MOSCOW, June 30 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – A criminal case against Eurasia Logistic ex-Chief Financial Officer Artyom Bondarenko who stands charged with embezzling over 13.8 billion rubles (about $215 million) from BTA Bank, has been forwarded to the Domodedovsky Court of the Moscow Region, according to the statement posted on the website of Russia’ Prosecutor General’s Office.
Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin has approved an indictment in the case, the statement reads.
According to investigators, in 2007 Bondarenko along with Mukhtar Ablyazov, who owned Eurasia Logistic, lawyer Denis Vorotyntsev, then Director of Economics Alexei Belov, then General Director Alexander Volkov and other persons deceived members of credit committee and BTA bank employees embezzled assets of the financial institute estimated at 13.8 billion rubles.
Earlier, the Domodedovo Court has given Volkov a 5-year suspended sentence for embezzlement from BTA bank. The defendant has pleaded guilty.
BTA Bank ex-chairman Mukhtar Ablyazov, accused of embezzling over $6 billion from BTA Bank, fled to the UK after the Kazakh government acquired a stake in BTA Bank in 2009 and the bank came under the control of its sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna.
He was granted political asylum in Britain in 2011. However, he remained a fugitive from justice since February 2012.
His whereabouts remained unknown until he was detained on July 31, 2015 near Cannes, France. Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine are all seeking his extradition.
In October 2015, French authorities approved Ablyazov’x extradition to Russia.