KHABAROVSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th July, 2020) Two Russian Far East lawmakers that have been a part of the criminal probe into Sergey Furgal, the governor of the Khabarovsk Territory suspected of serious crimes, used to run the Amurstal steel plant owned by the Toreks-Khabarovsk company, the plant told Sputnik on Thursday.
Furgal, who was detained earlier in the day, has been nabbed as part of the investigation into an organized criminal group involved in serious offenses against businesspeople in the Khabarovsk Territory and Amur region from 2004-2005. Later, regional lawmakers Sergey Kuznetsov and Dmitry Kozlov were arrested on embezzlement charges. All three are members of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia.
"Sergey Kuznetsov served as the director general of the Amurstal, which belongs to the Toreks-Khabarovsk company, until late February. He left at the end of February following the change of ownership and the election of a new director general. Dmitry Kozlov served as the company's deputy director general for security until this February," the plant said.
Amurstal is the only steel plant in Russia's Far East capable of steel production with the subsequent conversion into long or flat steel products. Toreks-Khabarovsk acquired the plant in 2017 by becoming a strategic investor.
In February, there was a change in the plant's ownership as the Armada company, owned by Moscow businessman Pavel Balsky, that owned 50 percent of Toreks-Khabarovsk increased its share to 75 percent. The rest belongs to Furgal's spouse, Larisa Starodubova. As a result, the plant gained a new director general, Grigory Freidin. Kuznetsov was offered to work on the production side of the business, but declined.
