MOSCOW, July 21 (RAPSI) – A court in Kemerovo Region has sentenced a businessman to 2 years in penal colony settlement for a 45 million-ruble (over $630,000) fraud, the Investigative Committee’s press service has told RAPSI.

Between January 2015 and December 2017, the defendant ordered his employees of his company to illegally make out service charge receipts with company details but not on behalf of the Passport and Visa Service. He intentionally lowered information on the number of services rendered by his firm, the pres service reports. Thus, the Interior Ministry’s Passport and Visa Service received less than due 45.1 million rubles.

The company’s CEO pleaded not guilty. Assets of the defendant and his firm worth nearly 40 million ruble have been seized, the statement reads.