The heads of two large oil companies were arrested on suspicion of embezzlement of 1.5 billion rubles

"On suspicion of embezzlement of budget funds on a large -scale, the Directors of the Khanty -Mansiysk Oil Company and the Nazim Oil and Gas Company were detained," Rashid Nurgaliev, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation at the department of the department, said today. However, we note that the arrests of the brothers Alexander and Nikolai Pershin, who heads the Khanty -Mansi Oil Company CJSC (KhMNA) and ZAO NAZIMSKAYA Oil and gas exploration expeditions were held in late December - early January of this year. The brothers are deputies of the City Duma of Khanty -Mansiysk, and Alexander Pershin is its chairman.

Alexander Pershin was charged under the articles of the Criminal Code "Assignment or embezzlement", "illegal receipt of a loan", "abuse of authority." And Nikolai Pershin was charged under the article "Fraud".

"They were charged with theft of more than one and a half billion rubles allocated from the budget for the restoration of the mineral resource base," the minister explained.

According to Nurgaliev, the arrest of the leaders of the companies was the result of the special operational and preventive operation "Energia" conducted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Ural Federal District together with the prosecutor's office, the FSB and the presidential envoy. He noted that the investigation of the facts of sale by the management of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug at the low cost of 461 oil wells continues, as a result of which the state lost 500 million rubles.

Recall that the investigation was also interested in the activities of the Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug Vladimir Karasev, director of the Department of Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources of the Government of Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Veniamin Panov and deputy chairman of the Khanty -Mansi Autonomous Okrug Government, director of the State Property Department of Haji Amirov. Against the first two on January 18, 2005, a criminal case was opened under the article "Abuse of authority."

As previously reported by Kommersant, Nazimsky Oil and Gas Expedition and Khanty-Mansi Oil Company participated in 2001-2003 in the district geological exploration program and, according to law enforcement agencies, howd the cost of their work in the amount of 34 million 879 thousand 975 rubles. In addition, during the audit it was found that part of the loan was used inexpedient, namely, aimed at the purchase of special equipment and drilling equipment.

"At present, the operation is ongoing. 402 material with the total amount of the estimated damage over 160 billion rubles are at the stage of pre -investigation inspections," Nurgaliev said.

Recall that today it became known that the prosecutor's office of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug opened a criminal case under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, part 3, paragraphs (exceeding official powers) against the mayor of Nefteyugansk Viktor Tkachev .

In the case, a set of investigative actions and operational-search measures are carried out, aimed at establishing all the circumstances of the commission of the crime. Meanwhile, the prosecutor's office does not report what actions of the mayor caused the initiation of a criminal case.

The production of a preliminary investigation in the criminal case was entrusted to the senior investigator of the department for the investigation of especially important cases of the district prosecutor's office.

By the Decree of the Nefteyugansk City Court of February 12, Tkachev was temporarily suspended from the post of head of local self -government of the city of Nefteyugansk.