Senior source confirms fraud probe into Moscow mayor's 'inner circle'
Moscow, 28 September: The Russian law-enforcement authorities are continuing active investigations into several criminal cases involving embezzlement of large budget funds allocated to Moscow, a high-ranking official in the law-enforcement authorities who deals with investigations into crimes in the budget sphere told RIA Novosti on Tuesday (28 September).
He did not say which specific criminal cases he was talking about but he did say that two of them involved sums of several tens of billions of roubles. "The cases under investigation are mainly to do with embezzlement and theft in the construction business," the source added.
According to him, at present investigators are carrying out investigative actions regarding a number of building sites in the Southern Federal District that were handed over to Moscow organizations.
The source recalled a high-profile criminal case into embezzlement of funds by the management of Mosvodokanal (water and wastewater services company). Last year, according to the Russian MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs), an attempt was thwarted to embezzle R20bn (about 600m dollars) allocated from the budget to housing maintenance and utilities services, of which the management of Mosvodokanal MGUP (Moscow state unitary enterprise) and affiliated organizations were suspected.
At the time Luzhkov described the accusations as an "absurdity" and threatened to take the law-enforcers to court.
"The investigation into this criminal case is continuing," the source added.
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