On March 2, the Moscow City Court terminated, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, the criminal case against Artur Mints, co-owner of the Metroproekt company, and Sergey Krokhin, general director of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, who were accused by the investigative department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation of particularly large-scale fraud.
The security forces thought that the accused presented the work of Soviet experts from the 1980s as their own research when expanding the Central Ring Road, along with the 8.8 billion rubles provided for this.
The Moscow City Court had preliminary hearings about the criminal case on Wednesday. During this time, the defense lawyers requested to end the criminal prosecution of Mr. Mints and Krokhin due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, which is ten years. On Thursday, the city court's press service announced that the request was approved, and the case was dismissed for non-rehabilitating defendants in situation. The preventive measures for Mints and Krokhin were canceled, but the decision is still being reviewed at the Prosecutor General's Office.
As previously stated by Kommersant, the case investigation started after Pyotr Khomyakov, a leading specialist at Spetsmetroproekt LLC, testified against the future defendants. Before this, he was facing a criminal case for being part of the extremist organization Northern Brotherhood, which aimed to overthrow the government by organizing a “velvet revolution.”
After getting arrested, the defendant Khomyakov made a pre-trial agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office, providing detailed information about the theft in the design of the Central Ring Road in order to reduce his punishment. He mentioned that about 8.8 billion rubles were misappropriated during the survey work for the Moscow highway.
The OGEI employees, instead of doing their job, used the data of Soviet specialists from the 1980s after receiving the billions.
Since Pyotr Khomyakov gave the investigation new information about funds embezzlement and fulfilled the agreement with the Prosecutor General’s Office, he was sentenced to four years in prison for extremism in 2012. However, he was never released and died from a heart attack.
On November 30, 2011, the FSB Investigative Department started a criminal case about the embezzlement of 8.8 billion rubles. During the investigation, the accounts of several organizations were frozen, as it was believed that their management was aware of the fraudulent survey work scheme.
Next, Artur Mints, co-owner of the Metroproekt company, and Sergey Krokhin, general director of Spetsmetroproekt LLC, were charged with fraud committed by a group of people on a large scale. The Moscow City Court stopped the criminal prosecution of the defendants due to secrecy reasons. Their lawyers did not comment on the court decision.
