The escaped military builder Alexei Dushutin is wanted

After serving six years in jail, the former head of OAO "VSUM" was released last year under house arrest, after which he quickly escaped from the country. The investigators intend to find him through Interpol in Canada, where he is hiding.
Investigators of the capital's police appealed to the Tverskoy Court of Moscow with a petition for the absentee arrest of the former director general and co-owner who was already part of the already abolished "Oboronservice" OJSC "Military-Construction Administration of Moscow" (VSUM), Alexei Dushutin. Last year, Alexei Dushutin, already convicted of fraud with VSUM objects, was released from detention for house arrest, after which he fled abroad. The construction worker is accused of another fraud with the property of his former organization. According to the investigation, the construction base worth 140 million rubles. Alexei Dushutin tried to sell the company under his control almost ten times cheaper.

According to Kommersant, investigators of the Main Investigation Department of the Main Directorate of the Main Department of the Interior Ministry of the Russian Federation in Moscow applied for a preventive measure in the form of custody of the former head of OAO VSUM Alexei Dushutin in the Tver court. He is accused of attempting to commit a particularly large fraud (Article 30 and part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The meeting is scheduled for the next Friday under the chairmanship of Judge Dmitry Gordeev. Sources of Kommersant in the power structures reported that the hearing would take place without the participation of Alexei Dushutin himself. According to them, in the summer of last year the Moscow City Court released a builder, who spent almost six years in custody almost without interruption, from custody under house arrest. Thus, the appeal of lawyers, who pointed out, inter alia, a number of diseases that their client acquired during their stay in the remand center was granted. As follows from the documents of the court, Alexei Dushutin was released from jail, but almost immediately somehow escaped from house arrest, after which he was put on the wanted list. According to some reports, he now lives with his parents in Canada. Note that the absentia arrest will allow the investigation to declare Alexei Dushutin on the wanted list through Interpol.

Alexei Dushutin's lawyer, Vera Goncharova, told Kommersant that she knew about the petition, with which the investigation appealed to the Tver court. She noted that her client wants to be arrested in absentia in the framework of a criminal case initiated in 2011. "The investigation was repeatedly prolonged, and the materials themselves were returned from the district courts twice, in 2015 and 2016, to eliminate shortcomings instead of substantive examination," Goncharova said. According to her, once again, on April 19 of last year, the investigation materials were returned to the investigators of the Moscow Department of Internal Affairs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow by the Moscow prosecutor's office - "for the purpose of additional investigation and elimination of violations of legislation in the proceedings".

All the claims of the investigative authorities to Alexei Dushutin are related to the sale of his property to VSUM, this company was headed by Alexei Dushutin in 2006. Then, according to some information, the enterprise, whose main shareholder was the state represented by the Ministry of Defense, was in crisis. Meanwhile, the construction department, created in the 1930s, had a rich history: it participated, in particular, in the construction of the Star City, the Central Theater of the Russian Army, the Defense Ministry complex on the Arbat, the new building of the General Staff Academy and the CSKA sports complex. As the lawyers of Alexei Dushutin say, it was with him that VSUM "got to his feet", taking part in new projects - housing for officers' families, the Chemical Defense Academy, etc. However, in 2011 Alexei Dushutin was dismissed and replaced Larissa Egorin. This, according to lawyers Alexei Dushutin, was preceded by his appeal to the then Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov and the head of the property relations department of the military department Eugenia Vasilieva (recall that Mrs. Egorina and Mrs. Vasilyeva had been convicted in the case of fraud with military property). The builder complained to him that the Ministry of Defense officials demand kickbacks from him. However, the criminal case against the results of the check, appointed by military officials, was initiated against Alexei Dushutin himself. As reported by Kommersant, he was accused of illegally selling 17 objects of VSUM, including buildings both in the center of the capital, and in a specially protected natural area in Serebryany Bor, causing damage to 400 million rubles. Khamovnichesky court of the capital sentenced a former military builders to five years in prison. In the appellate instance, the sentence was reduced to four years, and Alexei Dushutin was sent to one of the Lipetsk colonies. However, he was soon returned to the capital Butyrka, where he was charged with a new fraud: an attempt to sell a construction base on Kashirskoye Highway for 10.9 million rubles, while its real cost, according to the investigation, was no less than 140 million rub. As part of this investigation, Alexei Dushutin was in custody until last year.


Lawyer Vera Goncharova told Kommersant yesterday that the "deed", in which her client is accused, is exclusively "of a civil nature", while there is no evidence of damage to the injured party in the case. In addition, the lawyer noted that the alleged crime is qualified as an attempt on fraud, "but, despite this, Alexei Dushutin has been in custody for a long time in the difficult conditions of the SIZO." Ms Goncharova also added that since the release of the former head of VSUM from custody, neither himself nor his representatives "were called to take part in any investigative or procedural actions." Therefore, according to her, "the defense assesses the petition of the investigation about the arrest of Dushutin as unlawful and unjustified and will argue reasonably." The very version of the investigation, according to Ms. Goncharova, "still does not hold water."