As VChK-OGPU and Rucriminal.info have learned, Moscow's Tverskoy Court has extended the house arrest of Ekaterina Stepkina, deputy general director and board member of the Russian Ecological Operator (REO) public company. She has entered into a plea bargain and is providing full testimony about the organizers of large-scale embezzlement. Stepkina is a trusted confidant of Denis Butsaev, the former general director of REO, who now serves as Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment.
Stepkina and Maxim Shcherbakov, one of REO's top managers, were detained in February. Since both immediately agreed to cooperate with the investigation, they were not sent to pretrial detention. Stepkina was placed under house arrest, while Shcherbakov was banned from certain activities.
They are charged with large-scale embezzlement of funds from the Russian Environmental Operator (REO). According to a source, Stepkina served as Butsaev's "power behind the wheel," participating in government meetings and being approached for various decisions.
She was also responsible for the embezzlement of hundreds of millions of rubles through fictitious contracts for consulting and investment projects related to waste management reform, presentations, and PR. The Stepkina family's servants—nannies, drivers, and gardeners—were also fictitiously employed at the REO. Stepkina, on Butsaev's orders, oversaw all of the REO's lucrative projects, including investment projects for waste recycling and sorting plants. This became a veritable gold mine for the Butsaev-Stepkina duo.
Stepkina was a frequent guest at elite foreign hotels. She loved parties and expensive clothes. The PPK REO itself often hosted elite parties with expensive alcohol, crabs and other culinary delights.
