Valery Kustov, founder and majority shareholder of major Russian agribusiness group Efko, has been arrested in Moscow in connection with a fraud investigation alongside several of the company’s executives and a senior Industry and Trade Ministry official, Russian media reported Thursday.
Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court ordered the arrest of Efko’s director of strategic development, Vladislav Romantsev, and deputy development director Ekaterina Kustova. Both were placed in pre-trial detention on fraud charges.
In a statement, the company confirmed the arrest of several employees, naming only Vladislav Romantsev.
Alla Polovchenya, who serves as deputy head of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s department of unmanned systems and robotics, was arrested alongside Romantsev and Kustova, according to media reports.
Polovchenya was placed in pre-trial detention on charges of embezzlement.
