Court arrests CEO of Biotec Group on charges of bribery

MOSCOW, Mar 23 (PRIME) -- The Basmanny District Court of Moscow has arrested Boris Spiegel, CEO of Russian pharmaceutical holding Biotec Group, on charges of bribing Penza Region’s Governor Ivan Belozertsev, the court’s press secretary Irina Sofinskaya told PRIME on Tuesday.

“The court chose placement in custody as a pre-trial detention measure,” she said.

A request to arrest Spiegel was submitted to the court on Monday, but he felt sick in the court and had to be transported to hospital. Hearing was resumed after he was released from hospital. The court has already arrested five other defendants under the case, including Belozertsev.

On March 21, the Investigative Committee’s official representative Svetlana Petrenko said that investigation believed Belozertsev accepted 31 million rubles of bribes from Spiegel, his wife and head of JSC Pharmacy Anton Koloskov in January–September 2020.

Bribes were given for providing the Biotech group of companies with competitive advantages when concluding government contracts related to provision of services of acceptance, quality control and expiration dates, storage, dispensing and delivery of drugs and medical products purchased with budget funds for the needs of the healthcare institutions of the Penza Region, Petrenko said.

(74.6085 rubles – U.S. $1)

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