During the search at the office of the Piket business group, whose management is accused of fraud in the supply of bulletproof vests to the Ministry of Defense, cash was seized, RIA Novosti reports citing documents received from law enforcement agencies.
“Cash was discovered and seized… Basmanny District Court authorized the seizure.” — the agency provides an extract of the documents provided.
They indicate that the seizure was imposed on the basis that the money found was obtained “by criminal means”: it was used to pay for the execution of the contract. Law enforcement agencies did not specify the amount of funds seized.
The investigation believes that the leaders of the Piket Group stole at least 2.4 billion rubles from the Ministry of Defense, which was intended for the supply of bulletproof vests. The organization’s employees sent the department at least 20 thousand bulletproof vests that did not meet the contract requirements. The suspects insist that the command of the military units to which the bulletproof vests were sent is willing to confirm the quality of the products.
Picket’s CEO was arrested in connection with the case. Andrey Esipovfinancial director of the group of companies Victoria Antonova and head of security Mikhail Kalchenko. They are accused of money laundering. In September, a TASS source said there were already nine defendants in the case. On October 1, it became known that an article about the bribery of Esipov and Antonova had been added, RBC clarifies.
