The Oboronservis case was opened in the fall of 2012. According to the investigation, real estate and land owned by the Ministry of Defense was sold off at reduced prices through a holding company (“Expert”) created to hide the officers’ economic activity. Today, the CEO of another company, Mira, has been sentenced in the case. Oboronservis has been tied to several newsworthy scandals involving corruption and the military. Below is the translation of the new report. – Ed.
Today, a Moscow court has sentenced Dmitry Mityaev, acting CEO of Mira, a company authorized to sell military assets. The court has found the businessman guilty of attempted large-scale fraud, and sentenced him for two years and eight months of prison.
According to investigators, in the fall of 2012 Nikolai Lyubutov, Head of the Sales Department of the “Expert” legal support center (“Mira” is the successor of “Expert”), and Dmitry Mityaev promised to Mikhail Pashkin, the Director of the Institute of Construction Expertise, LLC, to “expedite the process of issuing guidelines” by the Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, and to make sure his company’s bid won at an electronic auction to sell the building of the Schelkovo service center. In return, Mr. Pashkin would pay them 3 million roubles. Mr. Pashkin, acting as an affected party in this case, had a suspicion that it was some kind of scam and contacted the police. After the Ministry of Internal Affairs Economic Crime Unit agents detained the businessmen, Nikolai Lyubutov accepted a plea bargain deal. As a result, his case was heard by the court under a summary procedure, and he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Dmitry Mityaev did not plead guilty. The prosecution has requested a five-year term, but the court, after taking into account all the circumstances, sentenced him to two years and eight months in prison. The defense intends to appeal the verdict.
It should be noted that Dmitry Mityaev and Nikolai Lyubutov are witnesses in another criminal case related to fraud in connection with sales of military assets through the OJSC “Oboronservice.”
The trial of Dmitry Mityaev began with motions by his defense attorneys. In particular, his attorney Illarion Vasiliev asked the court to return the case to the prosecutor for further investigation. After the indictment, one of the key figures in the high-profile criminal cases of the Ministry of Defense property theft pleaded not guilty.
On March 19, the prosecution submitted to a Moscow criminal court cases against Nikolai Lyubutov, an ex-sales manager of the “Expert Legal Center, LLC” and Dmitry Mityaev, CEO of “Mira,” authorized to sell military assets through “Oboronservice”. Their arrest set in motion the high-profile investigation of fraudulent activities within the system of the Ministry of Defense.