In Russia, the head of a drone center will stand trial for particularly large-scale fraud

Yevgeny Grigoryev, CEO of the “TulaDrone” Research and Production Center for Unmanned Systems, was detained in Russia. He is suspected of fraud on an especially large scale.

According to journalists, on August 14, a court remanded Grigoryev to pretrial detention. Criminal proceedings were initiated under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code, but details of the case have not yet been disclosed.

“TulaDrone” is one of the major projects for the development of unmanned aviation in the Tula Region.

More than 1 billion rubles were allocated to the creation of the research and production center, of which approximately 700 million rubles came from the federal budget.

The reasons and circumstances surrounding the arrest of the company’s director have not yet been officially disclosed.

Grigoriev’s arrest marks the third criminal case in the past month against the heads of Russian projects related to drone production.

In early August, a Moscow court remanded the current and former CEOs of the company “Drone Solutions,” Vyacheslav Barbasov and Irakli Khazalia, into pretrial detention. They are also accused of fraud on an especially large scale. The details of the case have not been disclosed.

Back in late July, top executives of the company “Efko,” including billionaire Valery Kustov, were detained in connection with a fraud case involving the production of drones.

An official from the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade was also taken into custody on charges of embezzlement on an exceptionally large scale.

Thus, over the course of several weeks, Russian law enforcement agencies have opened a series of criminal cases against executives and officials involved in the development and production of unmanned aerial systems.

This was reported by local media outlets Myslo and “Tula News.”

As a reminder, a new investigation has been launched against former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero regarding possible tax fraud linked to the discovery of jewelry without proper documentation. The politician had previously been under investigation in other cases involving influence peddling and state aid.