Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ Russian Defence Ministry officials are coming under scrutiny in an expanding investigation into an alleged 2 billion ruble ($22.3 million) fraud involving the supply of low-quality bulletproof vests to the Russian military, which may have cost lives.

https://x.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1810291796359925967

2/ As previously reported, the Picket Group of companies are under investigation for fraud. Its CEO Andrei Esipov and two other company officials were arrested on suspicion of giving a bribe on an especially large scale and acting as an intermediary in the transfer of a bribe.

3/ Investigators have now reportedly established that "the implementation of the state contract was accompanied by the receipt of bribes by as yet unidentified officials of the military department." This was presumably done to ensure that Picket would win the contract.

4/ The fraud involved the delivery of low-quality bulletproof vests. It's fairly likely, that the vests were delivered to the troops – in which case it's possible that a number of Russian soldiers may have been killed or wounded as a direct result of the fraud.

5/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that a 'pensioner' called Semenikhin (presumably an ex-official) has been put in pre-trial detention, and that arrests of serving Russian MOD officials are expected. The investigation is still ongoing.

6/ The prosecution says that "not all witnesses and other accomplices to the crime have been identified and questioned, not all items and documents relevant to the criminal case have been seized, and not all episodes of the defendants’ criminal activity have been identified."/end

Source:
t.me/vchkogpu/50598