A top building contractor for the Sochi Olympics will fold after several lawsuits were brought against it by clients who accuse the company of inflating construction costs, the contractor has said.
Inzhtransstroi will begin liquidation because of "serious disagreements with the customers about the cost of the objects that have been built in Sochi," director Yefim Basin told employees on Thursday, the company said in an online statement.
The disputes resulted in "numerous lawsuits against the corporation," which made it impossible to continue operating, the statement said.
Inzhtransstroi built 14 large-scale sites for the Winter Games, including the Main Media Center in the Olympic Park, a road from Krasnaya Polyana to the mountain cluster, and facilities at the Sochi sea port, the company said.
Next month, the Moscow Arbitration Court is scheduled to review a suit by a state-owned port operator, Rosmorport, which is seeking a 782 million rubles ($21.4 million) from the building contractor, legal news portal RAPSI reported.
Preparations for the Games have cost Russia about $50 billion. Opposition politicians Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk estimated in a report last spring that between $25 billion and $30 billion of this money had been stolen in Sochi.
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