MOSCOW, April 1 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Preobrazhensky District Court on Thursday sentenced ex-president of now insolvent MAST-Bank Yury Pirogov to 8.5 years in penal colony for embezzling over 5.6 billion rubles ($73.5 million at the current exchange rate), the court’s press service told RAPSI.

The court also convicted the former vice-president of the bank Elena Zhuravleva and ex-head of the loan department Natalya Zhelobayeva as part of the case. Zhuravleva was given 6.5 years in jail, while Zhelobayeva received 5 years and 10 months behind bars. However, the latter was released from serving the sentence due to its actual completion.

Investigators believe that in 2013-2015 Pirogov and his accomplices stole funds by giving out non-performing credits to companies under their control and then transferred money further to other organizations. 

Earlier, the court sentenced ex-top manager of the bank Alexander Chemetov to 4.5 years in a penal colony. Chemetov admitted his guilt in full.

The bank was declared bankrupt in August 2015. During the bankruptcy procedure it was found that the bank’s management made several deals exchanging the bank’s assets with unpayable debts of individuals and legal entities. It was also found that the bank did not take measures to prevent its bankruptcy.