Searches carried out in offices of senior executives of Deripaska’s Irkutsk-based structures

The law enforcers’ visit was carried out in a case into non-payment of taxes.

Investigators have carried out searches in offices of representatives of executive management of Irkutskenergo which is a part of Oleg Deripaska’s En+ Group. The law enforcers’ visit is connected with investigation of a case into non-payment of taxes worth of 139 million rubles ($2.1 million). This has been reported to RIA Novosti by a lawyer Andrey Grokhotov.

The lawyer noted there are no defendants in the case, so far. The case was initiated against unknown parties from amongst the company’s senior executives. Grokhotov noted that a few persons were summoned for interrogation, but did not indicate the last names.

The defense believes the fact that the criminal case had been initiated is illegal and already sent the complaint against the investigators to the Prosecution Service and the State Duma's Committee on Safety and Anti-Corruption.

Grokhotov notes that the investigators are working with the 2011 case when Irkutskenergoasked the Federal Tax Service to provide tax relief. In the lawyer’s words, the request was coordinated with the RF Ministry of Energy and approved. However, in 2016, the Tax Service carried out another inspection and considered the tax relief had been provided without a reasonable basis, and the Ministry retracted the approval.

The lawyer noted that the company didn’t start appealing against the decision and “refunded everything instantly.” The criminal case was initiated though.

The region’s law enforcement agencies have not commented upon the searches at Irkutskenergo yet.

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