Top Rosneft Manager Caught Accepting Bribe

One of the top managers of Rosneft was this weekend caught in an act of bribery. The head of a subsidiary of Rosneft, RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz, Andrei Bardin, was detained on receiving 1 million Rubles from a Moscow businessman.

"According to the investigation, the General Director of RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz entered into a criminal conspiracy with a group of persons aimed at illegally obtaining money through commercial bribery," the press release of the Investigative Committee, whose employees, together with employees of the Security Service of Rosneft, stopped the crime.

Bardin is said to have demanded a bribe to the amount of 1 million Rubles not to interfere with the participation of one of the capital city's companies in a tender, apparently announced by RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz. Bardin went to Moscow to get the money, at which point he was arrested “red-handed” on September 9.

Bardin is to be charged by the Moscow department of the UK-instituted criminal proceedings under Part 8 of Article 204 of the Criminal Code for Commercial Bribery. If the top manager is found guilty, he can receive from seven to twelve years imprisonment with a fine of up to fifty times the amount of the commercial bribery.

Based in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Russia, LLC RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz produces oil and gas. As of June 2006, the company has been operating as a subsidiary of the Open Joint Stock Company Rosneft Oil Company.

Sakhalinmorneftegaz operates on Sakhalin Island as an operator for more than 30 licenses for the development of Sakhalin's oil and gas fields.

All oil produced by Sakhalinmorneftegaz is transported through a pipeline to the Komsomolsk Refinery located on the Amur River. Gas is supplied to domestic customers via the Daltransgaz pipeline. RN-Sakhalinmorneftegaz is the operator of development of the Odoptu-Sea offshore oil and gas field (the Northern Dome).

David Drummers