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Russia Arrests Rusnano Senior Official for Corruption | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A man walks past the office of state-owned technology company RUSNANO, where Russian law enforcement agencies are conducting a search related to one of RUSNANO’s managers, which could have been prompted by delays in construction of a pharmaceutical centre, in the town of Yaroslavl, north of Moscow, Russia, November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev


Russian law enforcement agencies have detained a senior official at state technology corporation Rusnano on suspicion of misusing company funds, an investigative committee said on Saturday.

Andrei Gorkov, a managing director at Rusnano’s investment division, is suspected of placing the company’s funds in a bank that later lost its license, with the aim of then financing the bank’s activities in 2011-2013.

The bank’s license was revoked in 2014, resulting in Rusnano losing more than 738 million rubles ($13 million). Shortly before the license was canceled, the bank transferred 400 million rubles worth of real estate assets to Gorkov’s brother, the investigators said.

Rusnano was set up in 2007 to invest in promising high-tech firms and help Russia diversify away from its economic dependence on energy.

But over the past several years it has been dogged by suspected mismanagement of its funds and by fraud investigations.