MOSCOW, July 28 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Investigative Committee has put the Tavern Taras Bulba restaurant chain owner Yury Beloivan on the federal wanted list in yet another criminal case, where he stands charged with tax evasion amounting to 57 million rubles (about $800,000), according to the agency’s press service.

After a criminal case was launched against Beloivan in February 2020 on charges of concealing financial assets determined to be the source of payment of tax arrears, the defendant repeatedly failed to respond to calls for questioning; therefore, investigators put him on the federal wanted list and plan to put him later on the international wanted list, the statement reads.

Investigators believe that in 2014 through 2015 probes into Zolotoy Rassvet company managing Beloivan’s restaurants, among them Tavern Taras Bulba chain, conducted by a tax authority, revealed tax arrears amounting to 57 million rubles; in order to avoid this payment the defendant liquidated the said managing company transferring respective operations to a new company Lider K.

In July 2019, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court passed a 2-year prison sentence on Beloivan for tax evasion amounting to over 650 million rubles (about $9 million at the current exchange rate).

Later in the year, the Moscow City Court reduced his sentence from 24 to 21 months. In early November 2019, the Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court released him from serving sentence because of his illness.