MOSCOW, March 4 (RAPSI) – Andrey Poplavsky, the former CEO of a state organization established to oversee the implementation of a presidential decree on the construction of the Primorye Oceanarium, has received 12 years in a high-security penal colony for large-scale embezzlement, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports.

Additionally, he has been fined 400 million rubles ($6 million), the statement reads.

According to investigators, Poplavsky aided by Oleg Shishov, the former CEO of Mostovik construction company, and CEO of Kosandra company Alexander Kosyachenko stole a large sum of money allocated for the oceanarium construction. Earlier, investigators claimed that the amount of embezzled funds exceeded one billion rubles (over $15 million).

Moreover, Poplavsky received a bribe worth over 145 million rubles ($2.2 million) from Kosyachenko and Shishov for taking over of oceanarium construction works.

Poplavsky served as a director at the Direction on construction management in the Far Eastern Federal District, which was established in 2005.

In March 2016, Shishov was sentenced to three years in prison for complicity in embezzlement at the Primorye Oceanarium. The businessman, whose company was involved in the construction of facilities for the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors and testified against Poplavsky.

Initially, the Primorye Oceanarium was planned to open at the beginning of the APEC 2012 summit in Vladivostok, but the commissioning date was postponed several times.