Taruta's business partner was arrested for multi-billion dollar fraud in Russia
Former general director of the Industrial Union of Donbass corporation and business partner of oligarch Sergei Taruta Oleg Mkrtchan was arrested in Moscow. The businessman is suspected of stealing funds issued to his companies by the Russian Vnesheconombank for business development, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
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Life reports this with reference to law enforcement agencies.
“By a court decision on February 8, 2018, the request of the investigative authorities to select a preventive measure against Oleg Mkrtchan in the form of detention for a period until April 5, 2018 was granted,” said press secretary of the Basmanny District Court Yuno Tsareva.
It is reported that the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation has charged the head of the Industrial Union of Donbass corporation, Oleg Mkrtchan, under Article 159 (“Fraud committed by an organized group or on an especially large scale”).
As Life clarifies, the charges of fraud brought against the head of the Industrial Union of Donbass corporation may be related to the theft of part of the funds issued to the corporation in 2009 by the Russian Vnesheconombank for development and various projects in Ukraine and the Krasnodar region of Russia.
“According to the investigation, part of these funds was withdrawn through offshore companies in Cyprus and the Virgin Islands and stolen for Mkrtchan’s personal enrichment,” a source in the Investigative Committee says to the publication.
The investigation suggests that in 2009, the Industrial Union of Donbass holding company received more than $100 million from VEB for the construction of a metal rolling plant in the city of Armavir, Krasnodar Territory, with a steelmaking shop of up to 1,5 million tons of castings per year and two rolling mills with a total capacity of up to 1,2 million tons of rolled products. However, soon after receiving the loan, Mr. Mkrtchan froze the enterprise construction project and stole the money, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.
Oleg Mkrtchan is included in the list of 100 richest people in Ukraine in 2016 according to Forbes magazine with a fortune of $127 million. His fortune is estimated at $1,25 billion. He was one of the co-founders of the Donetsk football club “Metallurg” in Ukraine and the Krasnodar football club “Kuban” in Russia. On December 18, 2017, ISD announced the loss of actual control over the main assets of the corporation in the Donetsk People's Republic - PJSC Alchevsk Metallurgical Plant, PJSC Alchevsk Coke and Chemical Plant and PJSC Ecoenergy.
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