MOSCOW, August 18 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) - Alexander Yelkin, ex-CEO of Slavyanka utility company, has lodged an appeal challenging an 11-year sentence handed down to him for embezzling funds allocated for renovation of the Defense Ministry’s facilities, representative for the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, Svetlana Maksimova, told RAPSI on Thursday.

According to Maksimova, sentence given to temporarily acting chief of the Defense Ministry’s economic department, Nikolai Ryabykh, has been also appealed.

On August 5, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court passed a judgment on five defendants in the case related to embezzlement at the Defense Ministry. Yelkin was sentenced to 11years in high-security prison and a 500 million ruble ($7.8 million) fine, stripped of the military rank of Colonel reserved and debarred from holding public offices and doing business.

Ryabykh was given a 5-year prison sentence with a fine of 300,000 rubles ($4,700) and deprived of a title of State Counsellor 3rd Class of the Russian Federation.

Konstantin Lapshin, ex-head of Slavyanka’s permanent repair department, received a 9-year term in high-security prison and a fine of 450 million rubles ($7 million). The court stripped him of the military rank of Colonel reserved and debarred from holding public offices and doing business for 3 years.

Two other defendants in the case, Konstantin Lapshin and  Yulia Rotanova, were sentenced to 7 years prison sentence plus fine of 700,000 rubles ($11,000) and  6 years in prison plus a 500 million ruble fine respectively. Both of them were debarred from holding public offices and doing business for three years as well.

Moreover, the court granted a civil lawsuit by Russia’s Defense Ministry demanding 83.7 million rubles  ($1.3 million) from the convicted defendants.

The fraud in the company came to light in relation to the 2012 investigation into Oboronservis, which revealed fraudulent activities carried out in the course of deals involving real estate, land and shares in Oboronservis. Totally, five criminal cases over damages exceeding 3 billion rubles ($47 million) were initiated as concerned this Defense Ministry company. No key figures of these cases have pleaded guilty.

Several suspects were arrested in late 2012. Charges were brought against them shortly after the arrest. Yelkin was charges with misappropriating 118 million rubles ($1.8 million), allegedly obtained as kickbacks from companies subordinate to Slavyanka.

Presently bankrupt Slavyanka company has been the largest utility company in Russia, which was established to manage and maintain specialized housing facilities and utilities owned by the Defense Ministry.