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Cost statement: the former deputy head of the Ministry of Transport burned himself on bonuses
Igor Chalik, the former deputy head of the Ministry of Transport, was detained in a case of embezzlement on an especially large scale, Izvestia was the first to learn about this and reported it. He is suspected of embezzling over 4 million rubles of state funds in his position as acting director of the State Research Institute of Civil Aviation subordinate to the Federal Air Transport Agency. According to investigators, Chalik illegally wrote out bonuses for himself — from 740 thousand to 1.2 million rubles a month, while their amount should be determined by the Federal Air Transport Agency. As part of the criminal case, on February 25, searches were conducted in the apartment of the ex-official, in the Federal Air Transport Agency, the Ministry of Transport and the State Research Institute of the State Aviation Administration. Lawyers believe that the ex-deputy minister will be placed under house arrest, and his case may end with a suspended sentence.
What is Igor Chalik accused of
Former Deputy Transport Minister Igor Chalik has been placed under criminal investigation for embezzlement on a particularly large scale, three sources in the security forces told Izvestia. Having headed the State Scientific Research Institute of Civil Aviation (GosNII GA) subordinate to the Federal Air Transport Agency in December 2023, he illegally wrote out bonuses for himself, the investigation believes.
On February 25, large-scale searches in the framework of this criminal case took place at the place of residence of Igor Chalik, the State Research Institute of the State Aviation Administration, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the Ministry of Transport, said one of the interlocutors. Chalik himself was detained by security forces in his apartment on Sofiyskaya Embankment opposite the Kremlin. He was taken to the South-Western Investigative Department by transport for interrogation, and then placed in a temporary detention facility for two days.
Investigators of the Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Chalik under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation following a pre-investigation check conducted by the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow. It, in turn, was conducted on the basis of materials from the FSB Department for counterintelligence support of transport facilities, several law enforcement sources said.
According to investigators, in the second and third quarters of 2024, as acting head of the State Research Institute of the State Duma, Igor Chalik, with a salary of 750 thousand rubles, systematically illegally wrote out bonuses to himself, including himself in the lists of awarded and rewarded employees. He independently determined the amount of his bonus at 740 thousand rubles for April, May, June and September, and for July — 1.2 million rubles. He then approved the bonus orders and instructed his subordinates to send them to the accounting department.
In total, in April–September, Igor Chalik embezzled almost 4.2 million rubles belonging to the State Research Institute of Agricultural Sciences, causing particularly large material damage to the enterprise, whose property is owned by Rosaviation and Rosimushchestvo, the Investigative Committee believes. The Federal Air Transport Agency should determine the amount of the award and issue them to the head of the subordinate FSUE, a source in the agency assured Izvestia.
During the interrogation, Igor Chalik admitted his guilt, but partially — he confessed to the fact of writing out bonuses to himself, but he did not agree with the amount presented, one of our interlocutors in law enforcement agencies reported. On Thursday, February 27, investigators plan to go to the Dorogomilovsky court of Moscow with a petition for the election of a preventive measure in the form of detention.
According to this article, the former deputy minister faces up to 10 years in prison with a fine of up to 1 million rubles.
In addition to writing out bonuses to himself, Igor Chalik increased the salary of his deputies — from 400 to 600 thousand rubles per month, a source told Izvestia in the State Research Institute of the State Duma. According to him, all this led to the fact that the approved salary fund for employees of the State Research Institute for 2024 was exhausted in November. As a result, the Federal Air Transport Agency had to unscheduled review the institute's photo in order to avoid non-payment of salaries to employees, the source said.
Izvestia sent requests to the Ministry of Transport, the Federal Air Transport Agency and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.
From pilot to supervisor
Igor Chalik held the position of Acting Director General of the State Research Institute of GA for only one year — until the end of January 2025. Moreover, the decision to replace him was made back in September, when the Federal Air Transport Agency learned about the imminent use of medical equipment in the State Research Institute and the risk of non-payment of salaries to employees at the end of the year, the interlocutors told the editorial board.
The change of the head took place through a competition to fill the vacant position of Director General of the Institute. Among the legal requirements for a candidate is an academic degree. Since Igor Chalik does not have one (that's why he was acting), he was not allowed to participate in the competition. As a result, Dmitry Bobylev, Candidate of Technical Sciences and former head of the State Air Traffic Control Corporation subordinate to Rosaviation, won the competition.
Prior to working at GosNII GA, Igor Chalik held the position of Deputy Minister of Transport in charge of aviation for three years. He moved there in January 2021 from Aeroflot, following the former CEO of the airline, Vitaly Savelyev, who then headed the Ministry of Transport. In November 2023, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin dismissed Chalik from his post "due to the expiration of a fixed-term service contract."
