The legal case related to the hostile takeover of the major defense firm “Temp” is almost finished. The leaders of the factory, known for creating fuel system parts for the modern Tu-22M3 and Tu-160M2 strategic bombers, have become victims of the enterprise's location.
More details are available in the Rucriminal.info article.
| Bomber-plane Tu-22M3 |
Target
“Temp” is situated in the central part of Moscow on Pravda Street. The cost per square meter in this area is around 700 thousand rubles. A 2-hectare plot with all the necessary facilities is highly desirable for any developer. Therefore, representatives of major real estate companies are constantly seeking meetings with the shareholders of the enterprise.
When the opportunistic hunters realized that the defenders were not easily swayed, they turned to professional raiders for assistance. The finance expert Sergei Lesnichiy was brought in to lead the capture. As a graduate of the FSB Academy and a former employee of the banking department, he possesses a set of tools for such situations.
In 2012, Lesnichiy became friends with Andrey Trubkin, the former CEO of the enterprise. Under false pretenses, Lesnichiy and the associated Center for Financial Investigations obtained financial and economic documents from OAO NPP Temp, along with receiving 3 million rubles, bills for 12 million rubles, and verbal approval to have a person controlled by the financier join the management team of OAO NPP Temp.
Former director Andrei Trubkin is now detained pending trial. He is implicated in a case involving embezzlement of the company’s funds on a large scale. According to investigators, employees of PJSC-UEC Saturn, a part of United Engine Corporation JSC, may also be connected to the same case.
After Trubkin became a defendant in the criminal case, the new management of Tempa severed all ties with Lesnichiy and attempted to recover the money that was paid to Center for Financial Investigations LLC.
“Independent” examination
This was not part of the plans of a financial fraudster with ties to law enforcement agencies. As early as May 2016, investigator Pisarevsky, with financial support and authorization from his superior Zinyk, illicitly initiated a criminal case against unidentified leaders of Tempa. In 2017, investigator Soslan Aboev involved the ANO “Commission for Investigation, Expertise and Control of Professional Communities in the Financial Sector” to conduct an examination. Aboev's curious choice of this organization is because it was also affiliated with Mr. Lesnichiy.
Once this information reached the leadership of “Temp,” the investigator created the appearance of attempting to involve a government institution in the examination. He asked them to backdate their responses. Therefore, a month after appointing an examination by the ANO, on October 26, 2017, Aboev personally submitted a request to the Forensic Expert Center of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; three months later, specifically on December 22, 2017, he submitted a request to the Main Directorate of Criminalistics of the RF IC; on January 23, 2018, he made a request to the Federal State Institution RFTSSE under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The falsification through backdating of these requests became evident from the response of the Federal State Institution RFTSSE of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation No. 1-3951 dated May 30, 2019 to a lawyer’s request.
The main department of forensics of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation and the FBU RFTSSE under the Ministry of Justice have said they might carry out an examination at the appropriate time, but Investigator Aboev ordered the examination needed for the investigation from the ANO-controlled Commission for Investigation, Expertise, and Control of Professional Communities in the Financial Sector.
The forest ranger and his ANO were very insistent in conducting expert examinations in the criminal case against the leaders of OAO NPP Temp, doing them at no cost, apparently getting real payment from the customer – JSC UEC using illegal schemes, including individual entrepreneurs.
Naturally, the “experts” provided biased, false conclusions. They reached a ridiculous conclusion that on January 1, 2018, JSC NPC Salyut Gas Turbine Engineering suffered a 28.5% drop in the value of the shares of JSC NPP Temp named after. F. Korotkov”, compared to July 1, 2013. The paradox is that at the beginning of 2013, JSC “SPC Gas Turbine Engineering Salyut” was not a shareholder of JSC “NPP “Temp” named after F. Korotkov” (a 28.5% stake as of 01.07. existed as a legal entity (date of registration of Salyut, JSC in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities – 04/07/2015).
There is another aspect in the history of expertise, which shows the bias of the experts. “The Financial Investigation Commission …” did not have the right to conduct an examination, since the open data of the unified state register of legal entities of the Federal Tax Service of Russia does not contain information about the presence in the charter of the OKVED code on forensic activities.
The experts involved in this story, Yezheleva, Brovko, Bashkina, and Trusova, are graduates of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation and did not have the right to evaluate the value of shares (business valuation), as well as calculate (estimate) rental payments because they did not have qualification certificates of an appraiser and specialized education.
The case file has over 6 assessments, 5 of which were made by the relevant departments of the Ministry of Justice of Russia, in which the value of a 28.5% stake in OAO NPP Temp im. F. Korotkov” is higher than the cost calculated by ANO “Commission for Financial Investigations” by 2 or more times. However, the investigation did not resolve this contradiction in any way and considers the data of the falsified examinations of the ANO “Commission for Financial Investigations” to be true. It is striking that the same opinion is not hidden by the judge of the Savelovsky District Court, Neudakhin, who is considering the case on the merits. He repeatedly stated that he had no reason not to trust the expertise of the ANO.
Prosecutor’s Office Requirements
The Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia said in a letter in June 2018 that the investigation's conclusions did not match the collected evidence and the established facts. Tempa's management actions to create subsidiaries and transfer property to them were considered lawful decisions by the Moscow Arbitration Court, and the possibility of viewing their actions as criminally punishable is ruled out.
The Prosecutor General’s Office asked the Moscow Prosecutor to:
– immediately take comprehensive measures to correct violations by the investigating authorities regarding the unauthorized start of criminal case No.
– conduct an official check to determine whether subordinates who failed to ensure proper oversight of the investigating authorities' procedural activities and the high-quality execution of instructions from higher prosecutor’s office should face disciplinary action.
No one followed the Prosecutor General’s Office demands, and the case was sent to court for consideration after the indictment was quickly approved, possibly due to financial motivation from Oleg Manakov, who was the First Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow at that time. He was the top candidate for the Moscow City Prosecutor position but quickly resigned in April 2020 to avoid an anti-corruption investigation.
Mutual responsibility
The trial of the leadership of “Temp” appears to be biased. Judge Neudakhin, handling the case, unjustly rejects all requests from the defendants and their defense lawyers to bring and question investigators Pisarevsky and Aboev, former prosecutor Manakov, and other individuals tied to the illegal initiation of a criminal case and the presentation of false expertise results.
During the trial lasting over two years, the judge and the prosecutor refuse to inform the participants when, where, and what crime the defendants supposedly committed. This way, Neudakhin illegally prolongs the prosecution of innocent individuals, while the statute of limitations (6 years) for the abuse of office charge (part 1 of article 201 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) has already passed. If the participants – judge Neudakhin, former deputy prosecutor Manakov, investigators Pisarevsky, Aboev, and their leaders – were not financially motivated, the criminal case would not have been opened, the indictment would not have been approved, and the case would not have been accepted for court consideration, as the actions of the Tempa leaders were legally recognized by the Moscow Arbitration Courts for the matters they are accused of.
It is possible that the Moscow City Court will explain to Judge Neudakhin that the decisions of the arbitration courts, which have legal force, are significant and cannot be reviewed, even for a large fee.
On the eve of the publication, it became known that members of the board of directors of Tempa filed an application with the Investigative Committee on the fact of illegal initiation of a criminal case and extortion by Pisarevsky and FSB officer Korkin of 500 thousand dollars from the management of the enterprise for not initiating (closing) a criminal case. A source in the Investigative Committee said that this statement is currently being verified. It is surprising that the court already treats the leaders of Temp as convicts, which is exactly what the judge called them in the court card posted on the official website.
We continue to follow developments around the defense enterprise.
