The Main Investigative Committee of the ICR in Moscow has completed the investigation of the criminal case against the former director of the Center for Technical Re-equipment of the Space Flight Control Service (CTP) Vasily Ikomasov and his deputy Eduard Rodych-Semenchi.
They are accused of fraud, Kommersant reports. According to investigators, the defendants in the case stole about 13.4 million rubles from Roskosmos funds allocated by the Center for the Operation of Ground-Based Space Infrastructure Objects (TsENKI) for various works.
So, in 2015, the state corporation ordered TsENKI to conduct flight tests with the Soyuz-TMA-M spacecraft for 3 billion rubles. TsTP under this contract was instructed to perform some scientific and technical work. Having received 8 million rubles, Ikomasov and Rodych-Semenchya did not perform any work, investigators say.
In 2012, Roscosmos allocated 3.8 billion rubles to TsENKI as part of a set of work on the rotation of American astronauts at the International Space Station. TsTP ordered some scientific work for 5.4 million rubles. The management of the center provided acts on the supposedly performed work, but without any detail. The money was allegedly stolen as well.
The criminal case was opened in April 2020. Ikomasov and Rodych-Semenchya were detained in June 2021. The defendants in the case partially admit their guilt, but ask to qualify their crimes as causing property damage through deceit or breach of trust.
