MOSCOW, February 1 (RAPSI) – A criminal case against Yekaterina Smetanova, who stands charged with commercial bribery and embezzlement at the Defense Ministry’s subsidiary Oboronservis, has been submitted to the Presnensky District Court in Moscow, RAPSI learnt in the court on Monday.

The date of the hearing has not been scheduled yet.

Smetanova has pleaded guilty to the crimes of which she has been accused, and provided detailed and consistent testimony exposing the other individuals involved in the crime. She has been released under restriction notice.  Case against her was singled out and considered separately.

The corruption scandal broke out at the Defense Ministry in 2012 and led to led to the resignation of the then defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov and Yevgeniya Vasilyeva.

Serdyukov was charged with negligence. Investigators claimed that his actions or inactions resulted in damages to the state estimated at 56 million rubles (about $745,000) by ordering army personnel to build a private road to a Caspian Sea resort owned by his brother-in-law.

However, the Russian media reported in late December 2013 that the criminal probe into Serdyukov’s actions was closed. Serdyukov's lawyer Genrikh Padva said later that his client was pardoned under an amnesty program.

On May 8, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow sentenced Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, an aide to Serdyukov, to five years in prison for her involvement in corruption cases at the Defense Ministry.

In late August, a court in the Vladimir Region released Vasilyeva on parole.