The Skolkovo Foundation will sue Ilya Ponomarev

The Skolkovo Foundation filed a lawsuit against State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev, Channel One reported.

The parliamentarian said that the Skolkovo Foundation's lawsuit came as a surprise to him, but at the same time noted that he would be able to prove that the work for the foundation was completed in full. “Without any doubt, Skolkovo knows this very well,” the deputy said, Lenta.ru reports.

On April 18, searches were carried out at the Skolkovo Foundation as part of an investigation into the misuse of budget funds. The next day, the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against the senior vice-president of the Skolkovo Foundation, Alexey Beltyukov, under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Embezzlement on an especially large scale”). According to investigators, he illegally transferred $750,000 to State Duma deputy Ilya Ponomarev over the course of a year, from February 2011 to February 2012. The transfer of money was “veiled” by agreements on ten lectures, which Ponomarev was supposed to give in a number of cities in Russia - and receive 300 thousand dollars for it. For another 450 thousand dollars he had to complete research work.

In mid-April, the Skolkovo Foundation sent a letter to Ponomarev demanding additional information about the work performed under the contract. "Eser" replied that it had completed more work than was indicated in the reports, which means it was not obliged to return the funds received from the fund.