MOSCOW, April 14 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Presnensky District Court will consider a 730 million-ruble (about $10 million) embezzlement case against ex-Director General of the Russian Authors’ Society (RAO) Sergey Fedotov and his alleged accomplices, according to court records.

There are five defendands, including Fedotov’s mother and ex-employee of the Russian Authors’ Society Svetlana Temeshova. All of them plead guilty and seek for a special procedure trial, without evidence examination and witness questioning.

In December 2018, Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court ordered the accused persons to be placed in detention. Investigators believe that they transferred the authors’ royalty payments to the fake accounts and then cashed the money.

In June 2017, Fedotov was convicted in his first embezzlement case and sentenced to 1.5 years behind bars. 

As previously reported, employees of the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have revealed a fraud scheme over illegal alienation of RAO’s property. Damage caused to the RAO’s property has been estimated at 500 million rubles (about $7 million at the current exchange rate). The defendant pleaded guilty.

In December 2017, he was released on parole.