| Capital flour millers will answer for rising prices in court The Prosecutor General's Office recently approved and transferred the scandalous “bread case” to the Preobrazhensky Court of Moscow. According to the Investigative Committee (IC) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the leaders of JSC Mill Plant in Sokolniki (MKS) and businessmen friendly to them organized a series of scams, including with money allocated to the enterprise from the Moscow budget. At one time, law enforcement agencies stated that it was the fraud surrounding the ISS that led to another increase in bread prices in the capital.
The Main Directorate for Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs became interested in the “mill plant in Sokolniki” in the fall of 2000 precisely after the jump in the cost of bread in Moscow bakeries. During an inspection carried out at that time along the chain of manufacturers, operatives came to this enterprise. As it turned out, MKS - at that time one of Moscow's flour monopolists - sharply increased selling prices for flour and bran. At the plant itself, they then explained that there was no malicious intent in what happened - supposedly flour had risen in price due to rising prices for electricity and transport. However, the GUBEP was not satisfied with these arguments and continued to work, eventually collecting materials on the basis of which the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on fraud, illegal entrepreneurship and money laundering.
As it turned out, in the late 90s, MKS actually became the main supplier of flour for the capital's bakeries, and when it had financial problems, the Moscow government immediately agreed to support it. 50 million rubles were transferred from the capital budget to the enterprise’s loan account, thanks to which the city authorities hoped to avoid rising bread prices. However, as investigators considered, the money was used for other purposes.
According to the Investigative Committee, the flour mill transferred this amount to Noria-Invest LLC, which transferred it to another company - Torgproduct LLC. On paper, these transactions were formalized as agreements for the purchase of grain. However, as the Investigative Committee established, these transactions were not actually carried out. Instead, Torgproduct LLC, having received 50 million rubles, bought MKS bills of exchange with them and immediately presented them for payment. As a result, it turned out that all the money received by the flour mill from the capital's budget went to a private company. Moreover, GUBEP employees found out that the ISS also had a rather strange sales policy. He sold all the flour produced (and it was produced primarily with budget money) mainly to intermediary companies. They resold it to bakeries for much more, which became another reason for the rise in bread prices.
As a result, ISS commercial director Anatoly Sorokin and Torgproduct director Stanislav Shpakovsky were soon arrested. The head of Noria-Invest, Andrei Yuzhanin, was put on the wanted list. Soon he too was detained. In addition, the case involved high-ranking officials from the Moscow government, who contributed to the ISS receiving budget money, but they remained in the rank of witnesses. The investigation was completed last spring, and only recently the accused finished familiarizing themselves with the investigation materials. Alexander SHVAREV |
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