Russia's Federal Investigative Committee has officially announced the arrest of two top executives connected with the Renova Group. The business conglomerate is owned by Viktor Vekselberg, a figure widely suspected of having close ties with the Kremlin.
Police confirmed the arrest of Boris Vaizikher, general director of Renova Group's subsidiary energy company T Plus, on Monday. Evgeny Olykhov, managing director of the Renova Group, was also detained.
Both men are suspected of bribing officials in northern Russia's resource-abundant Komi Republic.
The conglomerate is suspected of having paid bribes between 2007 and 2014 amounting to 800 million rubles ($12 million), in exchange for favorable working conditions, according to a statement by Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia's Federal Investigative Committee.
Nineteen people were arrested in the region last year, including Komi’s governor and senior officials, as part of a major criminal investigation into fraud and organized crime in the republic. One of the detainees, Vladimir Torlopov, had left the Komi administration in 2009 to work in the Renova Group, the RBC news website reported.
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