The defendant in the Oboronservis case, Maxim Zakutailo, who was previously the general director of the District Material Warehouse of the Moscow Air Force District, was released on Thursday from a pre-trial detention center, where he had been held for a year on charges of theft, the RAPSI agency reported .

The decision to release the person involved in the high-profile case was caused by the expiration of the maximum period of detention under the charge against him. Within a year, the investigation against him could not be completed and he was released automatically, without the participation of a court or investigation.

Zakutailo was arrested along with his wife Ekaterina Smetanova on October 31, 2012. At that time, he held the post of director of the Oboronservis subsidiary, OJSC District Material Warehouse of the Moscow Air Force and Air Defense District (OMS). The Main Military Investigation Department (GVSU) of the Investigative Committee of Russia accused him of fraud on an especially large scale and of misappropriation or embezzlement. The investigation believed that Zakutailo sold at a reduced price by 92 million rubles the Peresyp cottage village on the Sea of Azov, owned by the Compulsory Medical Insurance Company and recognized as a non-core asset of the Ministry of Defense (previously, the department invested 300 million rubles in the construction of the village). Three hectares of land were sold along with the village.

Zakutailo’s wife Ekaterina Smetanova, also a defendant in the case, entered into an agreement with the prosecutor’s office, admitted guilt and testified against the former head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Evgenia Vasilyeva, whom the investigation considers the main organizer of fraud with military property. In 2012, Smetanova was released from custody.

The scandal around Oboronservis broke out in October 2012; five criminal cases were opened on the facts of fraud in transactions with real estate, land and shares belonging to the department controlled by the Ministry of Defense. After this, several high-ranking officials, including Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, lost their posts in the Ministry of Defense. Damage to the state was reported in excess of 4 billion rubles.

Zakutaylo, a defendant in the Oboronservis case, was released from pre-trial detention center