Another suspect arrested in the case of the health insurance fund

By decision of the Basmanny Court of Moscow, Dmitry Usenko, deputy director of the Federal Compulsory Medical Insurance Fund (FFOMS), was arrested for two months last Saturday, suspected of receiving bribes and misusing budget funds. He became the seventh person involved in a corruption scandal surrounding the distribution of budget funds in additional drug provision (ADS) for the poor. At the trial, Mr. Usenko did not admit his guilt, stating that he had nothing to do with the distribution of funds among DLO market participants.

Hearings on the selection of a preventive measure for 49-year-old deputy director of the FFOMS Dmitry Usenko were scheduled in the Basmanny court at 12 noon. At the appointed time, a Volga drove up to the main entrance of the court from Kalanchevskaya Street at high speed, from which two men in civilian clothes first got out. Then one of them quickly opened the back door of the car, covered Dmitry Usenko, who was coming out of it in a dark blue suit and without handcuffs, after which the “civilians”, together with the suspect, quickly disappeared into the courthouse.

Judge Andrei Rasnovsky began considering Mr. Usenko’s case only two hours later due to the fact that there were a lot of people on the waiting list for choosing a preventive measure on Saturday. The meeting itself was closed to journalists. Reporters were allowed into the hall only an hour and a half later for the announcement of Mr. Rasnovsky’s decision. All this time, behind closed doors, the state prosecutor from the Prosecutor General’s Office proved to the judge the gravity of the crime of which Mr. Usenko is suspected. Employees of the FSB and the Prosecutor General's Office detained Mr. Usenko at his home on November 15 at half past three in the morning, but have still not brought any charges against him. For now, he is suspected under Articles 285 and 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of official powers” and “Taking a bribe”).

The deputy director of the FFOMS, according to the state prosecutor, “together with the director of the fund Andrei Taranov (arrested on November 16 - Kommersant ) deliberately, for the purpose of enriching himself, used his official position to receive bribes from other persons, while pledging to cover up the illegal actions of the heads of the Smolensk funds, Voronezh and other cities, for their illegal use of budget funds." The management of the FFOMS, according to investigators, also received money from the key players in this market - the companies Protek, Biotek and Apteka-Holding - in order to be included in the state program of additional drug provision for preferential categories of citizens (DLO), for which The state budget annually allocates billions of rubles.

Pointing to the seriousness of the investigation’s suspicions, the state prosecutor asked the court to choose a preventive measure in the form of detention for the deputy director of the fund. At the same time, the state prosecutor did not rule out that, remaining free and having a foreign passport, Mr. Usenko “could hide from the investigation, and having extensive connections, he could put pressure on witnesses, interfere with the investigation and destroy evidence.” In addition, the state prosecutor told Judge Rasnovsky that during a search in Mr. Usenko’s office, operatives “found a large amount of cash both in foreign currency and in rubles, the origin of which has yet to be clarified by the investigation.”

In his defense, Deputy Director of the FFOMS Usenko, who was sitting in the courtroom without handcuffs, gave counterarguments. He immediately rejected all the suspicions brought against him by the investigation. As Mr. Usenko stated, “my official responsibilities did not include the distribution of federal funds among FFOMS partner companies, as well as the selection of suppliers of additional drug provision - I have nothing to do with this.” According to Mr. Usenko, at the FFOMS he dealt with “purely technical issues, for example, computer support for the fund’s work.” The official asked the court, when choosing a preventive measure for him, to take into account that he is not going to hide anywhere and is ready to actively cooperate with the investigation.

Despite this, Judge Andrei Rasnovsky was more convinced by the arguments of the investigation, which since November last year managed to record 55 episodes of bribery by fund managers: FFOMS director Andrei Taranov, his deputies Dmitry Usenko, Natalya Klimova and Dmitry Shilyaev, as well as heads of accounting fund departments Galina Bykova , control and audit - Tatyana Markova and financial - Nina Frolova (all of them, with the exception of Mr. Usenko, as Kommersant reported on November 17, were arrested earlier). As follows from the materials of the criminal case, only the share of the suspect Usenko was 5% in the form of a “kickback” from the amounts allocated to the FFOMS partners. Therefore, Mr. Rasnovsky’s decision was unequivocal: “Having examined the case materials and listened to the opinions of the parties, the court came to the conclusion that the prosecutor’s office’s request must be granted. The court decided to choose a preventive measure in the form of detention in relation to Usenko.” The suspect, who was handcuffed not in the courtroom, but for some reason in the corridor, reacted very calmly to this turn of events. However, he and his lawyer Konstantin Evseenkov refused to comment to journalists, apparently having not yet developed a defense tactic, saying only that they would appeal the preventive measure in the Moscow City Court.

Yuri Kommersant-Senatorov

Two months for 55 bribes