ST. PETERSBURG, February 4 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) – The Primorsky District Court of St. Petersburg has ordered a widow and a son of the late owner of NovIT Pro IT company Valery Pshenichny, to pay a $16.2 million debt to the U.S. businessman Marc Nickinson, the United press service of St. Petersburg courts has told RAPSI.

Natalya Pshenichnaya is ordered to pay down two thirds of the debt, while Denis Pshenichny is to pay the rest of the money demanded.

The plaintiff in his lawsuit noted that in February 2016 he gave Valery Pshenichny $15 million. The businessman promised to return the money with interest. The confirming document were notarized in Florida.

The court granted the claim in full.

Valery Pshenichny, the father of the escaped defendant, stood charged with embezzlement of 33 million rubles of the Defense Ministry allocated to NovIT Pro for creation of a 3D model of a diesel-electric submarine.

He was arrested in January 2019, and a month later he committed suicide in detention.

His son Denis Pshenichny is charged with embezzling 368 million rubles during the engineering of another submarine.