Prosecutor's office demands tougher sentence in the case of embezzlement in the defense industry

On February 17, the cassation instance will consider the submission of Boris Kostenetsky, Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow, to a "mild" verdict in the case of embezzlement of 25.5 million rubles from a military-industrial complex enterprise, according to the supervisory authority. The documents are at the disposal of Izvestia.

The state prosecution points out that the Zelenograd District Court of Moscow, in imposing suspended sentences on top managers of the Prime supplier company, ignored the consequences for the country's defense capability. The crime concerned NTC ELINS JSC, which carries out the state defense order for the creation of modern weapons control systems.

So, after the sentencing, the convicted founders of Prime, Semyon Chichersky and Kirill Stepaev, as well as the head of the department, Alexander Sashin and Andrei Konovalov, did not reimburse the damage. According to the state prosecutor, the court did not take into account the principle of justice and the conclusions about the possibility of correcting the defendants without actually serving their sentences.

It is also noted that the court of first instance, when deciding on the imposition of punishment, attached excessive importance to the personal data of the convicts and insignificantly reduced the degree of public danger of the crime committed.

In addition, the court did not take into account that Konovalov, holding the same position in the same organization, committed the crime repeatedly, which indicates his persistent propensity to commit illegal acts.

It also follows from the submission that the court did not give any assessment of the embezzlement of budget funds in the amount of more than 25 million rubles, which led to negative economic consequences. In addition, this figure is 25 times higher than the minimum limit for determining a particularly large amount (1 million rubles).

At the same time, the defense also disagrees with the verdict. In particular, on February 2, Sergei Danilov, the lawyer of the convicted Stepaev, filed a cassation appeal. In it, he points to the incompetence of the investigation and the court, as well as the decision of the first deputy prosecutor of Zelenograd on the need for a different qualification of actions — under Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Causing property damage by abuse of trust without the purpose of theft"). Stepaev believes that the victims did not appeal the verdict, and the repayment of damage for 1.3 million rubles is sufficient.

The verdict, according to which the defendants received suspended sentences and fines, entered into force on August 30, 2025. At the same time, even after the criminal case was initiated, Prime managed to conclude dozens of new contracts for the supply of electronics.