Shake-up among directors in Mahilou region

Three high-ranking businessmen have faced prosecution.

Prosecutors opened a criminal case against the director and a deputy director of Samaya Mebel company and the director of the Horki Wholesale and Retail Trade Complex (HWRTC). The first company produces furniture, the second one is a big trading platform that attracts interests of most law-enforcement bodies due to suspicions of money laundering. It's not the first criminal case against HWRTC executives, Yezhednevnik reports.

The three managers are charged with embezzlement and abuse of power committed by an organised group or on a large scale (part 4 of article 210 of the Criminal Code of Belarus). They may face up to 12 years in prison and confiscation of property.

According tot the economic crime department of the Mahilou regional executive committee, the suspects abused power and stole 200 million rubles belonging to HWRTC in December 2012.

The State Control Committee published results of the check of the company a month ago. According to the Committee, the Horki interdistrict department of financial investigation revealed “numerous facts of laundering goods and materials that were illegally bought and imported in Belarus”.

According to the financial investigation department, about 70% of goods registered in HWRTC and sold through a retail store and the company's wholesale chain were bought from illegal business structures. In other words, there's a high probability that the goods never existed and were registered in accounting documents to launder money.

The law-enforcement bodies carry out additional checks of HWRTC and the companies working with it. The financial police say more criminal cases will be opened.

Arrests of directors of big companies have become a trend in Belarus. Experts say about a new shake-up among directors similar to those in 1995-1996 and 1999-2000.

It looks true judging by the number of arrested high-ranking managers. Unlike the previous shake-ups, last year's cases are based on corruption.

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