MOSCOW, September 18 (RAPSI, Kirill Ryabchikov) – Moscow’s Simonovsky District Court has ordered recovery of 42.8 million rubles (over $650,000) in favor of the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) from its wanted ex-president Yulia Anikeyeva convicted of embezzlement, the court informs on its website.

According to court records, the RBF 63.5-million-ruble (about $1 million) civil lawsuit against Anikeyeva has been granted in part.

However, the ruling did not come into force as it was appealed. The appeal hearing is set for November 28.

In October 2017, ex-president of the Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) Yulia Anikeyeva received a 4.5-year prison term in absentia for embezzling 44 million rubles (about $700,000 at the current exchange rate). She failed to appear at the sentencing hearing and was put on the wanted list.  The case against another defendant, ex-chief accountant of the RBF Mikhail Kocharyan was closed because of his death.

Anikeyeva and Kocharyan were found guilty of large-scale embezzlement committed by a group of people in collusion with the use of their job position.

Later, Anikeyeva’s sentence was appealed.

A criminal case was launched against Anikeyeva in December 2015 based on the results of financial audit conducted at the RBF after a change of management. Kocharyan died in October 2016 after extended illness. His relatives objected to termination of his criminal prosecution without Kocharyan being rehabilitated in court.

Investigators claimed that between February 20, 2014 and August 24, 2015, Anikeyeva and her accomplices embezzled nearly 44 million rubles by signing fictitious civil law contracts with private entrepreneurs. Money was allegedly cashed in and transferred to the former accountant of the organization Yelena Silina, who in her turn transferred it Kocharyan.

Anikeyeva has pleaded not guilty.

In March 2017, the court found Silina guilty of aiding embezzlement and sentenced her to 3.5 years in prison.