Criminal contractors of the Ministry of Defense received second sentences for embezzlement of budget funds.
A court in Moscow has handed down a verdict in a case of embezzlement in the execution of orders from the Ministry of Defense. Entrepreneurs Kadyr Karakhanov and Arsen Oshakbayev, who have been engaged in the fulfillment of orders of the military department for many years, were found guilty of overestimating the prices during the construction of the facility causing damage in the amount of 125 million rubles. Both of them had previously been convicted as part of a large-scale investigation into abuses in Spetsstroy of Russia. Taking into account the first sentence Oshakbayev received ten years of colony, Karakhanov was sentenced to six years.
Moscow’s Lefortovo Court has completed consideration of the criminal case of entrepreneurs Kadyr Karakhanov and Arsen Oshakbayev. They were accused of especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) in the construction of facilities of the Ministry of Defense.
The criminal case against the defendants was initiated by the Investigative Committee of Russia in April 2022, later it was transferred to the investigators of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to the case materials, in 2014 Kadyr Karakhanov obtained control over one of the companies authorized to fulfill military orders. Thanks to the acquaintances of the defendant in the management of Spetsstroy of Russia (was under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defense, liquidated by presidential decree in 2017), the company began to receive contracts for the construction and reconstruction of facilities of the military department. Arsen Oshakbayev, as stated in the investigation materials, was engaged by Karakhanov to execute financial documentation related to the contracts.
One of the projects in which the defendants’ company was the contractor was the construction of a chemical laboratory in Yekaterinburg.
According to the investigation, the entrepreneurs deliberately overestimated the cost of the work and stole part of the funds. The damage caused by their actions amounted to 125 million rubles.
The defense disagreed with the claims of the investigation. In particular, the lawyer of one of the defendants, Anar Mamedov, pointed out that in February 2019, the Moscow Arbitration Court, which considered the dispute over this contract, found that all the work had been completed on time, and also obliged the customer – FGUP Main Construction Directorate No. 14 – to pay the businessmen 14.3 million rubles in arrears.
It should be noted that this is already the second criminal case against the defendants related to the performance of contract work under military contracts. In June 2020, the Shcherbinsky District Court of Moscow found Kadyr Karakhanov guilty of three episodes of especially large-scale fraud (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code) and one episode of bribery (article 291 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced him to eight years in a strict regime colony and a large fine. Oshakbayev received four years of general regime for three episodes of fraud. According to the case materials, the contractors, having colluded with the heads of Spetsstroy (who were also convicted in this case), overestimated the estimated cost of the works, stealing the difference between the allocated budget funds and the real costs. At the initial stage of the investigation, the total damage for all episodes was said to be more than 1 billion rubles, but in court the Ministry of Defense sued for four hundred and a little million.
Kadyr Karakhanov in July 2021 replaced the remaining punishment with compulsory labor for three years with a deduction in favor of the state of 10% of wages, and then postponed the execution of the sentence until 2029, when all his children will reach the age of 14 years.
This time the court did not grant the defendant a deferred sentence, and his two minor children were ordered to be placed under the care of the guardianship and custody authorities.
As a result, under the sentence of the Lefortovo district court, the defendants received six years of general regime colony each for the committed fraud. Arsen Oshakbayev received ten years on the sum of two sentences. Issues related to the execution of the sentence of Shcherbinsk court against Kadyr Karakhanov will be decided separately. Also, the court ruled to recover damages of 125 million rubles from the defendants.
The defense will appeal the court decision. The defense lawyers, in particular, insist that Arsen Oshakbayev should not have taken into account the first sentence when imposing punishment, since he had already served that term in full.