Newspaper: Former Khrunichev Gen Dir suspected of embezzling $212 mln
MOSCOW. Dec 29 (Interfax-AVN) - The Main Investigative Department of the Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal inquiry into former General Director of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, currently Angara rocket general designer Vladimir Nesterov, the newspaper Izvestia wrote on Monday.
According to the newspaper, the inquiry was based on part 4, article 160 of the Russian Criminal Code [major embezzlement or misappropriation committed by a criminal group]. Detectives are looking into a series of deals, which gave the Khrunichev Center a controlling stake in International Launch Services (ILS), the holder of rights to global marketing of Proton launch services, in 2008.
ILS was formed in 1993 together with U.S. Lockheed Martin but Lockheed decided to sell its controlling stake in ILS in the middle of the 2000s. Space Transport Inc. (ST), a company registered in the British Virgin Islands, bought 51% in ILS from Lockheed in October 2006 for $108 million.
"As soon as the ILS stock was transferred to the offshore company, its business grew rapidly and 17 launch contracts were concluded within a year. Nowadays ILS concludes three to four contracts per annum. In November 2007 Nesterov presented the Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) with an opinion from Deloitte & Touche, which estimated 51% of ILS stock at $320-370 million. The then head of Roscosmos, Anatoly Perminov, permitted the acquisition of ILS shares and in spring 2008 Khrunichev transferred $320.8 million borrowed from Sberbank to ST.
An interviewed witness to the case told the newspaper that detectives were suspecting Nesterov and some other persons involved in that deal of having shared $212 million, ST revenue from the deal between Lockheed and the Khrunichev Center.