MOSCOW, April 1 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Presnensky District Court ordered the detention of former head of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), Alexander Reimer, who stands accused of embezzling 3 billion rubles ($52 million) allocated for the purchase of electronic monitoring bracelets, RAPSI reported from the courtroom.

The hearing was held behind closed doors because of disclosure of the suspect’s medical data.

Reimer plead not guilty.

Fraud charges have also been brought against Reimer’s former deputy, Nikolai Krivolapov, director of FSIN’s Information and Technical Support Center Viktor Opredelyonov, and the director of a private company, Nikolai Martynov.

Martynov and Opredelyonov were put in jail. Krivolapov was placed under house arrest.

Electronic bracelets are used to monitor compliance with house arrest rules and for people who are given alternative sentences outside prison.
The probe into the case was opened after two FSIN employees were detained on suspicion of extorting $2.6 million from a businessman in connection with the purchase of the bracelets.

According to investigators, the suspects embezzled about 3 billion rubles ($52 million) in budget allocations to FSIN for the purchase of electronic bracelets in 2010-2012.

They claim that Reimer and Krivolapov personally approved the purchase of the electronic bracelets at vastly inflated prices.

Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin on Tuesday said investigators are working to establish other possible suspects in this crime.

Alexander Reimer, 57, was chief of the Interior Ministry Department in the Samara Region from April 2006 to 2009. In August 2009, he was appointed FSIN director and in 2010 promoted to the rank of Colonel-General of the Interior. He was dismissed from FSIN on June 26, 2012.