MOSCOW, December 24 (RAPSI) – A 10-year prison sentence given to Yukos oil company’s former lawyer Pavel Ivlev for embezzlement and money laundering has come into force, according to his lawyer Sergey Kupreichenko.

On Monday, the Moscow City Court dismissed the defendant’s appeal against the sentence, the attorney told RAPSI.

In late May, the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow convicted Ivlev in absentia. Additionally, the lawyer residing in the United States was prohibited from practicing law for 3 years, according to Kupreichenko.

In July 2018, the court refused to return the case against Ivlev to prosecutors dismissing therefore the defense motion. Attorneys representing Ivlev insisted that the case because the alleged crime was related to his activity as a lawyer, also saying that the charges themselves were incorrect. A judge, in turn, said that there were no grounds to this request. Prosecutors also objected to the motion in question.

Earlier, the court dismissed other motions of the defense, asking the court to bring politician Alexey Navalny into the trial as Ivlev’s lawyer and to organize a video conference with Ivlev, a U.S. citizen currently residing in the United States.

According to investigators, ex-lawyer was a member of an organized crime group led by ex-Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which could embezzle more than 195 million metric tons of oil belonging to Yuganskneftegaz, Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft companies.

Investigators claimed that the amount of embezzled funds reached about one trillion rubles ($15.5 billion).