Gazprom has been taken to Court in Switzerland

​On Monday, November 30th, the proceedings in respect of Gazprom’s managers who are accused of bribetaking and money laundering start in Switzerland. They might be imprisoned up to 5 years.

The former member of Gazprom’s management, B. Budzulyak, and deputy head of the department for transportation, underground storage and gas use, A. Shaikhutdinov, will come to trial.

The Prosecutor’s Office of Switzerland accuses them of bribetaking for at least $2.2 mln from the producers of turbines and equipment for gas compressor stations.

B. Budzulyak was the member of Gazprom’s Board in 1991-2008, was responsible for gas pipelines. After the retirement he stayed the member of the Board of Blue Stream Pipeline.

According to the investigation, in 1999-2006 ABB (Switzerland) and ALSTOM (France), and after 2004 Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery (SIT, Sweden) paid Mr. Budzulayk who headed the department for transportation in Gazprom and his deputy Mr. Shaikhutdinov so as to have an order for the modernization of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline. This is the department of Mr. Budzulayk and Mr. Shaikhutdinov that is responsible for operation and repair of gas pipelines.