MOSCOW, January 11 (RAPSI) – Prosecutors filed an appeal against a sentence of the Forum Holding Company CEO Dmitry Mikhalchenko, who had received 4 years and 7 months in a penal colony for alcohol trafficking, Yunona Tsareva, the spokesperson of Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, told RAPSI on Friday.

Moreover, defense of another defendant in the case Boris Korevsky, who had been given 5 years behind bars, appealed against his sentence.

On December 28, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow convicted and sentenced Mikhalchenko, Korevsky and one more defendant Alexey Mishchenko. Mishchenko was given a 3-year suspended sentence.

Prosecutors earlier asked the court to sentence Mikhalchenko to 10 years in high-security prison and sought a 1.5-million-ruble (about $22,000 at the present exchange rate) fine as a punishment for the businessman. The court at that time was also asked to sentence Korevsky to 9 years in prison and Mishchenko to 7 years.

Mikhalchenko was arrested and detained in late March 2016. Investigators claimed that he had organized trafficking of alcoholic products from countries of the European Union. According to the prosecution, in 2015, the products were bought in European shops, collected in the port of Hamburg and then smuggled into Russia. The caused damage was estimated at more than 61 million rubles (about $1 million).

Forum Holding Company established in 2011 is one of the largest multibusiness companies in Saint-Petersburg.

The company has united several dozens of the city’s enterprises and organizations. Forum Holding consists of industrial enterprises, such as "Spinning Mill named after S.M. Kirov", the oldest textile industry enterprise in Russia, "Izmeron" factory, one of technological leaders of Russia’s downhole equipment market, according to the company’s website.