In Sweden the Stockholm city court is continuing to examine the case file of the arrested in March employee of the canadian engineering company Bombardier, a citizen of Russia Evgeny Pavlov, who is accused of bribery. Signature Pavlova, who served as head of Bombardier branch in Azerbaijan, stands on key documents associated with the transaction in 2013. Under this contract the consortium led by Bombardier has won a contract for 340 million dollars on the installation of computerized systems, railway signaling at stations of Azerbaijan.
According to prosecutors, the local partner, Bombardier – company Trans-Signal-Rabita were controlled by employees of the state Railways of Azerbaijan, this same organization was responsible for selecting the winning bids of the eight competitors.
In turn, lawyers of Russians lay responsibility for action on contract in Azerbaijan by high-ranking employees in the rail division of transport giant, writes the canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. In addition to Trans-Signal-Rabita, the Azerbaijani consortium comprised of Bombardier Transportation Sweden with headquarters in Stockholm and “Bombardier transportation (Signal)” – SP Bombardier and Russian Railways with headquarters in Moscow.
37-year-old Evgeny Pavlov, faces up to six years in prison if he’s convicted on charges of bribery in aggravating circumstances, which he was presented the National anti-corruption Bureau of Sweden, said in the article, which quotes InoPressa.
Earlier media wrote that the Russian “daughter” of Bombardier enters into a questionable transaction with offshore companies associated with Alexei Krapivin, the son of a close associate of the former head of JSC “RZD” Vladimir Yakunin. In another article, the journalist, The Globe and Mail mark MacKinnon writes that, in the case of bribery appears the name of the Yakunin, “one of the confidants of Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
It is about the only mention of the name Yakunin in a memo from 2014. From the context of the document, familiarity with Yakunin was the key to the implementation of plans in the railway sector in Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, says the article, which leads InoPressa.
At the name Yakunin is not in the documents about 100 transactions, which the newspaper learned in the course of the investigation in 2016, affecting Bombardier Transportation Sweden and the mysterious firm pad Multiserv Overseas Ltd. However, from the documents on registration of the company that, Multiserv Overseas was founded in 2010 by the Deputy Chairman of the Board Elteza, a joint venture between Bombardier and Russian Railways, Yury Obodovski, which in the Russian press often called a long-standing business partner Yakunin.
Contracts submitted to the court by the prosecution, indicate that a Multiserv Overseas, a profit of $ 84 million dollars from Azerbaijan to the transaction, buying railway signalling equipment from Bombardier Transportation Sweden for 20 million dollars and then sell it “Bombardier transportation (Signal)” for 104 million dollars.
Internal documents Bombardier and transcripts of telephone conversations recorded by the police in Sweden, indicate that Multiserv Overseas connected with Alexei Krapivin and Yuri Obodovski, which together own 4% “Bombardier transportation (Signal)”, they are also major partners in Elteza, a friend of SP Bombardier and Russian Railways.
Last year the letter at the request of the Globe and Mail Yakunin admitted that he only “vaguely remembers the name of Multiserv” and said that “simply impossible” to contracts of Russian Railways was inappropriately”. According to the author, discovered the memo drew a clear line between Obodovski and Yakunin. “It says that obodovski included in the “small group of powerful men” whom the author of the note calls “partners”, – writes the edition. The document notes that the partners have access to the school and all key members of the management of RZD, except for one Vice-President of the company, as well as almost all heads of the Railways of the former USSR countries. “Having these relationships, they can influence the decision taken on both sides – technical and commercial”, – said in a note.
The Globe and Mail dug, why Yakunin, Canada has not imposed sanctions
The newspaper considers “interesting” the fact that Canada is not imposed on Yakunin sanctions “over Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.” The United States announced sanctions against Yakunin, in March 2014. The EU restrictive measures against Yakunin did not accept due to the fact that the ex-President of Russian Railways has the highest number of awards from European countries. He Yakunin has repeatedly denied any involvement in the events in Ukraine and Crimea.
Vice-President Bombardier public relations Mike Nadolski assured that Multiserv Overseas – legitimate business partner, but he had to admit that Bombardier really lobbied for the proposal not to include the name Yakunin in sanctions list, according to the article.
In the email from the internal correspondence Bombardier, dated September 2015, which was recently presented to the Swedish court stated that a Multiserv Overseas “owns the management of the public sector companies involved in these transactions, it is used as a means to withdraw amounts from the public sector into the pockets of private individuals”.
However, the Swedish court hears only one transaction made in 2013, Bombardier Transportation Sweden in Azerbaijan partly via Multiserv Overseas. At the same time, this transaction was one of the 100 transactions, which The Globe reviewed during its investigation into 2016 supply and signaling equipment Bombardier to Russia through the same firm pad.
Note that the criminal case in which Evgeny Pavlov is a suspect, was started after the publication of the Center for the study of corruption and organized crime in the framework of the so-called Panamanian dossier. The law firm Mossack Fonseca was at the center of the scandal in the spring of 2016, when the international consortium of investigative journalist released excerpts from 11.5 million documents from the archive MossFon with data on offshore accounts of its clients. From the archive showed that Mossack Fonseca had helped clients launder money to avoid sanctions and tax evasion.
Vladimir Yakunin had resigned as head of Russian Railways in August 2015. After retirement he opened in Berlin center “Research Institute “Dialogue of civilizations” . In April 2016 the Bank of Moscow has registered the company “Bridges” with headquarters in Moscow with the aim of providing consulting services in the field of infrastructure projects and management.
A scandal involving Yakunin broke out after appearing in the press publications about his estate in Akulinin shubohranilischem. Dedicated to luxury real estate investigation of the Fund of struggle against corruption published in 2013 Alexei Navalny. In addition, the opposition leader said about companies Yakunin and his sons registered in foreign offshore zones. This, in particular, a network of hotels, the company that owns the land in the port in the Leningrad region and the resort complex in Gelendzhik.