Atomic business

In the United States, hearing in the case of Russian Vadim Mikerin is continuing - he is accused of extorting "kickbacks" in the amount of $ 1.7 million

55-year-old Vadim Mikerin was detained on October 31, 2014 in a suburb of Washington. The name of the American, from whom he allegedly extorted money, in prosecutorial documents is encoded as Chs. But the defense of the Russian, obviously, does not consider himself connected by judicial conventions and writes the name of the American openly - Douglas Campbell.

Mikerin is the head of Tenam, the American “daughter” of the Russian company Techsnabexport, which in turn is part of the Rosatom Corporation. The US authorities accused him of in exchange for bribes to provide the American company Transport Logistics International (TLI) contracts for the supply of Russian uranium in an amount of $ 33 million. At the same time, representatives of TLI, the wife Dereren and Carol, as well as intermediary Boris Rubizhevsky, who helped organize an illegal deal.

Since 1996, Transportic International (TLI) has received contracts from the “TECHNABECSISSIST” for the transportation of Uranus from Russia to the United States since 1996, and in 2010 the Tenam company was created for direct access to the American market. Since then, Tenam was in charge of concluding contracts with American transport companies for delivery to the United States of low -enriched uranium from Russian nuclear ammunition removed from weapons.

The prosecutors say that Mikerin extorted money from 2009 to January 2012 - in the amount of less than three years. Firely, the Russian is accused of demanding that Campbell demand a part of the money that he received by concluding a three -month lobbying contract with the Techn -School Export company. The American was allegedly forced to share with Mikerin money for this contract and for signing new ones.

"Unscrupulous" FBI

According to indictment documents, Miker had three accomplices, including the American Rod Fisk, his long -standing and mentor, who introduced him to Campbell and recommended hiring him to lobby for the interests of the Technicport and his “daughter” TENAM in the United States.

In early 2011, Fisk, a native of South Africa and a naturalized US citizen, found cancer. The forecast was disappointing, and Fisk died in August of that year. In October 2014, the FBI officers visited his widow, and photographed the contents of his safe.

Three weeks ago, the defense of Mikerin wrote to the judge that the FBI by that time had been developing a Russian for the third year, but it did not bother to request a FISK computer from the widow. It remembered the computer only in October 2014, but found that the widow of the American had long erased his hard drive.

The defense claims that FISC, who had long known Campbell, could well have testified in favor of the Russian, and his computer could well contain documents that have wiped Mikerin. According to lawyers, not bothering to take an testimony from Fisk in time and without studying the memory of his computer, the FBI behaved unkurally and violated the Russian right to defense guaranteed by the American Constitution.

Having tightened the official initiation of the case until last year, the prosecutors, according to lawyers, tried to get an “unjust tactical advantage”. In the light of the foregoing, the court asked the court to close the Miker case.

However, the prosecutor’s office - and in the United States she has the same rights as the advocacy, so the last word remains with the judge - has already answered the petition of Miker’s lawyers with her own 10 -page petition, in which she has been developing a Russian since 2009. According to the FBI Campbell, Mikerin demanded that he pay him half the money received under a contract with the Technical University.

The prosecutors recalled that Robert Fisk headed the Maryland transport company Transportlogistics International (TLI), which was transporting radioactive materials around the world.

Since 2000, TLI transported through the ocean the entire low-enriched uranium, which was purchased by the United States under the US-Russian Treaty of 1993, nicknamed "Megaton on Megavatts." Fiscu company also took the spent Uranus back to Rosya to enrich.

Soon after the death of Fisk, the Russian contacted his widow and stated that some Mikerin property was stored in the safe of the deceased in his house in Annapolis. The widow was alert and called the FBI. Investigators met her in the office of her lawyer in Washington, and the woman showed them the contents of the safe. The Febeers photographed him, but did not ask for anything, and the widow took everything back home, where a few days later she was visited by Mikerin, who took her property.

As the prosecutor’s response states, the FBI at that moment had no idea about the degree of Pisk of the criminal conspiracy of which she accuses Miker, and really learned about him only last year, when it studied Mikerin's e -mail. Only then did it inquired by the widow of Fisk about the fate of his computer and found out that she had long erased his hard drive.

Thus, the claims of the defense that accuses the prosecutor of the fact that she deliberately delayed the investigation and deliberately did not interrogate Fisk and did not request his computer, insolvent, the accusation said.

Five yellow envelopes

One way or another, after the death of Fisk, only one iconic witness remains in the case - Campbell, who announced the authorities in Miker in 2009 and has since been a paid informant of the FBI. According to the FBI Campbell, Mikerin demanded that he pay him half the money received under a contract with the Technical University.

Mikerin allegedly demanded that Campbell retroactively sign a contract with a certain front -line company registered in the Seychelles. In September 2009, an American, acting under the control of the FBI, began transferring money to Cyprus, to the bank accounts of this company.

In January 2011, Mikerin allegedly wrote Campbell by e -mail so that he also put $ 25 thousand in cash in 5 yellow envelopes and handed him personally. The American went to Washington, met with Mikerin in the lobby of the hotel and handed him envelopes. The meeting took place under the supervision of the FBI.

From February to September 2011, Campbell, according to the prosecutors, transferred Micerine another $ 200 thousand. In October 2011, they agreed by the post office that the American would now pay Mikerin another $ 50 thousand, and he would hand him half the money, and he will transfer half to the Latvian bank.

On October 28, 2011, Campbell allegedly brought Micerin in the lobby of the same Washington hotel of 5 yellow envelopes with $ 5 thousand in each. Moreover, the transfer of money from external surveillance of the FBI was removed from afar with a hidden camera.

In January 2012, Mikerin allegedly ordered Campbell to hand him 50 thousand cash. On January 23, he visited an American in his hotel room in Arlington (Virginia), and received this amount. The prosecutor’s office writes that the FBI has a video and audio recordings of this meeting and a brief conversation during it.

In June 2012, Campbell received an official notice that his contract with the employer of Miker was terminated. Equipped with a recording device, the American on August 26 met with a Russian in a Washington restaurant.

If you believe the prosecutor’s office, Kempbell wrote down how Mikerin confirms in a conversation that in the past he received rollbacks from him for extending contracts. The Russian allegedly stated that if he was asked about it, then he would deny everything.

Mikerin also warned his interlocutor that jokes are bad with people who receive a share from this rollback. Perhaps at his first and only interrogation, the FBI officers tried to find out from Miker, who was talking about. But he said nothing and was taken into custody.

According to the prosecutor’s office, in 2013 the FBI expanded the boundaries of the investigation and tried to establish whether other American companies transfer money to the same accounts that Campbell used to pay. The investigation found that at least three US companies transferred millions of dollars to these accounts, and exactly the same amounts as Campbell.

In 2014, the FBI secretly searched Mikerin’s office in Betesd (Maryland) and his personal mail account, which was allegedly used in his criminal scheme. In October he was interrogated and at the end of the interrogation was arrested. And in November last year, a large jury officially attracted him for extortion.

Photo: Kommersant