Moscow manager sentenced to 14 years in jail
MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) - A Moscow court has sentenced Alexei Kurtsyn, a deputy property manager of the Moscow branch of the embattled Yukos oil company, to 14 years in jail for money laundering.
Kurtsyin, who is to serve his sentence in a high security colony, and his business associates, Alexei Alexandrov and Igor Goncharov, will also have to pay a fine of 1 million rubles ($34,800).
Investigators said Kurtsin and his main partner, Mikhail Trushin, a senior vice president of Yukos-Moscow, had been laundering money through bogus charity foundations. The businessmen withdrew 342 million rubles ($11.89 million) from corporate accounts in what they said was aid for public organizations and foundations, and registered fund-raising organizations in Moscow and other cities in the European part of Russia, the prosecutors said.
The bulk of the transferred money ended up in the hands of Kurtsin and Trushin, the latter being on the international wanted list, prosecutors said.
Alexandrov was found guilty of cashing in the money.
"Most of the funds landed in the pockets of people who pursued illegal activities," the judge said.
Eight businessmen linked to the case have been sentenced to 2 to 13 years in jail. Four defendants were taken into custody in the courtroom.
The lawsuit was filed by Yuganskneftegaz, Yukos' former main production unit, now owned by state oil company Rosneft.