The head of a security subsidiary of Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom has been detained over a $38,000 bribe given in annexed Crimea, security forces said on Monday.
The head of another Rosatom subsidiary had been charged in the U.S. in 2014 for soliciting a bribe in exchange for contracts to ship uranium to the United States. Earlier this year, a Maryland-based company agreed to pay $2 million to settle charges that it had bribed the official.
The FSB and Crimean investigators apprehended Igor Sushkov, the current head of Dedal, one of Rosatom’s security system providers, in the act of bribing an FSB border agent back in April, law enforcement sources told the RBC news website on Monday.
“There was no word of his detention and arrest until today,” RBC said.
The outlet shared a video of the alleged act of bribery that reportedly involved 2.5 million rubles ($38,000).
Sushkov’s predecessor Sergei Fedyayev was detained earlier this year on suspicion of embezzling funds after an internal audit, Russia’s Kommersant business daily reported in mid-April.
Sushko, his unnamed subordinate and an accomplice face up to 15 years behind bars, RBC cited the FSB as saying.
Rosatom told the news website that it was cooperating with the authorities in the investigation.
A court in the Crimean city of Simferopol had fined NPK Dedal 20 million rubles for illegal remuneration in October, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported.
