Court upholds arrest of Slavyanka case suspect Yelkin
MOSCOW. Dec 3 (Interfax) - The Moscow City Court has upheld the arrest of Slavyanka General Director Alexander Yelkin in the case of embezzlement of 53 million rubles in garrison utility fees.
The court turned down the appeal of the Yelkin defense to pronounce the arrest illegal and release the suspect on a bail of 20 million rubles.
The Russian Interior Ministry reported earlier that 53 million rubles had been embezzled in placing state contracts for garrison utility services.
Yelkin, founder of JSC Security and Communications, and company chief accountant, de facto assistant general director Yulia Rotanova were detained on November 15.
The Russian Defense Ministry and JSC Security and Communications signed a utility services contact in December 2010. The company did nothing, but "officials of the Defense Ministry, Slavyanka and Security and Communications signed fake acceptance acts and checks, which led to misappropriation of over 52.6 million rubles by businessmen," the detectives said.
The Moscow Khamovnichesky District Court ordered arrest of the suspects on November 16 until January 14.
A detective told the court that "witnesses pointed to the confidential relations between Yelkin and ex-Defense Minister Serdyukov."
The defense of Yelkin and Rotanova appealed the arrest order.
Yelkin's lawyer Yuri Shirinian told Interfax on November 22 that his client was charged with serious fraud (Part 4, Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code). He said that Yelkin pleaded not guilty. "What guilt? These are economic operations. Investigators do not understand them. Certainly, he pleaded not guilty," Shirinian said.
It was reported on November 28 that the case had the third suspect, the director of JSC Security and Communications. "JSC Security and Communications Director Luganksy was arrested on Tuesday, November 27," head of the Russian Investigative Committee's Main Military Investigative Department Alexander Sorochkin told a press conference.