ST. PETERSBURG, January 27 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov)  - Ex-member of the Russian Federation Council and owner of Liviz liquor producer Alexander Sabadash has been detained on new embezzlement allegations until March 19, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

When explaining the detention petition, an investigator said Sabadash had the U.S. citizenship and property in France. 

According to the investigation, in 2013, Sabadash and his accomplices took out a loan on behald of their firm Norfolk without the company’s financial state conclusion. Thus, they embezzled 100 million rubles ($1.3 million) from the Bank Tavrichesky. The defendant pleads not guilty.

Sabadash was arrested on January 25 when leaving a detention center after serving out of two sentences.

In 2015, he received a 6-year prison sentence for attempted embezzlement of 1.8 billion rubles (about $25 million at the current exchange rate) involving Arkhangelsk-based developer ES-Kontaktstroy and JSC Vyborgskaya Cellulose. Sabadash, believed to be the owner of Vyborgskaya Cellulose, has organized a fraudulent VAT refund scheme, according to investigators.

In October 2017, Sabadash was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison for embezzlement from the Bank Tavrichesky. Somov and Garkusha were sentenced to 7 years in prison each. Moreover, all defendants were fined 100,000 rubles ($1,300) each.

According to case papers, from June to December 2013, Somov, Garkusha and Sabadash stole 190 million rubles by signing credit contracts in violation of a procedure of approval and processing of loans established in the bank. The defendants transferred the embezzled money to accounts of foreign companies controlled by Sabadash.

Sabadash was stripped of his seat in the parliament’s upper house, the Federation Council, in 2006 after he was accused of carrying out business activities, which senators are forbidden to do.