Zetta Zetta

History

2024: Initiation of a criminal case on fraud with state subsidies for 284 million rubles

On May 14, 2024, the prosecutor's office of the Samara region announced the initiation of a criminal case on fraud related to state subsidies, which were allocated to the developer of electric vehicles Zetta.

According to the supervisory authority, in the period from December 2017 to December 2019, the federal budget received subsidies from the federal budget to compensate for part of the costs of research and development in priority areas of the civil industry for a total amount of over 284 million rubles. A prosecutor's check was carried out, which showed that the agreements concluded by the Ministry of Industry and Trade with the company were not executed on time. The scope of work was from 21 to 47%.

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Zetta

The prosecutor's office sent the inspection materials to the investigative body. The criminal case was initiated under Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Fraud on an especially large scale") on the fact of embezzlement of budget funds in the amount of over 1 million rubles. The progress and results of the investigation of the criminal case are controlled by the district prosecutor's office, the press service of the Samara region prosecutor's office added.

Zetta planned to launch a budget electric car on the market at the end of 2019, but this did not happen, and the release date of the car was subsequently repeatedly postponed. The Zetta electric car, which was shown to the public, was equipped with an electric motor with front wheel drive, the range on a single full battery charge was 180 km.

In April 2024, Avtobroker Club, citing its sources, said that production areas and equipment that belonged to Zetta were sold in Togliatti. According to the portal, the production of furniture and special equipment has been launched in Zetta-owned buildings.^[1]

2021: Payment of 4 million rubles of wage debt to employees

Russian electric car developer Zetta owes employees 4 million rubles and paid them in full only after the intervention of the authorities. This was announced in January 2021 by the prosecutor's office of the Samara region.

The report said wage arrears for the period September-November 2020 were owed to 59 Zetta employees. The prosecutor opened an administrative offense case against the company under Part 6 of Art. 5.27 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (violation of labor legislation), and also made an idea of ​ ​ eliminating violations of the law.

Russian electric car developer Zetta owes employees 4 million rubles and paid them after the intervention of the authorities

The prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against the general director of Zetta LLC Denis Shchurovsky - he was accused of "complete non-payment of wages for over two months." The progress and results of the investigation are controlled by the district prosecutor's office.

How the criminal case against the head of Zetta will affect the progress of the project is still unknown. By the end of 2020, the first Zetta electric car was undergoing the final stage of certification, the production site in Togliatti was being prepared for the start of mass production, and the first "commodity" copies had been assembled by that time, the manufacturer said.

The production of the electric car was planned to be launched in early 2020, but due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the deadlines were postponed at the end of the year. By the end of January 2021, the serial production of the car was not announced.

Zetta started talking about financial problems after the company failed to receive a planned loan of 99.9 million rubles - the Industrial Development Fund (FRP) refused to provide it. The FRP considered the project interesting, it may have prospects in the future, but at the expert council, the current structure of the deal did not receive a majority of votes for approval.

Automotive journalist Sergei Tsyganov, who visited Zetta production in Togliatti, in a conversation with Газетой.ру, spoke about Denis Shchurovsky's obligations to the state - by the end of 2020 he was supposed to release a pilot batch of electric vehicles.^[2]

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