Lopota Vitaly Aleksandrovich

Lopota Vitaly Aleksandrovich

Biography

2023: Charge of damage by 4.23 billion rubles in the implementation of a deliberately failed project

In November 2023, the investigation presented the final version of the charges to the former head of the Rocket and Space Corporation (SRC) Energia Vitaly Lopota, in which the amount of damage from his actions was reduced from 9 billion to 4.23 billion rubles. He is charged with illegally directing SRC funds to pay off debts of participants in the Sea Start project, buying shares of its participants and other purposes.

As Kommersant writes with reference to the new version of the prosecution, Lopota acted with criminal intent, harming the corporation, for personal gain. Three new defendants in the person of the former president of Energia Alexander Strekalov, the former president for financial, economic and legal activities Alexander Pyzin and the deputy general director of the Experimental Engineering Plant (SEM) Alexander Litvinov, assisted Lopota in illegal actions. Crimes were committed between April 2010 and December 2013.

According to the investigation, instead of ensuring the effective functioning of a single economic and technological complex for the development and production of rocket and space technology, as well as strengthening its financial position, Lopota ordered to conclude financing agreements for the "deliberately unprofitable project" "Sea Launch."

The Sea Launch project, which began its history in 1997, was the first floating cosmodrome to launch Zenit-3SL modification missiles of the Zenit family. In 2010, RSC Energia acquired a 95% stake in the project, making it Russian. However, in 2014, the project was closed due to failures in achieving self-sufficiency.

Within a few days, Lopota passed Kommersant the third interrogation, notes November 10, 2023. The lawyer of the ex-head of RSC Energia, Vakhtang Fedorov, insists on the client's innocence, arguing that Lopota sought to maintain control over Sea Launch and prevent the bankruptcy of the corporation. Lopota himself denies his guilt, and the maximum possible punishment under the article involves 10 years in prison.^[1]

2024:270 volumes of the criminal case of Vitaly Lopota were prepared for transfer to the Prosecutor General's Office for approval of the prosecution by investigators of the TFR

In mid-September 2024, it became known that the former head of the rocket and space corporation (SRC) Energia Vitaly Lopota, as well as three of his alleged accomplices, were accused of abuse of authority in the implementation of the Sea Launch project in 2010-2014. According to investigators, their actions entailed losses in the amount of 4.2 billion rubles.

According to the Kommersant newspaper, by mid-September 2024, almost 270 volumes of the criminal case of Vitaly Lopota were prepared for the transfer to the Prosecutor General's Office for the approval of the prosecution by investigators of the TFR. The case of causing damage to RSC Energia was initiated on April 14, 2014: its defendants were the head of the corporation Vitaly Lopota, the first vice-president of RSC Energia Alexander Strekalov, Alexander Pyzin and the deputy general director of the Experimental Engineering Plant (SEM) Alexander Litvinov. According to the prosecution, Lopota, "guided by a selfish interest, in order to obtain benefits and advantages for himself, as well as from personal careerism," committed actions that were deliberately unprofitable for the corporation he led, as well as SEM.

source = Wikipedia

In particular, Lopota, according to the materials of the case, ordered to conclude financing agreements for the "obviously unprofitable project" "Sea Launch." The investigation considers all the agreements that appear in the materials of the investigation to be economically inexpedient: the total damage is estimated at 4.23 billion rubles.

As part of the case, the financial losses of the SEM are estimated at more than 2.5 billion rubles. Lawyer Vakhtang Fedorov, representing the interests of Vitaly Lopota, said that the former president of RSC Energia intends to prove his innocence. Lopota, according to the lawyer, continues to engage in "scientific and practical activities" in the field of rocket science. It is emphasized that the ten-year statute of limitations in the case expired in February 2024. Fedorov believes that the investigation of the TFR, which took 124 months, "violates the right to an early, reasonable and fair trial."^[2]

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