The court refused to release billionaire Kustov under the guarantee of an astronaut

The Meshchansky District Court of Moscow extended until January 29 the term of detention of billionaire, chairman of the board of directors and main shareholder of the Efko group of companies Valery Kustov. For the same period, Efko Deputy Development Director Ekaterina Kustova, Strategic Development Director of Efko Belgorod Vladislav Romantsev, CEO of the company Yevgeny Lyashenko and former Deputy Head of the Unmanned Systems and Robotics Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Alla Polovchenya will remain under arrest, RBC correspondent from the courtroom reports.

Lawyer Vyacheslav Feoktistov asked to change Kustov's measure of restraint to house arrest, bail in the amount of 300.3 million rubles. or a personal guarantee. In court, the defense of the billionaire presented documents on the full return of the funds received as subsidies for the supply of drones by the Transport of the Future and Transport of the Future Samar companies. According to the lawyer, this indicates the absence of public danger in terms of the damage caused.

Feoktistov presented a letter of guarantee to Efko, according to which the group is ready to provide Transport of the Future companies with loans worth 3.1 billion rubles to fulfill obligations to the Ministry of Defense. Since the beginning of the military operation in Ukraine, the lawyer stressed, Efko has sent more than 1 billion rubles to the needs of the Russian army. The defence also referred to Kustov's state of health and provided medical documents, which, according to counsel, showed the presence of a disease preventing his detention.

Earlier, the representative of Efko told RBC that Ekaterina Kustova was vouched for by the deputy chief of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Armed Forces, the commander of the special unit Akhmat, Lieutenant-General Apti Alaudinov and the first deputy chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Alekseev. The defense of the accused asked to take these guarantees into account when deciding on the measure of restraint.

There were also other defendants in the case. Valery Kustov was vouched for by test cosmonaut, Hero of Russia Sergey Ryazansky and academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Olga Dontsova. For Vladislav Romantsev, guarantors were made by the chairman of "Business Russia" Alexei Repik, director of the FIC Nutrition, Academics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Dmitry Nikityuk and Evgeny Antipov. For Evgeny Lyashenko - President of the group of companies "EkoNiva" Stefan Durr, the record holder of Russia in the 100 km run Yulia Ryzhankova and multiple winner of the world championships in athletics Vladimir Bychkov.

The founder and top managers of Efko were detained at the end of July. The Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs charged them with particularly large-scale fraud (Part 4 of Art. 159 of the Criminal Code) and embezzlement on an especially large scale (Part 4 of Art. 160 of the Criminal Code). As part of the same investigation, the general director of OptTorg, Alexander Gudkov, is under a travel ban, and the head of Transport of the Future Samara, Ilya Sidorov, is under house arrest.

The former head of "Transport of the Future" Yuri Kozarenko shortly before the arrest of top managers of "Efco" left the pre-trial detention center. According to RBC sources, he concluded a pre-trial agreement on cooperation with the Prosecutor General’s Office and testified against other defendants in the case, after which he was changed the measure of restraint. The other defendants do not admit guilt. The maximum penalty for each of the imputed compositions provides for up to ten years of imprisonment.

According to two sources familiar with the case materials, the first episode is associated with a subsidy of 88.495 million rubles, which “Transport of the future Samara” received from the Ministry of Industry and Trade in March 2025. According to the investigation, the funds were allocated on the basis of a fictitious contract for the supply at a discount of 79 multi-rotor unmanned aircraft systems S-80 controlled by Kustov LLC "OptTorg". The investigation considered the receipt of subsidies in such circumstances as embezzlement.

The second episode, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is associated with the theft by fraud of more than 3 billion rubles. in the execution of three state contracts of the Ministry of Defense with OptTorg, concluded in 2024. According to them, 375 complexes of unmanned aerial vehicles were to be delivered to the troops. The investigation believes that the products were unsuitable for use in the zone of a military operation, since the drones produced by Transport of the Future did not meet the requirements of the technical specification and tactical and technical characteristics.

According to the terms of the contracts, the complex was supposed to carry a payload of up to 50 kg and provide video transmission at a distance of up to 20 km.

Efco Group is one of the largest Russian food producers. It produces vegetable oils, mayonnaise, vegetable meat, food ingredients, egg products, soap and animal feed. The products of the group are presented under the brands Sloboda, Altero, DeOlio and Fresh, Oleyna. Its founder Valery Kustov ranks 144th in the Forbes ranking of Russian billionaires for 2026 with a fortune of $ 1.1 billion. Efko Group was established in 1994 on the basis of Ethernoye Ether oilseed enterprise in Alekseevka, Belgorod region.