1/ The CEO of a Russian defence contractor has been arrested over the alleged theft of 2 billion rubles ($22.6m) in relation to the supply of bulletproof vests to Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. It's the latest in a long series of Russian military procurement scandals. ⬇️ 
2/ Andrei Esipov, the general director of the Picket Group of companies, the group's financial director Victoria Antonova and its security chief Mikhail Kalchenko were arrested in April 2024 on suspicion of "especially large-scale theft in the supply of bulletproof vests".
3/ The three have been in pre-trial detention in advance of a hearing in June, when they were all charged with fraud under Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. All three pleaded not guilty and claimed that the case had been fabricated.
4/ According to the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (roughly equivalent to the FBI), the three stole 2 billion rubles while fulfilling a military contract to supply 20,040 bulletproof vests to the Russian Ministry of Defence.
5/ The investigators are reported to have found that "the customer, having overpaid, received products that did not meet the terms of the contract."
6/ It's likely that this involved commonly-used scams such as substituting cheap components and pocketing the difference in cost, or submitting inflated estimates for the cost of the contract.
7/ Esipov claims that the case was "based on data provided by former employees of his own company who were convicted of large-scale theft and fired." They were subsequently investigated criminally.
8/ Subsequently, he claims, the former employees "began to threaten him with criminal prosecution, demanding compensation in the amount of 300 million rubles." ($3.4 million).
9/ The money claimed to have been stolen by the trio is said to have been used to buy stakes in a car repair firm and a property management company, and firms selling tobacco products and home goods stores, as well as to buy land and a Moscow business centre.
10/ Russia's military procurement system is riddled with scams. Corruption is frequent and has been on such a large scale that it has been widely blamed for many of Russia's military deficiencies. (See the threads linked below for more on this.) /end
https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1556387024986308608
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