Russian court drops embezzlement charges against ex-governor Mikhail Men
On May 17, Moscow’s Tverskoy Court terminated the criminal case against Russia’s Accounts Chamber auditor, Mikhail Men, due to the expiration of the statute of limitations, reports the state news agency TASS.
Men stood accused of embezzling 700 million rubles (nearly $9.5 million by today’s exchange rate) from the Ivanovo region in 2011; he served as governor of the region from 2005 to 2013. Under the criminal article for embezzlement, the statute of limitations is 10 years.
The court also terminated the criminal prosecution of the other defendants in the case — Pavel Konkov, who replaced Men as head of the Ivanovo region, and Dmitry Grishin, the managing director of JSC Ivanovsky Broiler.
The preventive measures against Men (recognizance not to leave) were dropped in connection with the termination of the charges. The case was dismissed on non-exculpatory grounds.
The embezzlement case against Mikhail Men was launched in 2019. In the summer of 2020, the Ivanovo region’s Acting Governor, Stanislav Voskresensky, said that the missing 700 million rubles had been returned to the state budget, with interest and liquidated damages.
The case against Men
According to federal investigators, Mikhail Men facilitated the theft of 700 million rubles in government allocated to support small business in 2011. Allegedly, the money was transferred to JSC Ivanovsky Broiler (which isn’t even a small business) and stolen.