Moscow court finds Russian official to have accumulated wealth 12 times above legal income

A Moscow court has upheld the Russian Prosecutor General's Office's anti-corruption lawsuit against the former deputy director of the country's key watchdog agency to confiscate his property, estimated to be worth over 1.6 billion rubles (approx. $12.8 million.)

Prosecutor's first suspected Dmitry Frolov, who was serving as the Deputy Head of the powerful Rostekhnadzor agency back in February 2024 for having engaged in numerous transactions to acquire expensive real estate, as reported by the Russian outlet Vedomosti.

According to the publication's sources, Frolov, together with a relative, acquired multiple properties whose worth far exceeded that of their official income, contrary to anti-corruption legislation.

Vedomosti was told that Frolov, while in government service, was required to provide information on his income, expenses, assets, and property-related liabilities as required by law. However, the official concealed his income by registering assets in the names of his common-law wife, their three children, and his parents. All of them are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

In total, the source says, the Frolov family used their illegal proceeds to acquire over 100 units of real estate and other property, including cars and securities. This includes several apartments in Moscow, non-residential premises and country houses. He is also accused of having invested at least 800 million rubles (approx. $10 million) worth of shares and bonds in major Russian banks, as well as foreign issuers, including the Arab Republic of Egypt, Petroleos Mexicanos, and Okta A.

Rostekhnadzor is the Russian government's federal oversight body on natural resources, industrial, nuclear energy, electrical, heating, hydro-engineering, and mining. Before becoming the deputy director in August 2019, he was leading the financial department at Federal Service for Environmental, Technological, and Nuclear Supervision (2006–2008), acting head of the Moscow Interregional Technological Directorate for Technological and Environmental Supervision (2008–2009), and head of the State Energy Supervision Department (2009–2019).

By Nazrin Sadigova