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RUSSIAN AUDIT CHAMBER HEAD SAYS HE INITIATED MAJOR STING OPERATION
NTV Mir, Moscow
5 Jun 06
[Presenter] Today it became known that Federation Council Speaker
Sergey Mironov has asked the People's Hural [parliament] of Kalmykia
to recall its senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan. [Kalmyk] President Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov has agreed to this request.
A couple of days ago, during a FSB special operation, marked notes
worth 300,000 dollars were found in the Kalmyk senator's briefcase.
According to the investigators, this is only a part of the bribe,
which totalled half a million dollars. It is believed that in return
for the bribe Chakhmakhchyan arranged for documents to be removed
from the material being used in inspections by the Audit Chamber
and it is possible that this is not the only case of corruption in
this department.
[Sergey Stepashin, Audit Chamber chairman] A few days ago, on Friday [2
June] an internal operation conducted at my initiative in cooperation
with the Federal Security Service [FSB] and the prosecutor's office
ended. Unfortunately, amongst our ranks in the Audit Chamber we found
our own miscreants and citizens involved in dirty dealing were caught
red-handed. A criminal investigation has been opened.
[At 1244 gmt ITAR-TASS added further details given about the
operation by Stepashin, which was the same operation that caught
Chakhmakhchyan. According to Stepashin, he asked FSB head Nikolay
Patrushev for help after the head of Transaero air company Aleksandr
Pleshakov complained that Audit Chamber employees had offered to
conceal the results of an unfavourable inspection in return for a
bribe of 1.5-3m dollars. Stepashin said that several employees had been
caught by the operation, including an auditor's aide called Oganesyan,
who is Chakhmakhchyan's son-in-law.
A second ITAR-TASS report at 0948 gmt cited the Russian prosecutor's
office as saying that Oganesyan and another man involved in the
incident, chief accountant of the Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation
Association Igor Arushanov, had been arrested, but Chakhmakhchyan
could not be detained as he is a senator and therefore has immunity.]
NTV Mir, Moscow
5 Jun 06
[Presenter] Today it became known that Federation Council Speaker
Sergey Mironov has asked the People's Hural [parliament] of Kalmykia
to recall its senator Levon Chakhmakhchyan. [Kalmyk] President Kirsan
Ilyumzhinov has agreed to this request.
A couple of days ago, during a FSB special operation, marked notes
worth 300,000 dollars were found in the Kalmyk senator's briefcase.
According to the investigators, this is only a part of the bribe,
which totalled half a million dollars. It is believed that in return
for the bribe Chakhmakhchyan arranged for documents to be removed
from the material being used in inspections by the Audit Chamber
and it is possible that this is not the only case of corruption in
this department.
[Sergey Stepashin, Audit Chamber chairman] A few days ago, on Friday [2
June] an internal operation conducted at my initiative in cooperation
with the Federal Security Service [FSB] and the prosecutor's office
ended. Unfortunately, amongst our ranks in the Audit Chamber we found
our own miscreants and citizens involved in dirty dealing were caught
red-handed. A criminal investigation has been opened.
[At 1244 gmt ITAR-TASS added further details given about the
operation by Stepashin, which was the same operation that caught
Chakhmakhchyan. According to Stepashin, he asked FSB head Nikolay
Patrushev for help after the head of Transaero air company Aleksandr
Pleshakov complained that Audit Chamber employees had offered to
conceal the results of an unfavourable inspection in return for a
bribe of 1.5-3m dollars. Stepashin said that several employees had been
caught by the operation, including an auditor's aide called Oganesyan,
who is Chakhmakhchyan's son-in-law.
A second ITAR-TASS report at 0948 gmt cited the Russian prosecutor's
office as saying that Oganesyan and another man involved in the
incident, chief accountant of the Russian-Armenian Business Cooperation
Association Igor Arushanov, had been arrested, but Chakhmakhchyan
could not be detained as he is a senator and therefore has immunity.]