Lawyer says Ivanovo Region ex-governor pleads not guilty

MOSCOW, Nov 19 (PRIME) -- Ivanovo Region’s ex-Governor Mikhail Men, currently an auditor of Russia’s Audit Chamber, has plead not guilty to charges of a 700 million ruble embezzlement, Men’s lawyer Murad Musayev told PRIME late on Wednesday.

“He plead not guilty and believes the accusations to be a misunderstanding, he did not commit any crime,” he said.

The Federation Council, the parliament’s upper chamber, approved investigation against Men, and said that prohibition of some actions would be Men’s pre-trial detention measure.

“We have no idea yet what actions will be prohibited. In any case, he has no plans to do any actions against the interests of justice. The important thing here is that these prohibitions should not be excessive and prevent him from working,” Musayev said.

A source in law enforcement authorities said that Men had been detained for 48 hours after an interrogation.

According to the investigation, in 2011, Men, being the governor of the Ivanovo Region, together with the beneficiaries of the PRODO group of companies, organized a crime ring to steal budget funds allocated as a loan to support the Ivanovo Region. On Men’s instructions, several regional documents were adopted, on the basis of which JSC “Ivanovsky Broiler” received 700 million rubles under the guise of loans. It said that the funds “were stolen by a crime ring the next day.”

(75.9268 rubles – U.S. $1)

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