Head of Sochi sports department arrested on fraud suspicion

The Director of the Department of Physical Education and Sports of the Sochi Administration has been arrested on suspicion of an attempted large-scale fraud. He is accused of soliciting a bribe of 1.1 million roubles, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICRF) said today.

According to investigators, in December 2011, the Sochi administration signed a contract with a city enterprise for improvement of sporting playgrounds. Despite the fact that the work by the deadline was not finished, the head of the enterprise signed a document on completing the works and received more than 14 million roubles, of which, according to the investigation, more than five million had been transferred without due reason.

When the entrepreneur was taken into custody, the above Director offered her husband to influence her freedom restriction measure for 1.1 million roubles, says the website of the Investigating Department for the Krasnodar Territory of the ICRF.

After the husband reported about the offer of a bribe to the police, he again met the Director and handed the money over to him; then, he was detained, says the ICRF.