Criminal Case Filed Concerning Illegal Withdraw Of Gazprom's Assets

The General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation filed a criminal case concerning a withdraw of Gazprom's assets worth 2.6bn rubles (about $86.3m). The Prosecutor's Office did that on January 7 in accordance with article 201 of the criminal code, as a source in the information and public relations department of the General Prosecutor's Office reported to RosBusinessConsulting. The reason for filing the case was an announcement made by Gazprom officials that a group of people had been illegally selling assets of subsidiaries of the gas giant. On January 8, investigators raided offices of Gazprom's subsidiaries and detained three people. The investigation is in progress. Officials of the General Prosecutor's Office refused to tell where such inspections had been conducted yesterday. However, a law enforcement official noted that this concerned a raid in the office of the SIBUR petrochemical company, during which three SIBUR officials had been detained.