Russian detectives arrested Vyacheslav Gaizer, governor of the oil-rich Komi region, over charges he was involved in running an organized criminal group.
Gaizer and his deputy, Alexei Chernov, are also accused of fraud, and another 13 people have been detained as part of the probe, Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a statement late on Sunday in Moscow. Investigators carried out 80 searches, confiscating more than 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of jewelery, 150 watches worth between $30,000 and $1million, and documents legalizing the seizure of assets with a combined value of more than 1billion rubles ($15million), according to the statement.
Investigations are continuing as prosecutors “seek to determine all crimes committed and detain all those who belong to this criminal group,” the committee said.
The Russian authorities have been expanding probes of local government officials from the Far East to the Caucasus region after arresting in March Alexander Khoroshavin, who was the governor of the Sakhalin region, home to an island rich with oil and natural gas in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan.
Lukoil PJSC, Russia’s second-largest crude producer, has been actively developing petroleum fields in the Komi republic for more than a decade. In February it signed a cooperation agreement with Gaizer until 2019 “to develop the fuel and energy complex in the region” and “improve its financial and economic situation,” the company said at the time.
The oil company’s Komi unit boosted output last month to 1.46 million metric tons, up 10 percent from a year earlier, and the most on record in Russian government data going back to 2005.