Bulgaria extradites businessman accused of theft to Russia - office
MOSCOW. June 25 (Interfax) - A Russian businessman accused of stealing a large sum of money from the police via a botched reconstruction contract has been extradited to his home country from Bulgaria, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office said on Wednesday.
As chief executive of the Unistroi company, Andrei Chirkov signed a 19.5-million-ruble contract in 2011 to rebuild the headquarters of the Verkhneuralsk district police authority in Chelyabinsk region, Prosecutor General's Office spokeswoman Marina Gridneva told Interfax.
Unistroi only partially fulfilled its contractual commitments but the entire sum was transferred to allegedly fake firms UralStroi and Dolina and afterward cashed and given to Chirkov, Gridneva said.
"As Chirkov hid from the criminal investigation authorities, a federal and international arrest warrants were issued for him in December 2013," she said.
Interpol's Bulgarian National Central Bureau said Chirkov had been arrested in Bulgaria in April 2014. After that, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office requested his extradition.
Gridneva said his case is handled by the Chelyabinsk regional police authority.