CRIMINAL CASE AGAINST COMPANY CHUKOTSKOYE ZOLOTO








KHABAROVSK, MARCH 9, 2001 /FROM RIA NOVOSTI CORRESPONDENT ANATOLY ILYUKHOV/ -- The Prosecutor General's Office in the Far East has submitted a criminal case against the company Chukotskoye Zoloto to the investigation committee of the Russian Interior Ministry. The company is charged with failing to pay back a credit to the tune of 15.2 million dollars to the state, reports the Far Eastern Prosecutor General's Office circuit Department.


	


	The Prosecutor General's Office found out that back in December 1994 former governor of the Chukotka Autonomous Area Aleksander Nazarov signed a treaty with the financial and industrial company Chukotskoye Zoloto. Under the treaty, the Chukotka administration earmarked a target credit of 15.2 million dollars for the company to develop gold extraction in the area. Under the terms of the treaty, the closed-end joint stock company was to settle the credit by handing over the gold to the federal depositary of Russia.


	


	The term of payment expired in October 2000 but by this time the company had not even met its obligations. Moreover, it has long abandoned both economic and financial activities, and its director left Chukotka in an unidentified direction. 


	


	The Prosecutor General's Office in the Far Eastern Federal District reported that the company's founders had spent the large currency credit to their own advantage with the former Chukotka administration turning a blind eye to it.