged crime and Vladimir Tokarev, who has already been charged with fraud. — Inset K.ru
Levan Goglidze
In addition to Levan Goglidze and Vladimir Tokarev, unidentified persons appear in the criminal case. According to Kommersant, Yury Reylyan, the former founder of Spetstransstroy LLC and the former deputy head of the Ministry of Construction of the Russian Federation, who was arrested for other theft in Irkutsk, is being checked for involvement in the crime.
Major financial violations committed during the implementation of the project for the reconstruction of the railway on the section named after Maxim Gorky-Kotelnikovo-Tikhoretskaya-Krymskaya first became known in August 2020, the FSB of Russia in the Krasnodar Territory reported that the damage to the federal budget and Russian Railways is estimated at 1 .5 billion rubles
