Russia sentences ex-oligarch fourteen years over USD300mn theft
(MENAFN) A Moscow court has sentenced former Russian banker and ex-senator Sergey Pugachev to 14 years in a penal colony for large-scale embezzlement. The verdict, delivered by the Tverskoy Court on Tuesday, was issued in absentia, as Pugachev has been living in France and local authorities have refused to extradite him.
Pugachev, who co-founded Mezhprombank in the early 1990s and later represented Tuva in Russia's Federation Council, was also ordered to pay an 800,000 ruble fine (approximately $9,900). He gave up his Russian citizenship in 2012 after being accused of intentionally driving the bank into bankruptcy and later became a French national.
Judge Aleksey Krivoruchko found Pugachev guilty of abuse of authority and embezzling massive funds from Mezhprombank. The court also approved a civil lawsuit from the Deposit Insurance Agency, awarding them 28.7 billion rubles (about $310 million) in damages and ordering the seizure of Pugachev’s assets.
Investigators allege that Pugachev, working with bank executive Aleksandr Didenko and company director Dmitry Amunts, orchestrated the theft of funds from 2008 to 2009. In 2010, acting on Pugachev’s orders, executive Marina Illarionova reportedly signed documents that removed collateral from earlier loan agreements, making it impossible for the bank to recover the money.
The loans were never repaid, leading to estimated losses of 64.5 billion rubles (around $796 million). Prosecutors said the embezzlement contributed directly to Mezhprombank’s collapse and its inability to repay creditors.
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