The head of the social catering department was arrested in St. Petersburg. The former top manager of “Putin’s chef” Prigozhin is also involved in the case.

In St. Petersburg, the head of the social catering department Alexei Barabanshchikov was arrested on charges of fraud. About it informs “Rotunda”.

According to the investigation, he helped one of the market participants get a government contract. Among other defendants in the case is a former employee of the “Putin’s chef” company, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Prigozhin himself said that he was not interested in the city’s social catering sector, but the publications under his control continue to protect the suspects.

A criminal case was initiated against Barabanshchikov under the article on causing property damage on an especially large scale. According to the investigation, the official entered into an agreement with the social catering complex of the Krasnoselsky region. In the application for the tender, the plant exaggerated its capacity and received a contract for 167 million rubles for the supply of food to schools in the Pushkin district of St. Petersburg. The damage to the budget was estimated at 24 million rubles.

As the publication clarifies, Alexey Barabanshchikov headed the St. Petersburg department of social nutrition in February 2020, and in May the social catering complex of the Krasnoselsky district won a competition for 100 million rubles. The customer was unexpectedly a state institution from the Moscow region – it was there that Drummers used to work. One of the largest players in the social catering market in the Moscow Region is businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.

In addition to Alexei Barabanshchikov, there are four more suspects in the criminal case. One of them is the former director of the KSP of the Krasnoselsky district, Rostislav Savinov. Together with them, according to the investigation, the former top manager of the Prigozhin group of companies “Concord” Oleg Lukin participated in the conspiracy. Officially, Lukin has nothing to do with the plant. Lukin was sent to a pre-trial detention center for two months, and Savinov was put under house arrest: he is cooperating with the investigation.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has already stated that “he is not interested in the sphere of social catering in St. Petersburg.” However, publications on the resources under his control say the opposite. So, RIA FAN spoke with the text that the outraged St. Petersburg parents demand an end to the persecution of Barabanshchikov.