MOSCOW, June 22 (RAPSI) – The Moscow District Commercial Court has granted a cassation appeal lodged by Moscow Region prosecutors against an order to review a ruling on the recovery of 308.5 million rubles ($4 million) from lawyer Igor Tretyakov, according to court records.

In March, the Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals ordered the first instance to reconsider Tretyakov’s bid to review recovery of 308.5 million rubles ($4 million). The court thus overturned the ruling of the Moscow Regional Commercial Court of late October 2020 refusing to rehear Tretyakov’s case upon the applicant’s appeal. 

In late November 2018, the Moscow Regional Commercial Court ordered recovery of the money Tretyakov allegedly received in the S.A. Lavochkin Scientific Union under the pretence of legal services. The court also declared 21 contracts signed by the Scientific Union and the lawyer between July 2016 and January 2018 invalid.

The court therefore granted a claim filed by the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office on behalf of the Federal Property Management Agency (Rosimushchestvo) and the state corporation Roscosmos. Prosecutors insisted that the agreements were invalid as Tretyakov had not participated in court proceedings himself. Thus, the lawyer has only created a semblance of his activity.

In May and September 2019, the Tenth Commercial Court of Appeals and the Moscow District Commercial Court upheld the ruling.

Currently, Tretyakov is a defendant in the case on embezzling 330 million rubles (about $5 million) from Roscosmos. In late December, the case was returned to prosecutors, according to the lawyer’s attorney Stanislav Shostak. He is in detention now.

Two other defendants, ex-CEO of the S.A. Lavochkin Scientific Union Sergey Lemeshevsky and chief of the Union’s legal department Yekaterina Averyanova were also detained. Later, Averyanova admitted guilt and signed a deal with investigators in exchange for release from detention under house arrest.

According to investigators, the defendants have stolen assets of Roscosmos by signing fraudulent contracts for provision of legal services with the law firm. All the works were allegedly performed by the corporation’s own specialists. The overall sum of payments to the firm reached 330 million rubles.

Tretyakov pleads not guilty.