ST. PETERSBURG, February 28 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – A charge of embezzlement of 153 million rubles ($2.3 million) of corporate funds has been brought against co-owner of Metrostroy company Nikolay Aleksandrov, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts informs RAPSI on Friday.

Earlier, Aleksandrov has been charged with fictitious purchase of nonmetallic minerals in the amount of 178 million rubles ($2.7 million), the new charges concern fictitious purchase of cable products.

The Dzerzhinsky District Court of St. Petersburg dismissed a petition to free the defendant from detention and put him under house arrest.

The defendants in the case of fictitious purchase of nonmetallic minerals alongside Aleksandrov are CEO of a company contracted to supply Metrostroy with materials it needed and the head of a Metrostroy department responsible for procurement of construction materials and equipment.

Investigators believe that in late 2017 Aleksandrov and two other defendants made a fictitious contract for supply of nonmetallic minerals; although Metrostroy paid the sum indicated in the contract, no materials were supplied.There are no other defendants in the case of fictitious purchase of cable products as yet; however, the fraud scheme is the same, according to investigators.

Aleksandrov pleads not guilty and refuses to testify in the case.