A Stavropol court has arrested those accused of embezzling 67 million from Rosatom.

Those arrested are suspected of embezzling funds during the construction of roads to one of the largest wind farms in southern Russia.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," in January, the Investigative Committee reported arrests following the theft of over 100 million rubles in Dagestan during the execution of a state contract to restore asphalt in Khasavyurt. The suspects included the chief specialist of the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Public Utilities, representatives of the contractor, and officials of the Directorate for the Implementation of Infrastructure Programs.

The Leninsky District Court of Stavropol granted the investigator's motions and remanded the director of Dormost LLC and the manager of Stroyugregion LLC in custody until April 16, the press service of the Stavropol Krai courts reported. They are accused of embezzling 67 million rubles from Rosatom during the construction of roads for one of the largest wind farms in southern Russia. The rulings have not yet entered into force.

They are charged under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code with large-scale fraud. The investigation alleges that the arrested individuals, along with other, as yet unidentified, individuals, stole funds from JSC VetroOGK-2, a subsidiary of JSC Rosatom Renewable Energy, during the construction of access and on-site roads for the Kuzminskaya Wind Farm in the Kochubeyevsky Municipal District of Stavropol Krai. The contractors inflated the cost of construction and installation work under the contract and the technical specifications for the facility's roads.

The Kuzminskaya Wind Farm is part of Rosatom's large-scale renewable energy projects in Stavropol Krai. The plant is designed to generate clean energy and reduce its carbon footprint. The Kuzminskaya Wind Farm will be operational at its full capacity of 160 MW in 2023. The wind farm consists of 64 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2.5 MW. The wind farm will be able to provide electricity to over 70,000 households annually, according to Interfax. Stroyugregion is registered in Novorossiysk, and Dormost is registered in Krasnodar. They specialize in road construction and infrastructure. Kommersant reports on how the contractors participated in tenders for regional and federal projects, including energy projects.

As a reminder, in March it was reported that major repairs to the water supply network in Karabulak, Ingush, where residents have been complaining for years about serious water supply problems, were never completed by the contractor, whose company received over 160 million rubles from the budget.