Meet the ‘dead souls’ on the payroll at Roskomnadzor, Russia's media censor

A court has released on her own recognizance a fourth suspect in the fraud case against officials from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censor, according to the newspaper Kommersant.

Anastasia Zvyagintseva, who heads one of Roskomnadzor’s private contractors, allegedly organized a criminal scheme wherein her company billed the government for fictitious staff, and then handed the money over to corrupt Roskomnadzor officials.

Investigators say one of the people collecting this embezzled money from the start of the scam was Roskomnadzor press secretary Vadim Ampelonsky, who’s been placed under house arrest. The suspects in the case say any extra money they earned at Roskomnadzor was payment for “irregular work.”