Translated material
The process has begun
Former head of Minatom Evgeniy Adamov began to be tried
In the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of the capital yesterday, the trial began in the case of ex-head of Minatom Evgeny Adamov , accused of fraud, abuse and abuse of power. Together with him in the dock were two former colleagues of Mr. Adamov - the former director of the State Unitary Enterprise GNI "Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Thermonuclear Research" Vyacheslav Pismenny and the general director of JSC Techsnabexport Revmir Fraishtut. The Prosecutor General's Office accuses them of stealing shares of uranium trading enterprises, as well as of making obviously unprofitable commercial transactions in this area, which resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage to Russian enterprises and the state itself.Yesterday, one very interesting detail unexpectedly surfaced. Until now, it was widely believed that the Russian case of Mr. Adamov was created specifically as a counterweight to the American one, in order to prevent the extradition of the former head of Minatom, who had access to secret information in the field of nuclear-atomic state policy. Therefore, they did not expect anything special from the “Russian Adamov case”. One way or another, the Americans really failed to get Mr. Adamov, and at the end of 2005 he was returned to his homeland from a Swiss prison and placed in Matrosskaya Tishina. However, he stayed there until May, after which the Supreme Court found that he had exceeded the legal limits of detention, and the ex-minister was released on his own recognizance. Yesterday it turned out that Russian investigators have been actively cooperating with their colleagues from the United States all this time, and now the official, having successfully avoided meeting with the American Themis, may still face her in a Russian court.
Mr. Adamov's criminal case went to trial last summer. But in August, the Zamoskvoretsky court decided to return the case to the prosecutor’s office to correct the shortcomings. The Moscow City Court did not agree with this, and in October Adamov’s case was returned to the same district court. A month later, at the preliminary hearing, the defense again tried to convince the judge that the charge was too vague and incomprehensible, and therefore should be returned to the investigation, but this time it was decided to proceed with its immediate consideration. But the process did not proceed at all - either the illness of the defendants or the vacations and business trips of their lawyers interfered. This went on for three months, and finally yesterday we managed to gather a quorum of the parties.
True, the defense tried to postpone the hearing of the case again. The lawyers reported that the court’s refusal to return the case to the prosecutor’s office to correct the shortcomings was appealed to a higher authority, and the Moscow City Court has not yet made a decision on this matter, therefore, it is pointless to conduct the process with the risk of its termination. But the court did not agree with this, and representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office finally had the opportunity to read out the indictment.
“In 1998-1999, Adamov, being appointed Minister of Atomic Energy by the President, at an unspecified time created an organized criminal group with the aim of stealing funds from the Techsnabexport enterprise. This group included the director of the State Unitary Enterprise GNI “Troitsk Institute of Innovation and Thermonuclear Research” Vyacheslav Pismenny, the general director of JSC Techsnabexport Revmir Fraishtut,” state prosecutor Viktor Antipov began the story. The roles in this organized crime group, according to the prosecutor, were distributed - Adamov carried out general management of the actions, Freishtut “made decisions contrary to the interests of Techsnabexport shareholders,” and Pismenny “carried out the seizure of property belonging to the state.” Further, the state prosecutor’s speech became rather chaotic, although he read it from a prepared text. Briefly, the essence of the accusation is this.
In 1991, Russia and the United States, as part of a bilateral agreement on the supply of nuclear fuel, created the Globe Nuclear Services and Supply GNSS, Limited company in Switzerland, which over time became a profitable enterprise and a leader in sales of relevant raw materials on the world market. According to the prosecution, Adamov specially placed “his people” in key positions (at Techsnabexport, TRINITY and GNSS), who, following his instructions, managed to give a controlling stake in GNSS to the private American company TEXI. GNSS President Alexander Chernov, who is now on the international wanted list, was allegedly involved in this. Thus, the prosecution believes, “Russia has lost control over the Swiss company,” which from a state company (the Russian Federation owned 49% of the shares) has turned into a private one.
In addition, under the leadership of Adamov, according to the prosecutor, over $113 million was stolen. This allegedly happened by “writing off a non-existent debt” of GNSS for an unpaid supply of uranium by Techsnabexport. In particular, the prosecution believes, Freishtut, contrary to the interests of the shareholders, signed a corresponding agreement with Pisenny and Chernov, and this money was “illegally attributed to Techsnabexport’s losses.” As a result, not only this company suffered damage, but also the Priargunsky Industrial Mining and Chemical Association, which mines uranium, as well as the state, which missed tax payments in the amount of over 916,517 thousand rubles.
In addition, the defendants, according to investigators, in 2000 entered into a contract between Techsnabexport and GNSS for the sale of 4,585.6 tons of uranium in the United States for a period until 2013, and then an additional agreement to reduce prices for nuclear raw materials. As a result, the prosecution stated, GNSS received exclusive rights to supply it, and Russia was left out of business and suffered damage in the amount of $18,228 thousand. Thus, the prosecutor’s office believes, Mr. Adamov illegally disposed of state property.
The ex-minister himself still did not understand what he was accused of. “What is the time of commission of a crime? What property was stolen - shares or cash? How much is what was stolen, and from whom exactly was it stolen? What specific actions did I take to steal GNSS shares that I violated as a minister? What is my selfish interest?” - Mr. Adamov bombarded the prosecutor with questions. At the same time, he did not admit guilt, stating: “Neither the elements nor the event of the crime itself are included in any of the charges brought against me. I acted in the interests of the country, industry and enterprises. “I regret that at one time I did not nominate for awards those who managed to prevent the collapse of the industry, including Pismenny and Fraishtut.” The latter, according to them, also did not understand the essence of the charges brought against them. The ex-minister's lawyer, Henry Reznik, was more categorical. “The accusation is artificially created, in other words, fabricated, made up,” he concluded.
In turn, state prosecutor Viktor Antipov promised that during the process all the i’s would be dotted. He asked the court to include a whole bunch of documents in the case, which, according to him, arrived with some delay from their American colleagues. From the inventory read by the prosecutor, it can be assumed that we will also be talking about the “American case” of Mr. Adamov and his business partner, US citizen Mark Kaushansky, who is now on trial in Pittsburgh for tax evasion. The prosecutor's office of this city accused Adamov and Kaushansky of stealing $9 million allocated by the Americans in 1997 for the modernization of Russian nuclear reactors. Russian investigators were interested in the Energopool company created in 1997 in Delaware, whose account was controlled by Kaushansky and his wife Lyubov. About $4 million intended to help Russia was transferred to this account. According to the Pittsburgh prosecutor's office, $15,129,759 was transferred to these accounts, as well as to the accounts of the accused in France and Monaco, from 1993 to 2001. In addition, Russian investigators drew attention to a certain company Omeka Ltd., which Adamov, Kaushansky and their spouses Olga and Lyubov opened in August 1994 in Pittsburgh. And the general director of the Swiss representative office of this company is Adamov’s daughter, Irina. By the way, it was her financial problems, namely the seizure of accounts in one of the Swiss banks, that forced Mr. Adamov to leave for Switzerland a year and a half ago, where he was detained at the request of the US authorities.
Tomorrow the court will continue the hearing in Adamov's case and determine the order of consideration of evidence. It is possible that the court will be able to begin questioning witnesses, of whom there are several dozen in the case.