Court sentences ex-Vneshprombank head Markus to 9 years in penitentiary for embezzling over 110 bln rubles
MOSCOW. May 12 (Interfax) - Moscow's Khamovnichesky District Court has found former Vneshprombank President Larisa Markus guilty of embezzling 113.5 billion rubles of bank money and sentenced her to 9 years in a penitentiary, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courthouse.
The court found "Markus Larisa Ivanovna guilty and ordered that she be sentenced to nine years in a general penitentiary," Judge Marina Syrova said in handing down the sentence on Friday.
The court sentenced Markus's former deputy Ekaterina Glushakova to four years in a general penitentiary.
The court decided it would be impossible to ensure reformation of the convicts and social justice without their isolation from society.
The prosecutor demanded 10 years in a general penitentiary for Markus and five years in a general penitentiary for her former deputy Glushakova during the argument. He also insisted that both convicts should pay a fine of 400,000 rubles.
According to the updated prosecution materials submitted to the court, the damage amounted to over 113.536 billion rubles or 0.5 billion rubles less than initially believed.
The bill of indictment said that both defendants and hitherto unidentified persons were charged with two counts of fraud in relation to bank retail clients totaling about 12 billion rubles, in addition to one count of misappropriation of slightly more than 101 billion rubles, in which money was withdrawn via accounts of companies controlled by bank executives.
The investigation found that Markus conspired with her brother and de facto bank head Georgy Bedzhamov no later than in May 2009 and involved the bank vice-president and lending and depositing department director Glushakova and a number of other persons unidentified by the detectives in systematic embezzlement of Vneshprombank money.
In the period from May 2009 through December 2015, they embezzled over 114.166 billion rubles by abusing trust of a large number of bank clients by means of issuing wittingly impaired loans on the basis of fake documents, withdrawing funds from the accounts of a number of depositors without their knowledge, and giving loans to 286 companies registered to stand-ins, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
Bedzhamov went into hiding and was put on the international wanted list.
Investigation into other accomplices is in progress.
Vneshprombank was stripped of its license on January 21, 2016.