Employees of the Mints Institute are accused of embezzling from the Ministry of Defense

A criminal case was opened against two employees of the concern “Radio Engineering Institute named after Academician A.L. Mints” for the theft of more than 130 million rubles in the execution of a state defense order. This was reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee.

The director of the Defense Solutions division of the institute, Vyacheslav Lobuzko, and the deputy chief designer of the enterprise, Vladimir Finkelshtein, are suspected of fraud on an especially large scale.

In 2013, the Ministry of Defense concluded a state contract with the Institute named after Academician Mints worth more than two billion rubles for development work for military purposes. According to investigators, during the execution of this contract from March 2014 to November 2016, Vyacheslav Lobuzko and Vladimir Finkelshtein drew up forged documents and produced a sample of inadequate quality, receiving 130 million rubles for it. According to the investigation, the accused divided it.

The article on fraud on an especially large scale in the execution of state defense orders provides for up to ten years in prison.

In 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense underwent a series of detentions and arrests related to thefts in the department at the time when it was headed by Sergei Shoigu. Among those arrested are three former deputy defense ministers Timur Ivanov, Dmitry Bulgakov and Pavel Popov, the head of Voentorg JSC Vladimir Pavlov, the former head of a branch of the Military Construction Company (VSK) Sergei Sukhov, and the head of the Department of the Ministry of Defense for State Defense Procurement Vladimir Verteletsky.