MOSCOW, January 23 (RAPSI, Nikita Shiryayev) – Moscow’s Basmanny District Court on Tuesday sentenced the U.S. citizen and real estate mogul Janna Bullock to 11 years in prison in absentia for embezzling about 11 billion rubles (about $190 million), RAPSI reported from the courtroom.
The court also ruled to foreclose on the seized property of Bullock, including apartments in Paris and Switzerland, a hotel in Courchevel, villas in St Tropez, 10 high-priced cars, yachts and objects of art, for repayment of victims’ claims.
Moreover, the court granted civil lawsuits filed by several companies and municipal structures of the Moscow region demanding over 9 billion rubles (about $160 million) from the defendant.
Earlier, a prosecutor demanded an 11-year prison term for Bullock. Defense objected to the prosecutor’s position saying that the demanded term is “indecent,” lawyer Shamil Arifulov told RAPSI.
The court began considering the case against the New York socialite in May 2017. Russia’s investigators believe that Bullock along with her ex-husband, former Moscow Region Finance Minister Alexey Kuznetsov, and other accomplices embezzled over 11 billion rubles from several organizations in the Moscow Region between 2005 and 2008.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the U.S. authorities have dismissed a request for Bullock’s extradition to Russia. Therefore, she is being tried in absentia.
Bullock has made a name for herself on New York’s real estate and social scenes. She was described in a 2010 New York Post article as a “gorgeous and [glamorous] real estate mogul [who] rose from Brighton Beach baby sitter to New York’s best-known Russian socialite without anyone knowing much about her private life or past.”
In 2012, The New York Times described her as a “glamorous Russian-born real estate developer and art scene fixture who retreated from life on the party circuit to spend nearly two years combatting accusations against her and her husband.”