MOSCOW, December 16 (RAPSI) – The Second Cassation Court of General Jurisdiction has dismissed a defense appeal against a 10-year prison sentence of Yukos oil company’s former lawyer Pavel Ivlev convicted of embezzlement and money laundering in absentia.

In late May 2019, the Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow found Ivlev guilty. Additionally, the lawyer residing in the United States was prohibited from practicing law for 3 years. In December of the same year, the Moscow City Court upheld the sentence and it came into force.

In July 2018, the court refused to return the case against Ivlev to prosecutors dismissing therefore the defense motion. Attorneys representing Ivlev insisted that the case because the alleged crime was related to his activity as a lawyer, also saying that the charges themselves were incorrect. A judge, in turn, said that there were no grounds to this request. Prosecutors also objected to the motion in question.

Earlier, the court dismissed other motions of the defense, asking the court to bring politician Alexey Navalny into the trial as Ivlev’s lawyer and to organize a video conference with Ivlev, a U.S. citizen currently residing in the United States.

According to investigators, ex-lawyer was a member of an organized crime group led by ex-Yukos head Mikhail Khodorkovsky, which could embezzle more than 195 million metric tons of oil belonging to Yuganskneftegaz, Samaraneftegaz and Tomskneft companies.

Investigators claimed that the amount of embezzled funds reached about one trillion rubles (about $15 billion).