The Basmanny Court of Moscow has remanded in custody Andrey Esipov, the founder, owner, and CEO of Picket Group LLC. The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia suspects the man of large-scale fraud in the execution of a contract with the Ministry of Defense of Russia for the supply of ammunition to the Russian military at the front. The contract is worth billions.
Picket Group LLC states on its website that it is engaged in construction and trade, and also positions itself as "the largest supplier of tactical equipment". According to the company, it offers more than twenty types of equipment, protection, and gear: from robots and drones to uniforms, camouflage, tents, and first aid kits.
According to the investigation, under the contract with the Ministry of Defense, Picket Group was supposed to supply the department with 20,000 bulletproof vests and "plate carriers". However, in fact, the price of the goods did not correspond to their quality, and the customer overpaid for them. Now Esipov, according to Kommersant, along with other defendants, is suspected of fraud on a particularly large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation): in the theft of 2 billion rubles from the Ministry of Defense during the execution of the contract.
The businessman, according to Kommersant, from the courtroom, does not consider himself guilty, noting that in bulletproof vests and "plate carriers" that his company supplied, "guys go into battle, get hit by bullets and shrapnel and stay alive". And this proves the quality of the products. He claims that the case is based on information from former employees of the company, previously dismissed for large thefts, against whom a criminal case was opened. According to Esipov, the ex-managers threatened him with criminal prosecution, demanding compensation in the amount of 300 million rubles. Both Esipov and two managers of his company were sent by the judge to a pre-trial detention center for two months.
This is not the only arrest this week related to suspicions of fraud surrounding the supply of ammunition for the Russian army. In St. Petersburg, a businessman from the Pskov region was detained, who is suspected of fraud of 25 million rubles. According to the investigation, the man received this money in a deal with a contractor of the Ministry of Defense, who had a state contract for the supply of tactical gloves.
According to IA TASS, referring to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region, a man already convicted of smuggling alcohol learned about the multi-million dollar contract and acted as a subcontractor. He "misled the management of one of the companies and received an advance under the contract in the amount of 25 million rubles from it". But the arrested person did not supply any tactical gloves to the contractor of the Ministry of Defense, "withdrawing the specified funds through organizations controlled by him."
Investigative authorities have initiated a criminal case based on police materials under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on a particularly large scale"). It is being established whether the suspect was involved in other thefts, and his accomplices are being searched for.
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