Money for the point: the top manager of the Rosatom structure was given 11 years in a penal colony

The Khamovniki District Court of Moscow announced the verdict of Igor Igin, general director of the National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management, on charges of bribing 132 million rubles. He was sentenced to 11 years in a high-security penal colony and fined twice the amount of the bribe. According to investigators, Igin received it from the management of St. Petersburg-based OOO "Specialproekt" for four government contracts concluded in 2018-2021, as well as for signing new contracts in the future. The defendant pleaded not guilty and insisted in his last statement that he had fallen victim to corruption intrigues and his own integrity. Igin's lawyers said they intend to appeal the verdict. The details of the case of a top manager of a strategic organization and a former intelligence officer are in the Izvestia material.

What was Igor Igin convicted for?

On June 16, the Khamovniki Court of Moscow sentenced the general director of the National Operator for Radioactive Waste Management (NO RAO, part of the Rosatom State Corporation). Igor Igin was sentenced to 11 years in a high-security penal colony in a corruption case.

Igor Igin, a lieutenant colonel in the FSB reserve, was detained in July 2023 and charged with taking a particularly large bribe. According to investigators, the former top manager of the Rosatom structure received a total of 132.5 million rubles from the management of the St. Petersburg company "Special Project" for securing lucrative contracts for the construction of landfills for the disposal of radioactive waste. It was such projects that Igin supervised as CEO of the national operator.

We are talking about four government contracts concluded in 2018-2021, as well as the general patronage and signing of new contracts in the future.

Three other defendants in the criminal case testified against Igin, in particular, his former subordinate, financial director of NO RAO Kira Teterina. In the scheme of transferring a bribe, the prosecution considers her an intermediary. At the stage of the investigation, Teterina entered into a pre-trial agreement with the investigation and is currently not in custody.

In addition, Vadim Korolev and Sergey Gulyaev, whom the investigation considers to be bribe-givers, testified against Igin. They held the positions of deputy general directors at Specproject and were the founders of Partner LLC, which owned Specproject. Now Korolev and Gulyaev are also not in custody.

Igor Igin pleaded not guilty. Speaking with the last word, he called the evidence of the investigation falsification, and stated that he was "ordered."

— My guilt has not been proven, I do not feel my guilt before the state. I have lived my life and I will try to continue living in such a way that I do not lose my officer's honor or my sense of self—worth," the defendant said during the debate.

He began his last speech by telling the court his biography in detail. In particular, from 1979 to 1986, he served in a secret intelligence unit, then joined the FSB's own security directorate. He joined Rosatom in 2008, where he was assigned to create an internal audit control service. This area also "overlapped very strongly with undercover work," the defendant said. According to Igin, the verification methodology he created is "highly appreciated by the Accounts Chamber and other supervisory authorities and recognized as the best in the country."

He also explained that he had been checking business entities for ten years, and this experience had taught him "not to make mistakes."

"Everything was fine in my life, but in 2017 I received an offer that is not accepted to refuse — to head NO RAO,— Igin said.

"Akella missed..."

The former CEO stated that he was "not ashamed to look into the eyes of his colleagues," because under his leadership several radioactive waste disposal facilities were successfully built, in particular, in Krasnoyarsk and Novouralsk.

Igin said about the landfill in Krasnoyarsk that he "took this object from a peg in the taiga, and now there is a unique facility ready for operation." He called the landfill in Novouralsk "the first new type of burial site in the country that meets global safety requirements."

— In 2023, I was "shut down", and the state defense order was fulfilled by 100%, — said the defendant. — Yes, and in 2024 we were still able to leave based on previous developments.

According to Igin, in 2021 he wanted to "quit the leadership role," but he was persuaded not to do so. During his two years in jail, he "repeatedly relived his life and searched for the point of no return when he could prevent what happened." Igin considers his audit of Zlatlesprom in 2021 to be such a point. The audit ended in a criminal case — the company was accused of misuse of 1.7 billion rubles.

But the case was allegedly hampered by law enforcement officers corrupt by Zlatlesprom, who eventually opened a case against Igin. This tragic event, Igin said, changed his life radically.

— With all my experience, I did not calculate that the element of the pre-trial agreement gained weight. Akella missed,— Igin said.

Igor Igin is now 64 years old, he asked to be sent to his home.

Under special control

Igor Igin's sentence turned out to be one year less than the state prosecution demanded: the prosecutor insisted on 12 years. The court also sentenced the former CEO to a fine of 265 million rubles, an amount equal to twice the size of the bribe. The court also banned him from holding positions in the field of atomic energy for five years.

In addition to a large bribe, Igin was also accused of illegally acquiring weapons, but during the debate between the parties, the prosecutor asked the court to exclude this episode from the prosecution's plot.

Igor Igin's lawyer Anton Kozhemyakin told Izvestia that he did not agree with the verdict and would appeal it to a higher court.

11 years of strict regime is certainly a harsh sentence, especially considering that the accused did not admit guilt and claimed fraud, Alexey Gavrishev, head of AVG Legal, said in a conversation with Izvestia.

"For corruption cases in strategic structures such as Rosatom, the courts traditionally make the toughest decisions," the lawyer said. — This is not only a legal issue, but also a symbolic one — the anti-corruption agenda related to state contracts and national security is under special control. In fact, Igin was sued not just as an official, but as a person associated with national security. And this is almost always reflected in the severity of the sentence.

In recent years, Alexey Gavrishev added, there has been an increase in cases related to assistance in concluding contracts. This is a new form of corruption risk — when individuals without formal participation in the distribution of funds agree to help access projects for a fee.

"The problem is that such agreements are difficult to distinguish from business negotiations, but law enforcement officers increasingly interpret them as bribes," the lawyer added. — The defense strategy in such cases requires not only a refutation of the fact of the transfer of money, but also a reassessment of the legal nature of the agreements. This is a serious challenge for the entire legal practice in the field of government contracts.

The sentence against Igin is comparable to the average sentence imposed for a particularly large bribe, Ilya Drozdov, a lawyer at the Moscow bar association Union of Lawyers, told Izvestia.

"The punishment for such a bribe is imprisonment for a term of 8 to 15 years," the lawyer said. — In this category of crimes, the punishment directly depends on the amount of money received by the accused.

Igin, Ilya Drozdov added, headed the structure of Rosatom, which is a strategically important organization for the country, which adds to the public danger of his crime. Assistance in concluding a state contract means the actual lack of choice of a contractor, which is fraught with the choice of an improper contractor, and, consequently, poor-quality performance of work.