“Kommersant” became aware of the details of a high-profile criminal case on the procurement by the Ministry of Defense in the midst of a pandemic of medical equipment to combat coronavirus infection. One of the defendants in this story was the famous designer and fashion designer Ferutdin Zakirov. It was the services of his two firms that the military resorted to in an emergency order, when, in a pandemic, there were problems with the purchase of artificial lung ventilation (ALV) devices not only from the EU and the USA, but also from China. However, later it turned out that almost 400 million rubles. instead of mechanical ventilation, the Ministry of Defense purchased devices to improve the quality of sleep, and even at an inflated price. As a result, Mr. Zakirov and the deputy director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Main Military Construction Directorate No. 4” Larisa Leontieva, who helped in the search for suppliers, were accused of fraud, and the validity of the claims against the defendants will be assessed by the Basmanny District Court of Moscow.
In the spring of 2020, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in connection with the spread of a new coronavirus infection, instructed the Federal State Autonomous Institution “Special Projects Property Management” (UISP) to purchase medical equipment and personal protective equipment for the needs of the Main Military Medical Directorate (GVMU) of the Ministry of Defense. It was planned to supply equipment to 16 multifunctional medical centers built from prefabricated structures. Among other things, they were supposed to be equipped with ventilators.
Based on the materials of the investigation, the first deputy director of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Main Military Construction Directorate No. 4” Larisa Leontyeva was instructed to assist the head of the UISP Andrey Tulupov in the operational search for suppliers of medical equipment and the conclusion of contracts with them.
Faced with the difficulties of deliveries from Europe and the United States due to the pandemic, the military department decided to try to negotiate with manufacturers from China. As follows from the case file, at one of the conference calls, representatives of the State Military Medical University mentioned Yuwell YH-730 portable ventilators, which the Ministry of Defense had previously received from China as humanitarian aid.
When Mrs. Leontieva began to monitor the market, it turned out that in the conditions of the rush demand for ventilators, none of the medical companies that agreed to cooperate could guarantee deliveries in a short time. At the same time, the FGAU UISP allegedly tried to purchase the same Yuwell YH-730 directly from the Chinese manufacturer, but he refused to receive payment from accounts opened in Russian banks. As a result, the deputy head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise, through mutual acquaintances, contacted the well-known designer and fashion designer Ferutdin Zakirov, who, using his connections, promised to find suppliers of the necessary medical equipment.
Among others, the list of medical goods sent by Mr. Zakirov included Yuwell YH-730. In total, in the spring of 2020, the military department received 350 such devices, paying almost 400 million rubles for them.
However, as it turned out, instead of ventilators, the customer received devices to improve the quality of sleep of patients suffering from sleep apnea syndrome (breathing disorders during sleep), and even at an inflated price. Based on the materials of the department of military counterintelligence of the FSB in September 2020, the Main Military Investigation Department of the TFR opened a criminal case.
Larisa Leontyeva and Ferutdin Zakirov were accused of fraud on an especially large scale (part 4 of article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), and the Khamovnichesky District Court of the capital sent them to a pre-trial detention center. According to the investigation, having entered into a criminal conspiracy and supplied the Ministry of Defense with unnecessary goods, the defendants stole all the money allocated for its purchase from the budget.
Ms. Leontyeva, in her testimony, claims that she forwarded all the information received from Ferutdin Zakirov on ventilators to Dmitry Trishkin, head of the Main Military Medical Administration of the Ministry of Defense, and Alexei Shchegolev, chief anesthesiologist-resuscitator of the Ministry of Defense. The investigation came to the conclusion that Ms. Leontieva did not coordinate anything at all with the first. But Mr. Schegolev gave a rather detailed answer to the deputy head of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise. It followed from it that Yuwell YH-730 does not have the technical ability to select various modes of artificial and assisted lung ventilation, does not give the patient a respiratory mixture with a high oxygen content, the device does not provide for the possibility of respiratory monitoring, and there are no alarm systems, therefore, for treatment patients with lung damage “in intensive care units” they cannot be used.
After correspondence with Alexei Shchegolev, Mrs. Leontieva, according to the materials of the investigation, asked Ferutdin Zakirov to suspend the shipment of goods by sending him the following message via the WhatsApp messenger: “This is not a ventilator, this is a sleep mask! This is not medical equipment … the Chinese deceived us! This device is for home use, on Chinese websites they cost $500-700. We cannot buy this. And it’s not even about the price, but about its impossibility of being used for medical purposes. Here is my conclusion! And I can’t disobey him.”
However, a little later, Ms. Leontieva told her partner: “We have dealt with our resuscitators. Confirmed the possibility of using non-invasive models.” As a result, a military transport aircraft was sent to China for mechanical ventilation.
It is not very clear from the materials of the case what Ms. Leontieva’s selfish interest in this deal could be expressed in. In any case, the fact that some money could be transferred to her is not mentioned in the investigation. But the “personal interest” of the investigation is indicated quite clearly. Implementing this contract, Larisa Leontyeva, according to the TFR, “decided to prove herself to the leadership of the Ministry of Defense as a professional worker with skills and able to perform any task in difficult conditions.”
The fashion designer and clothing designer, according to law enforcement officers, in addition to taking possession of the UISP money, in the wake of the pandemic, also expected to “establish himself as a reliable supplier of medical equipment and continue further cooperation with organizations and institutions of the Ministry of Defense.”
At the same time, another defendant in this case, the former head of the UISP Andrei Tulupov, whom Mrs. Leontyeva, according to the investigation, misled, was accused of abuse of office (part 1 of article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). However, in connection with the admission of guilt, and also in accepting bribes (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) on other episodes of the military department’s procurement of medical equipment to combat coronavirus infection, his case was separated into a separate proceeding. As Kommersant has already said, in January of this year, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Andrei Tulupov in a special order to eight years in a strict regime colony.
Meanwhile, neither Larisa Leontyeva nor Ferutdin Zakirov, whose case will soon be considered by the Basmanny District Court, admit their guilt in the alleged crime.
The defense of the latter generally believes that Mr. Zakirov fulfilled all his obligations to the customer in good faith.
“Moreover, upon filing a claim on the part of the UISP, he immediately said that he would try to replace the devices, which allegedly were not suitable for the needs of the buyer. And his dialogue with Larisa Leontyeva on this matter refutes the investigation’s argument about a preliminary collusion between them,” Mikhail Bagmet, Mr. Zakirov’s lawyer, told Kommersant. The defense does not agree with the conclusions of the investigation about the allegedly inflated cost of the supplied devices, and, accordingly, with the amount of damage in the case. “The investigation considers almost all 400 million rubles stolen, as if nothing was supplied to the military. The market value of one device, the investigation determined at $450. But even the conclusions of the commodity examination say that in April 2020 the price of one Yuwell YH-730 could be $7,500. And in the seller’s invoices and in the sales contracts themselves, the price is generally $ 9,200, ”said the defender.
