MOSCOW, December 17 (RAPSI) – The Moscow City Court on Tuesday upheld a 13-year prison sentence given to Ukrainian citizen Yury Lysenko for cybertheft of one billion rubles (about $16 million at the current exchange rate) from Russian banks, RAPSI was told in the court’s press service.

However, the appeals instance reduced sentence of three other defendants. 

Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court convicted and sentenced Lysenko in February. He was found guilty of organizing a criminal group and cyber fraud.

Investigators claimed that in June through November 2014, Yury Lysenko organized a criminal group specializing in theft of funds from the commercial banks, allegedly managing to embezzle over one billion rubles.

According to case papers, hackers stole 39.5 million rubles from Promsvyazbank, 45 million rubles from Bank Uralsib, 106 million rubles from Trust Bank and 883.5 million rubles from Bank Zenit.

Fourteen defendants were charged with organizing a criminal group, membership in a criminal group, cyber fraud and theft.

The Prosecutor’s General Office said in 2017 that one of the hacking group members, Anton Testov, had already been convicted in this case.