MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) – Investigators will question Defense Ministry officials over the alleged sale of real estate at artificially low prices at a Russian Black Sea coastal resort, Russian Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Thursday.
The resort city of Anapa, Krasnodar Territory, transferred a land site of over 9,200 square meters, together with its buildings, to the Defense Ministry in July 2010 for construction of a navigation station at the request of then-Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, according to investigators.
In the fall of 2010, the property was transferred to a commercial structure of the Moscow Air Force and Air Defense Military District, but then privatized. The site and the buildings were sold for 110 million rubles ($3.7 million), well below the property’s commercial value at 167 million rubles ($5.5 million) at the time of sale, Markin said.
The investigators are looking into the conduct of the deals and transactions involving military property, he said.
The investigation is the latest episode in a string of high-profile scandals involving alleged real estate fraud involving state assets. An earlier investigation into alleged fraud involving property worth about $130 million at Oboronservis, a property services and management firm controlled by the Defense Ministry, led to Serdyukov's sacking late last year. That investigation also involved some land in Krasnodar.
Several people have been charged in the case so far. Yekaterina Smetanova, a former executive at Oboronservis and key suspect in that investigation, was released from custody with travel restrictions earlier this week after cooperating fully, Russia’s Investigative Committee said.
Smetanova was detained on fraud charges in October last year and signed a pretrial plea bargain agreement shortly after her arrest.
