MOSCOW, October 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) – A criminal case against Russian businessman Sergei Polonsky, who stands charged with embezzling 2.6 billion rubles ($41.7 million), has been submitted to the Presnensky District Court of Moscow, the court’s spokesperson Anastasia Pylina told RAPSI on Thursday.

The hearing date has not been scheduled yet.

On August 8, the court decided to return the case against Polonsky and his alleged accomplices to prosecutors for tightening indictment. This ruling was adopted in order to classify the defendants’ actions as a more serious crime, Pylina told RAPSI earlier.

According to investigators, Polonsky, aided by Alexander Paperno, Head of the Mirax Group Finance Department and Alexei Pronyakin, CEO of Avanta company, have defrauded participants of shared construction apartment projects.

Polonsky, who is the founder of Potok (formerly Mirax Group), a diversified corporation that has been involved in several large development projects, is deemed to cause damages in amount of 2.4 billion rubles (around $38.5 million) with regard to Kutuzov Mile and 256 million rubles (around $4.1 million) with regard to Rublyovskaya Riviera development projects.

In May 2015, the Cambodian authorities, where Polonsky had been avoiding Russian prosecution, extradited him to Russia.

If convicted, Polonsky could face up to ten years in prison. Polonsky has pleaded not guilty.