Former Deputy Head of the Ministry of Transport Igor Chalik
As two sources close to the Ministry of Transport told Izvestia, the reason for Igor Chalik's resignation was the failure to fulfill the plan to issue regulatory legal acts in civil aviation - the deadlines for 47 NPA were violated. In particular, amendments on drones to the Federal Aviation Guidelines for the Preparation and Execution of Flights in Civil Aviation (FAP-128) were not prepared in time, one of the interlocutors said.
— In fact, for three years he has not done anything even in his "native" flight area. What can we say about other areas," stated one of Izvestia's sources in the industry. — For example, there are still no standard pilot training programs, and there are no requirements for instructors either. FAP-128 has not been updated, and the Rules for Investigating Aviation Accidents and Incidents have not been rewritten either. FAP-10 (requirements for legal entities and sole proprietors engaged in commercial air transportation. — Ed.), FAP-289 (requirements for training aviation personnel. — Ed.) contain a minimum of two times less requirements than in the West.
After his resignation, Igor Chalik was offered the choice of heading the Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC), which investigates plane crashes, or GosNII GA. In the end, he chose the second option.
Igor Chalik began his career at Aeroflot in the 1980s. At first, he was a pilot of Tu-134 and Il-86 aircraft, then transferred to the Airbus A310, after which he became an instructor pilot, and then commander of the Airbus A330 flight squad. From 2011 until his departure from Aeroflot to the Ministry of Transport, he held the position of Deputy Chief Flight Director of the national carrier. It was under his leadership that Aeroflot mastered all new types of foreign aircraft, as well as the Superjet, and developed procedures for training flight personnel and minimizing risks. He actively participated in the implementation of the flight safety management system, created a system of voluntary messages from pilots, said one of the airline's top managers.
Former Deputy Head of the Ministry of Transport Igor Chalik
The employees in the Aeroflot flight service interviewed by Izvestia still remember Igor Chalik with kind words, noting that he still enjoys great authority among the flight staff. They call him "a professional, a decent family man, a wise, honest man, a patriot of the Motherland, a tough leader who knows how to admit his mistakes and really "rooting" for flight safety," said one of the interlocutors of Izvestia. According to him, the pilots reacted with misunderstanding and regret to his departure to the Ministry of Transport, they believe that he should have stayed with the airline, explaining that he is more of a "procedural" than an official.
Tip of the iceberg
Any organization (both commercial and budgetary) has a document on bonuses and an established bonus procedure, for which each employee signs, and the head of the enterprise could not help but know the terms of these provisions, Alexander Tonkonog, a lawyer at the Standard Legal International Law Firm, told Izvestia.
— Of course, he violated some norm. That is, most likely, knowing that he was violating the bonus procedure, he wrote out this bonus for himself. Otherwise, there would be no criminal case.And there is a certain claim from the state in this, which the investigators are now putting at the heart of the criminal case," the expert explained.
But the awards episode may be just the tip of the iceberg, that is, not the only claim to it.:As part of the investigation of this case, new facts of embezzlement, fraud, and more may be revealed, the lawyer did not rule out.
— Because the amount of 4 million rubles currently appearing, despite the fact that it falls under Part 4 of Article 160 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, is objectively small, given the salary level of the CEO, — emphasized Alexander Tonkonog.
According to him, the situation is when a person who receives, relatively speaking, 500 thousand rubles. every month, consciously going to get an additional bonus of several hundred thousand rubles looks a little strange. And here, after all, the direct intent must be clearly established, the lawyer noted.
However, even in the case of full compensation, the criminal case is unlikely to be terminated, Alexander Tonkonog believes.
— If the fact has already been established, and it is established by a decree on the initiation of a criminal case, this category of cases does not provide for automatism. It works a little differently: to mitigate punishment, to choose lenient punishments. According to such an article, there is no formula under which I reimbursed the damage and, relatively speaking, the application was withdrawn. By virtue of the law, these are extenuating circumstances, but there is no way to conclude a settlement here," he noted.
Igor Chalik is likely to be placed under house arrest by the court, a source close to the security forces of Izvestia believes. The same opinion is shared by the lawyer of ICA Klishin and Partners, Vitaly Bogomolov.
According to him, the alleged act of embezzlement on an especially large scale is a serious crime, and Chalik can be given a real term of imprisonment regardless of his regalia. At the same time, the criminal expert admitted that the story may well end with a suspended sentence.
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